Ivern Build Guide by Etyrnal

Welcome to Ivern, The Green Father's In-depth Jungle Guide

Ivern, The Green Father once long ago was a man.. a pretty bad one. Ivern used to take what he wanted and killed anyone in his way. That changed one day when he cut down a mysterious tree called a "Godwillow." As it fell, the tree's magic flooded the cruel warriors soul, leaving him with a love of nature and a new appreciation of life. Now by protecting the forest from those with evil in their hearts, The Green Father hopes to find atonement for his sins.

There may be many reasons why you're interested in playing Ivern (Prounounced, EYE-VERN). He has one of the most unique Jungling kits in the game. Rooting Enemies and allowing your full team to dash to them, hiding your friends in brush, and of course, Daisy, the beautiful Gingerbread (Pending Skin Choice..) that smashes, dashes, and knocks up your enemies. Whatever your reason for playing the Green Father, he's not as simple as he looks.

When playing Ivern, it can be tough to understand the role in which you take for your team. Not to worry of course, because in this guide, your role is going to be Tanky Ability Power Support that saves animals, friends, and solo's dragons under covert fog of war. Not only does Ivern come with his unique Jungle kit and that wild drunk walk, he has his own special tricks up his sleeve to really throw enemies off and sometimes, well.. You might have your team saying wow. Hopefully for the right reasons!

My in-game name is Etyrnal. I've played League of Legends since late Season 5 and have bounced between the Jungle life and the deadly Mid Lane. My peak elo is Gold 3. Besides Ivern, my top champions (Both in Mastery Points & love of play) are Syndra, Taliyah, and Azir. Though it may sound odd that I would be into Ivern after playing such sinister and powerful champions in the Mid Lane, I have a fling for "Control Mages" that can really alter a team fight by way of stuns, knockups, dashes, roots, and power. You can catch me streaming live on Twitch for Ivern gameplay. With that said, will begin to dive into the guide. Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment your questions or critiscm and vote!

Abilities

Passive: Friend of the Forest

Ivern loves jungle monsters and would never harm them. Instead, he sets them free! Clicking on any jungle camp creates a grove using some of Ivern's health and mana. The grove matures over time; when fully grown it can be clicked on again to free the camp's denizens, granting Ivern gold and XP. Smiting a camp with a grove on it instantly sends the monsters to safety.

After level five, the Green Father creates copies of the red and blue buff whenever he frees the Red Brambleback or Blue Sentinel—they'll leave behind a sapling which can be picked up by allies.

Q: Rootcaller

Ivern shoots out a ropey root that deals magic damage and (as you'd expect) roots the first enemy it hits. Allies who use a basic attack on the rooted target will automatically dash to get within attack range.

W: Brushmaker

Passive: When hiding in brush, Ivern's basic attacks have increased magic damage and range. This effect lasts for a couple seconds after Ivern leaves the brush.

Active: Ivern creates a patch of brush, temporarily revealing the area around it. The amount of brush created is slightly greater if it's placed near a wall or any other brush. The Green Father's grassy patches disappear on their own after a moderate delay.

E: Triggerseed

Ivern places a protective seed onto his ally, granting them a shield. After a short delay the seed explodes, damaging and slowing all nearby enemies.

R: Daisy!

Ivern summons Daisy, an enormous sentinel who loves hugs. Daisy scampers around joyfully, knocking up Ivern's target after a few hits. Ivern can recast this ability to direct his boisterous friend toward new targets. She'll hang around until her hankering for hugs has been satisfied, or until her health bar is depleted.

Summoner Spells

It should go without saying but I'll reiterate for any one that may need it.

Smite - This is the standard Summoner Spell for Jungling. Smite is a targeted summoner spell that deals 390 - 1000 (based on level) true damage to a monster or enemy minion. Without Smite, you will not be able to buy a Jungle item!

