is a rare four-role-flex, which makes him incredibly strong – especially if you are willing to play him in a lesser traditional lane. The idea is to confuse your opponent and withhold information from them, for if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle – Zun Tsu.
Ivern
is viable in top, jungle, mid or as support. He can be played as AP carry too – if you are not scared of a little trolling. Additionally, Ivern has multiple playstyles, some more viable than others. You can play AP, enchanter and assassin
Ivern
, just to name a few. This guide will not discuss the greedy capitalist assassin version of the Green Father.
This guide is perfect for anyone wanting an in-depth introduction to the magnificent world of communist
Ivern
.
LANES AND PLAYSTYLES
TOPLANE
Ivern
top can play two playstyles, roaming
Ivern
or laning
Ivern
. Of course, I must add that Roaming
Ivern
is a breach of the Geneva Convention, as with any roaming enchanter top.
Laning
Ivern
is a ranged early-game lane-bully who scales into an insane shield and utility bot for your team. If being a shield bot isn't something for you,
Ivern
can also build pure AP or tank-AP hybrid, which is often the preferred build for toplane. During the laning phase,
Ivern
can poke any short-range champion with his W-empowered auto attack. If the champion engages on
Ivern
, he can shield himself and escape with his
Rootcaller
root. Additionally, short-range toplaners often have difficulties dealing with
Daisy!
and
Triggerseed
. The biggest problem with
Ivern
top is that you can't really use any parts of your passive (
Friend of the Forest
) unless you do some weird
Unsealed Spellbook
invade strategy.
As I won't be discussing roaming
Ivern
much, I will briefly describe the simple idea. You pick
Ivern
top, choose
Waterwalking
and
Scorch
, buy
Spellthief's Edge
, leave top and play everywhere else than top. When your team eventually gets ahead because they have been playing a man up all game, you win.
JUNGLE
I don't think jungle
Ivern
needs much of an introduction – or maybe he does, not the most popular champion.
Ivern
is the only real enchanter jungler, which grants him access to unique builds. His passive (
Friend of the Forest
) is extremely strong into junglers who can't invade him quickly and allows him to easily steal camp when he has
Smite
up. He can also solo dragon using
Daisy!
and
Brushmaker
and hide epic monsters while fighting them using
Brushmaker
.
MIDLANE
This guide will focus on midlane. Midlane
Ivern
is a combination of roaming and laning as well as team-wide funnelling – hence communist
Ivern
. Depending on your team comp,
Ivern
can go AP or enchanter to create a functional damage-type distribution. Furthermore,
Ivern
is almost impossible to kill due to
Triggerseed
.
Midlane is the optimal lane to use your passive in due to your close proximity to your team's red and blue buff. You are also close to your team, which you can help in team fights and skirmishes with your
Triggerseed
. Additionally,
Rootcaller
is a great setup and catching tool to help ganking and getting picks.
SUPPORT
It's hard to argue that
Ivern
is a bad support. He has everything a catcher/enchanter needs, engages (
Rootcaller
), shields (
Triggerseed
) and area control (
Daisy!
). Additionally,
Ivern
has sustainable damage from his
Brushmaker
. A big issue is that
Ivern
can not leash due to
Friend of the Forest
, but this is fine as long as you don't need to leash.
ABILITIES
Ivern
's abilities are quite simple in nature, and yet they come together to create a cohesive and complex champion. I will not give the full description (as stated by the League of Legends Wiki) but rather a simple explanation of the ability.
PASSIVE - FRIEND OF THE FOREST
Ivern
cannot attack non-epic monsters. Instead, he will channel for 2.5 seconds befriending the camp and starting a timer of 40 - 1 seconds (based on level). Starting the timer costs health and mana based on level.
Once the timer is finished,
Ivern
can collect the gold and experience given by killing the camp. If
Ivern
uses
Smite
on the camp, he skips the timer, immediately granting him the gold and experience.
Additionally, after level 5, killing the red and blue buff will create a circle, which gives the buff to an additional team member. If a different team member kills the buffs, the circle will only be available to
Ivern
.
The circle crosses the boundary wall around the buffs, which grants midlane
Ivern
easy access to the duplicate buff.
Q - ROOTCALLER
Ivern
throws a vine in a straight line. Upon hitting an enemy unit, the vines root the target and deal magic damage. While the target is rooted, they are also revealed.
Ivern
and his allies can select the rooted target and dash to their location. Allies can only select by right-clicking the target, and
Ivern
can recast
Rootcaller
or right click the target to dash.
W - BRUSHMAKER
Ivern
summons a brush at a target location. The brush lasts for 30 seconds before disappearing. Summoning brushes near terrain increases its size. This ability has three charges that restock over time.
