How to play Ivern

In this article I will briefly present my main champion, Ivern. I will talk about his abilities and how to use them efficiently. Last but not least, I will discus about his role in the jungle, pathings, when to invade and when not to, good and bad matchups and my overall opinion about it.

Who am I?

My name on League of Legends is "Daisy Bot" . I climbed up to Diamond 1 playing only Ivern, because most of my friends were saying that you cannot carry the game with a support jungler. I used to be 4th best Ivern played on EUNE and 20th best Ivern player across all the regions. 

Ivern, (also known as "The Green Father") is a champion designed for jungle with an unique playstyle and jungle clearing. Altough his mainly played in the jungle, his primary role in teamfights is to peel for carries and shield allies who need to be saved. But do not disconsider his damage output because, you might get a little surprise when realising he can 1v1 after level 6. His abilities are:

FRIEND OF THE FOREST

This makes you impossible to damage directly the jungle camps. Instead , it lets you tap the jungle camp creating magical groves on that certain monster which grow over time. After that time has passed (30 seconds level 1, and the duration reduces as you level up), you can collect the gold and xp from that camp. Smiting the camp will instantly give you the gold and XP without having to wait for the duration. At level 5, allies can share buffs with you.

.ROOTCALLER (Q)

This is Ivern's main ability for ganking. Ivern throws a vine in a line, damaging and rooting the first target it hits. What few people know about this is that you and your allies can right click the enemy hit to dash towards the rooted target. 

BRUSHMAKER (W)

Active: Ivern creates a bush in a certain location that expires after 30 seconds.   Passieve: Ivern's auto attacks deal bonus magic damage from bushes.

What few people know about this ability is that, when spawning a bush, it also creates vision for 3 seconds in the location it was spawned, so it can also be used for checking possible ambushes or not facechecking dangerous bushes. 

TRIGGERSEED (E)

Ivern puts a shield on an ally that explodes after 2.5 seconds dealing damage and slowing opponents. What few people know about this ability is that, if the damage from this ability kills an unit, the person who wears the shield gets the killing blow (for instance, if Ivern puts a shield on an ally Zed that makes the kill thanks to the shield explosion, the gold from the kills goes to Zed, not to Ivern).

DAISY! (R)

Ivern spawns Daisy to fight along him! Daisy will send out a shockwave if it strikes the same champion for 3 times in a row. Daisy stays up for up to 60 seconds or untill it dies. Its stacks scales up with AP , so if you choose to go for a cheesy full AP build, then you will have your Ivern unbeatable. Daisy has a very nice movement speed too, so you can use it for chasing too. 

Matchups

I will list 3 types of matchups for Ivern in the jungle: EASY , MEDIUM and HARD:

EASY :Against the following champions you can easily win 1v1 and 2v2s (along with your mid and top).

Vi, Shyvana, Amumu, Gragas, Skarner, Nidalee, Maokai, Jax, Fiddlesticks, Nunu, Kha'zix, Sejuani.

MEDIUM: Against the following champions , you can win 1v1 and 2v2s if you manage to time your abilities properly and dodge some of their skillshots aswell.

Hecarim, Lee sin, Graves, Rek'sai, Kindred, Zac, Master Yi, Wukong, Volibear, Ekko, Rengar, Jarvan IV.

HARD: It's almost impossible to win any 1v1 with these champions, in fact you shouldn't even try to force 1v1s. If your mid or top is ahead on lane, you might have a chance to win 2v2 duels. 

Evelynn, Elise, Nocturne, Olaf, Xin Zhao, Shaco , Trundle , Ekko, Udyr, Mundo. 

Now, the most important thing about Ivern (in my opinion): PATHING:

Since Ivern doesn't have to fight the camps like other champions do, the pathing becomes more important than ever. Choosing which camps to take and which camps not to take will create a gap between a good ivern player and a bad one. There are 2 pathings that I usually take in 99% of my games, but before I list them, I would like to define the term  TAP  for when Ivern applies his passieve on a certain camp, and COLLECT for when he , evidently, takes the XP and gold from it. 

ALWAYS PATH TOWARDS TOP

It's easy to give your toplaner an early gank and the most efficient pathing towards it is:

If you are on blueside:

• Tap Wolves
• Tap Blue Buff
• Tap Gromp
• Tap Raptors
• Tap Red Buff
• Smite Red
• Collect Wolves
• Collect Blue Buff
• Collect Gromp 
• Gank Top

If you are on redside:

• Tap Red Buff
• Tap Raptors
• Tap Wolves
• Tap Blue
• Smite Blue
• Tap Gromp
• Collect Raptors
• Collect Red Buff 
• Gank Top

My opinion
I think Ivern's main strength right now is the fact that not many people know what his abilities do and how strong he is. I have killed countless times bruiser junglers just because they underestimated my damage output and my friend, Daisy. Be aware while playing in low elo though, because your allies barely know what Ivern does too. At the moment he is a tier B jungler, so if learnt to play properly, you can easily reach high elo with it.