Flash - This is my other standard Summoner Spell. Of all the other great Summoner Spells you could bring in place of it, Flash's potential in games, both offensively and defensively is above any other Summoner Spell you could bring to the Rift.

Runes

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power x 3
Having 15 Ability Power early on is going to give you better early game gank potential damage. If you don't prefer the Ability Power Quintessence, an honorable mention for Quintessence runes is 3 Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed in order to really get your movement speed up in the early game.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration x 9
I use these ruins just for a base amount of Magic Penetration. As Ivern, we don't get the opportunity to build Magic Penetration from items, so having the Magic Penetration marks is something we can carry through-out the game.

Greater Seal of Scaling Health x9
I use these ruins because an extra 216 Health at level 18 is a solid boost for us. If you're feeling like you need to focus on Armor for a certain game, feel free to use Greater Seal of Armor.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
Ivern could use some cooldown reduction but we don't get as much as we would like from items. By using these Glyph's, will be able to get a little closer to max Cooldown Reduction at Level 18. Ivern's cooldown's are relatively quite high but with 35% to 40% cooldown reduction, we can substantially cut those cooldowns down.

Masteries

Sorcery 5/5 : Not much to say here, you don't need the attack speed over the extra ability damage.

Expose Weakness 1/1 : This is also pretty standard and will give your teammates a bit of extra damage on your ganks.

Natural Talent 5/5 : We take this over Vampirism just because we don't really need the lifesteal for our Jungle camps and we hardly benefit from it. The extra ability power is going to be good for us.

Oppressor 1/1 : 2.5% extra damage every time you hit that sweet Q on the enemy. No brainer!

Unyielding Vs Recovery 5/5 : Both are okay to use here. I prefer Unyielding just because I want the extra bonus armor and magic resistance for my early ganking, since we don't use any armor or magic resistance runes. Either choice is fine here though, as Ivern can benefit from the extra HP5 as well.

Tough Skin 1/1 : Less damage from enemy champions on ganks? Good pick. If you're looking to move a little quicker, Explorer isn't horrible but Ivern does have a pretty quick clear as it is. Again though, there's no 'wrong' answer, you'll just be slightly squisher and a bit faster if you go with Explorer

Runic Armor 5/5 : 8% Stronger Shields on yourself. I prefer this because our shield is already massive, so what's wrong with another 8%? If you feel like having 50 more health would help you more than 8% on your shield and you're not really shielding yourself as much as you think this mastery brings to the table, taking the 50 extra health is okay too.

Insight 1/1 : 15% Reduced Summoner Spell Cooldowns. Always a good call. Perserverence is not bad for us either If you're looking for some extra HP5 when below 25%.

Legendary Guardian 5/5 : Again more Armor & Magic Resistance to support you in your lane ganks.

Strength of the Ages 1/1 : This is a great Mastery for Ivern. We get more health over the course of the game and when paired with our Seals (+23 HP at Level 18) we get over 500 health just between the Runes and Masteries by level 18. That's a win for us.

The Jungle Clear

Ivern has one of the best Jungle clears in the game, however he can get counter-jungled or invaded early on and it can be tough to evade the enemy. I never recommend trying to 1v1 early on with Ivern. However, there are many ways to counter act against being counter-jungled and invaded.

Where To Begin The Clear

From the Red Buff, I recommend finding a lane gank immediately. With minions just crashing into the Bottom and Top lanes and Mid Lane phase in full swing, it's one of the best early ganks to make happen and often results in first blood for your team. As a remind when ganking at Level 2, I always recommend that If you get the enemies Flash, it was a successful gank and you can move on with your clear of the Jungle. However, If you have an extremely aggressive laner with the ignite possibility, this has a great chance at an early First Blood to get your team off on the right foot.

1) Begin at Red Buff. Use your passive and Smite the Camp. This will give you your lost health back.

2) Execute a Level 1 Lane Gank. Mid Lane is usually pretty ripe for the picking, but you can assume it will always be situational. Remember, you should have 1 Point in your Rootcaller and 1 point in your Triggerseed at this time.