While standing in any brush,
Ivern
's auto attacks deal additional magic damage.
Ivern
can, while standing in a brush, one-shot caster minions with one auto attack after a single turret shot and melee minions after two turret shots.
By placing your bush in front of a gank, you can delay your opponent's reaction time. Doing this also gives you a way to fake ganks later in lane.
Additionally, you can cover all of midlane with three brushes and dragon and Baron pit, as well as different choke points with three or fewer.
E - TRIGGERSEED
Ivern
shields a targeted allied champion, himself or Daisy, for 2 seconds. After the shield runs out, it explodes, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies and slowing them.
R - DAISY!
Ivern
summons Daisy 350 units away in a targeted direction. Daisy lasts for up to 60 seconds, where
Ivern
can control her. If the ability is recast, Daisy will move to the target location. Recasting on
Ivern
will cause Daisy to follow him.
Daisy will attack the nearest enemy with melee auto attacks. Every third auto attack, Daisy will slam the ground, causing a shockwave in the direction of her target, knocking up all enemies hit for 1 second.
Daisy's movement can be controlled with Alt + Right Click or recasting R. Additionally, Daisy will automatically dash to an enemy rooted by Rootcaller.
LEVEL ORDER
You will always start
Brushmaker
into
Triggerseed
max.
Brushmaker
is a really strong poke/farming ability which gives you easy access to level 2 (
Triggerseed
). When maxing
Triggerseed
, you become almost unkillable in lane. Additionally, the combination of
Triggerseed
and
Brushmaker
grants you immense pressure in 1v1's.
Skill Path
Ivern
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
9
10
10
10
10
11
11
11
11
12
12
12
12
13
13
13
13
14
14
14
14
15
15
15
15
16
16
16
16
17
17
17
17
18
18
18
18
SUMMONER SPELLS
Ivern
is an extraordinarily safe laner. As such, he will often take defensive summoner spells, such as
Barrier
,
Heal
and
Exhaust
. Against kiteable team comps or heavy roaming champions, you may take
Ghost
to keep up with their tempo or aid in kiting. In lower Elos or against specific matchups such as
Sylas
,
Swain
or
Aatrox
, you can take
Ignite
to deter engages or downright win 1v1s. I will end this section with this. Just because a summoner spell counters specific champions does not mean you have to take it against them. Pick based on team comps.
Summoner spells
Powerful summoner spell against lots of healing, such as that exhibited by
Yone
,
Warwick
and
Tryndamere
. It will most likely not increase your kill pressure in higher Elos, but it can win 1v1s against champions with significant healing or at least deter them from engaging.
Very powerful defensive summoner spell. It is all-around good, especially against champions with frequent kill preassure, such as
Katarina
,
Zed
and
Diana
.
Ghost
allows you to keep up with high-tempo roaming champions and kite champions like
Sett
and
Dr. Mundo
.
Exhaust
is an incredibly broken summoner spell. If the enemy team has one hyper carry and your lane is not too dependent on summoner spells, you can pick
Exhaust
to almost nullify the carry.
Heal
is the true communist summoner spell. Why should you get to keep all of your spell when others need it just as much as you?
Heal
can affect you and another ally, which makes it perfect during ganks and team fights. This also works like a less powerful
Barrier
in lane.
Ivern
is one of the few champions in midlane who can play without
Flash
. It is incredibly difficult to punish an
Ivern
with good positioning. Changing
Flash
for a different summoner spell may be a good option if you find a matchup hard.
RUNES
Due to the sheer amount of viable runes on
Ivern
, I won't be able to describe them all adequately. Instead, I will show every viable rune and comment on the notable of them.
The normal idea is to pick
Summon Aery
and
Second Wind
, to make you unkillable with
Triggerseed
. Then you choose
Manaflow Band
, which triggers on empowered auto attack, to sustain mana. Additionally, you always pick the
Attack Speed
rune shard since almost all of your damage comes from empowered auto attacks. Now you can't be preasured out of lane and can therefore scale freely.
If your opponent is melee, there is no use for
Second Wind
, which can be replaced with
Bone Plating
. It is tempting to pick
Arcane Comet
in such matchups, but
Summon Aery
is generally better due to your continuous application of its effects. If you early-game continuously auto-attack at max range,
Ivern
will apply
Summon Aery
every third auto-attack for a little under one-third of
Arcane Comet
's damage. This means it will take only 6 seconds of perfectly applied
Summon Aery
s to out-damage
Arcane Comet
, which has a cooldown of 20 seconds early-game. Not to mention its additional shield power.
