Appearing in less than 1% of games (whether in pick or ban), Ivern is not really popular with players. Riot Games has tried something with this character, giving him some truly unique gameplay. Only, the latter is not really very rewarding. Ivern is truly a pure supporting character, and it is only when surrounded by allies that the character can shine. While some damage builds have existed for him before, they have always been suboptimal on the champion. Even having had his moments of glory on the competitive scene in certain metas, he never really hyped soloQ players, to the point of becoming a popular pick. The fault is probably its very particular gameplay, because Ivern is a champion designed for teamplay. Only if the members of your team choose to do as they please, or not to help you if the opposing jungler decides to invade you very early, Ivern can quickly find himself in difficulty, without being able to come back. A hand of the character figured out a way to make him maybe more interesting, but his idea would probably be too strong in the pros.
The idea
The latter consists of slightly modifying the passive and the W of Ivern. This would then have a specific visual element, a bit like Neeko when she chooses to take on the appearance of an ally, or Kindred when he marks a prey. By spending 2 stacks of his W, the Forest Elder could then create one of the Summoner’s Rift plants (Blast Cone, Honeyfruit, or Scryer’s Bloom). This could allow him either to find original gank routes, since he could summon a cone to cross certain walls, or to just help an ally by restoring health/mana with the Honeyfruit, or even to contest the vision with the help of Scryer’s Bloom, plunging the enemy team into darkness. The interest of linking this to the passive would be to avoid abuse, such as being able to spawn two Honeyfruits on a lane in less than a minute, which would give an ally too much advantage on his lane in early. This specific application of the spell (the creation of a plant instead of a bush) would therefore have a greater cooldown, which would passively decrease according to Ivern’s level.
Why would it be too strong among professionals?
In addition to certain combinations that could prove to be very or even too strong (make a Honeyfruit appear on a botlane with Soraka for example), the real problem would come from the taking of vision. This is extremely important in the pros, and having an additional way to scout the map and find certain wards would give a team a huge advantage. It is enough to realize that very often a professional player will prefer to keep a slot for pink wards rather than putting a component of the object he is building in it (and which would therefore bring him additional stats) to understand how essential vision is at this level of play. Exploited well, this would give Ivern’s team a huge advantage, allowing them to dictate the pace of the game while leaving their opponents in the dark of the fog of war. It is for this reason that although the idea seems interesting, it will probably never see the light of day, at least in this specific form.
esport-lol
The LEC Summer Split starts again today and the counters are reset. There is now a very long straight line, up to the Worlds of League of Legends for the lucky ones. The time for apologies is over and now is the time to shine.