3) After your Lane Gank (Hopefully with a First Blood or Flash), move to your Blue Buff ( Smite Should Be Up Soon) OR If you're feeling really confident or did some early scouting before minions spawned, you can quickly counter jungle the enemies Blue Buff with your easy Smite Clear. Do not forgot that Blue Buff though! Without it, you will not be able to get a full Jungle clear in.

Itemization

Ivern is a fairly tanky Ability Power Support for his team and your itemization should reflect that. Remember, the Core Build supplied in this guide is a standard Ivern build for any certain game you may play on him. Don't forget to also itemize based on the situation. With that being said, let's jump into his Itemization, the build path, and why we build certain things later in the game.

Hunter's Talisman - I'd like to start here first and make something as clear as possible. Ivern does not attack Jungle Camps. The reason we really begin with Hunter's Talisman over some other item is specifically for the Bonus Experience supplied by it. Without the Bonus Experience, are clear would not be the same and we would fall far behind.

Rod of Ages - I recommend building this item BEFORE Stalker's Blade - Runic Echoes. We want to get our Rod of Ages to start scaling as soon as we can. Luckily for Ivern, we really don't need to prioritize heavy damage in our early game.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity - These are my recommended boots for the 10% cooldown reduction. I think they're the best item for Ivern when it comes to boots. However, some honorable mentions for boots, especially for Jungling are always Boots of Mobility. If you're prioritizing hard pressure for your lanes and really want to make yourself a force to reckon with across the map, feel free to build some early Mobi Boots. I do recommend changing the boots at some point later in the game, in order to be more effective without a crippling movement speed while in combat or while running away / kiting.

Zhonya's Hourglass - This is an excellent item for Ivern. When you use your Triggerseed in a teamfight and you're ready to close the gap and go all in with Daisy, you can get a full 5 man teamslow and bring all the attention to you. When you're feeling like it's getting close to your final hour, pop your Zhonya's Hourglass and hope for your team to make the clean up!

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Another excellent item on Ivern. Triggerseed has it's slow when it pops but Rylai's will really keep the enemy from getting away. It's a huge help for Daisy! in catching opponents who may be running away and allowing her to get her Knockup on the enemy after the 3 consecutive hits.

Guardian Angel - Not exactly Ivern specific but the extra Armor and Magic Resistance only adds to your Tank stats and for the price of being able to be saved from what would be a death only to come back up, we cannot pass this item up as our final item in our build.

Abyssal Mask - Honorable Mention here. I personally prefer Zhonya's for my real defensive item but if you need to prioritize against a heavy AP team, this is still an excellent item to go with. Don't hesitate to build it if you're feeling the burn from those powerful mages.

Hextech Protobelt-01 - Honorable Mention. This is an excellent Gap Closing on use item and it gives great stats for Ivern as well.

Rabadon's Deathcap - This is also a very honorable mention. Ivern's Triggerseed is a MASSIVE shield, specifically in the Mid to Late game. I don't recommend just building Deathcap on a whim, but if you're feeling like your team is extremely ahead.. Hey, nothing wrong with some Deathcap action!

Lane Ganks

Teamfighting

Unique Plays & Objective Control Tips

Ivern Secret Solo of Dragons

Jungle Champion Counters

Patch Notes, Buffs, and Nerfs

October 08, 2016 :: Patch 6.20 Mid-Patch Hot Fixes

Wednesday, October 05, 2016 :: Patch 6.20

Ivern, The Green Father - In Depth Jungle Guide Change Log

This is where I will keep you guys up to date on the major changes of the guide, filled with both in-game changes and changes to the guide formatting, content updates, etc. Please, If you feel there is something in this guide that you would like to see or recommend that it needs to be added, leave me a comment and I will respond at my earliest convenience! Thanks every one!

October 09, 2016

October 08, 2016