Unsealed Spellbook
can be used to access
Smite
without compromising one of your summoner spells. This is useful if you want to invade the enemy, as
Friend of the Forest
allows you to quickly kill camps with
Smite
.
Interestingly,
First Strike
is viable on AP
Ivern
in matchups where your opponent can't easily poke you and remove
First Strike
or stop Daisy. Since Daisy's auto attack procs
First Strike
, you can use
Daisy!
and
Triggerseed
to safely proc
First Strike
. Using
Biscuit Delivery
and
Second Wind
(if needed), you can still sustain through laning phase. The reason why
First Strike
is only really viable on AP
Ivern
, is that enchanter
Ivern
does not need much gold, and you lose access to
Summon Aery
.
General Purpose
Poke
Burst Matchups
Catcher
Funny Invade
ITEMIZATION
Ivern
has a lot of different builds depending on team comps, both yours and your opponents', as well as synergies and counters. The different items are discussed in the following table.
Enchanter/Catcher
AP
Utility/Mix
Moonstone Renewer
is the best mythic item for
Ivern
. It is very powerful in the neutral game and during extended fights. If you are playing catcher
Ivern
, you may prefer
Shurelya's Battlesong
. As with all the other enchanter mythics,
Moonstone Renewer
has an identical stat-line with them (also as
Ornn
's Masterwork,
Starcaster
). Despite this,
Moonstone Renewer
's passive synergizes with the Masterwork stat increase better than
Shurelya's Battlesong
and
Imperial Mandate
.
Shurelya's Battlesong
is mainly a catcher item. It works well with pick-comps, who will not participate in many extended fights – before they are fed, at least. Instead, you can use
Shurelya's Battlesong
's passive and active to catch or chase opponents. Shureliya does not synergize with
Ornn
's Masterwork upgrade (
Shurelya's Requiem
).
Imperial Mandate
is the last enchanter/catcher mythic.
Imperial Mandate
is extremely strong against team comps, where you have a hyper carry who greatly out-ranges the enemy team. It synergizes well with your kit due to the sheer amount of slows you can apply, especially with
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
.
Imperial Mandate
synergizes slightly with
Ornn
's Masterwork upgrade (
Seat of Command
).
Redemption
is possibly one of the most broken enchanter items. It grants 16% heal and shield power, 15 ability haste, and a semi-global AOE heal.
Chemtech Putrifier
is a powerful item against team comps with a lot of healing. Against lanes with a lot of healing, like
Sylas
or
Aatrox
, you can often settle for
Oblivion Orb
for 1v1 pressure.
Ardent Censer
is really only good in team comps with 3+ auto attackers. The heal and shield power is quite sub-par, and the utility it brings is only useful with three or more auto attackers.
Similarly to
Ardent Censer
,
Staff of Flowing Water
relies on ability casters in your team comp. Unlike
Ardent Censer
,
Staff of Flowing Water
synergizes with your kit due to the ability haste you gain from shielding others.
Mikael's Blessing
is most likely the most broken enchanter item – in my opinion. It grants 16% heal and shield power, 15 ability haste, and
Quicksilver Sash
for an ally.
Anathema's Chains
is a good item for when your opponent has one hyper-carry who is difficult to kill. The anti-tenacity synergizes with your
Rootcaller
.
Liandry's Anguish
is – in my opinion – the best damage mythic item for
Ivern
. It procs on W-empowered and Daisy auto attacks as well as the explosion from
Triggerseed
. Additionally,
Liandry's Anguish
's mythic passive works well with
Ivern
's utility oriented kit.
Luden's Tempest
doesn't really synergize with
Ivern
's kit. Ivern deals damage continuously, which only synergizes with the flat penetration
Luden's Tempest
gives.
Night Harvester
or
Hextech Rocketbelt
works better with
Ivern
's kit or at least grants some kind of extra utility.
Night Harvester
works best of the three due to its mythic passive. The problem is that neither
Night Harvester
nor
Hextech Rocketbelt
gives mana.
Everfrost
is a pretty cost-effective utility-damage item. Due to its mythic passive,
Everfrost
works perfectly with cost-effective items such as
Mejai's Soulstealer
,
Redemption
, and
Mikael's Blessing
in enchanter-damage hybrid builds.
Rod of Ages
is the AP-Tank hybrid mythic for
Ivern
. It is most common in top lane, where you can bully your opponent with
Brushmaker
and stack
Grasp of the Undying
.
Rod of Ages
synergizes with
Seraph's Embrace
to make you incredibly tanky.
Night Harvester
is a good burst mythic for
Ivern
due to its mythic passive, which synergizes with his kit.
Night Harvester
does not give mana, which is problematic due to the spammability of
Triggerseed
.
You can't proc
Lich Bane
effectively, which makes the item pretty useless.
Banshee's Veil
is an ability power-magic resist hybrid item with a relatively strong passive. For
Banshee's Veil
to be useful, your opponent can't have long-range abilities that can proc the spell shield like
Anivia
's
Glacial Storm
,
Lux
's
Lucent Singularity
and
Xerath
.
Seraph's Embrace
synergizes well with
Ivern
's kit, but he struggles to stack
Tear of the Goddess
against most midlaners.
Seraph's Embrace
synergizes with
Rod of Ages
.
Void Staff
is almost always required if you wish to deal lots of damage. Luckily
Ivern
can often deal sufficient damage with
Liandry's Anguish
,
Void Staff
and enchanter items.
Nashor's Tooth
works really well on
Ivern
against teams with a lot of melee champions, which he can bully with
Brushmaker
and
Nashor's Tooth
on-hit damage.
Cosmic Drive
synergizes well with
Ivern
's kit. It is mostly a stat stick, but he can utilize the stats very well.
Morellonomicon
is similar to
Chemtech Putrifier
, except
Morellonomicon
focuses more on damage and applies less anti-heal than
Chemtech Putrifier
. Overall,
Chemtech Putrifier
is better than
Morellonomicon
for
Ivern
.
Shadowflame
has great stats for all AP champions.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
synergizes well with your kit, as it procs on W-empowered auto attacks and Daisy's auto attacks. This allows you to kite opponents and for Daisy to stick to enemies. Additionally,
Rylai's Crystal Scepter
synergizes with
Imperial Mandate
.
Rabadon's Deathcap
is overall just a great late-game item. Because the item is a stat stick, it is useful on any build that scales with AP.
The
Zhonya's Hourglass
enchanter build was nerfed a little with the V12.17 adjustments to the item cost, but the
Zhonya's Hourglass
AP build was rebalanced instead. Yet,
Zhonya's Hourglass
remains a great utility choice for AP and enchanter
Ivern
.
Importantly,
Ivern
can still control Daisy while in stasis.
As with
Rabadon's Deathcap
,
Mejai's Soulstealer
is a stat stick and is, therefore, good for both AP and echanter
Ivern
.
Mejai's Soulstealer
becomes gold effecient at ten stacks.
Here is a couple quick example builds.
Enchanter
AP
Hybrid
COMMUNIST IVERN
Playing Communist
Ivern
should feel like playing a unmovable rock – an extremely overpowered rock, but still a rock. Your job, early game, is to stand in midlane and scale and, if you can, also roam and group for objectives. Sacrificing your lane for your team is important because
Ivern
dosn't need much gold. Just like
Irelia
is full build with just
Vampiric Scepter
,
Ivern
is full build with
Moonstone Renewer
(2500 gold). Just remember, sharing your gold and experience will often more often lead to a victory than not.
Your job mid-game is to catch waves and group. Depending on your team comp, you can play in smaller groups trying to catch mispositioned opponents with
Rootcaller
or group into massive team fights or skirmishes.
Ivern
doesn't have much pushing power, so catching waves is the only real way to farm without being mispositioned, depending on the game state, of course.
Late game is very similar, but at this point, you can't really clear waves yourself – especially super minion waves. You have to focus on macro and picking good fights where you can have an impact.
Ivern
's Baron and Elder drake take isn't very strong, and you should instead focus on vision control with your bushes and impending enemy advances on your team with
Rootcaller
and
Daisy!
.
SYNERGIES
I will not write down every hyper-carry, just remember that any champion similar to
Irelia
,
Mordekaiser
,
Olaf
,
Jinx
and
Samira
is very strong with
Ivern
.
Synergies
Rengar
and
Ivern
is a match made in heaven. The combination of
Brushmaker
and
Unseen Predator
is super broken. This is also a classic bot lane (
Rengar
ADC and
Ivern
support).
Karthus
jungle/APC is very strong with
Ivern
mid.
Karthus
deals extreme amounts of magic damage, which can replace the missing damage from
Ivern
. Additionally,
Ivern
can shield
Karthus
with
Triggerseed
to help him walk into the center of a team fight without dying too early.
The same goes for other champions like
Ziggs
APC,
Mordekaiser
and
Diana
.
If you are playing a matchup where you have the ability to roam,
Elise
is a strong synergy with
Ivern
.
Elise
is really good at tower-diving, and with
Ivern
's
Triggerseed
and CC, she is almost unstoppable in the early game. The same goes for other champions like
Ivern
Rootcaller
Daisy!
Triggerseed
Friend of the Forest
Brushmaker
Sylas
Swain
Aatrox
Attack Speed
Irelia
Mordekaiser
Olaf
Jinx
Samira
