Examining Ivern’s issues in preseason 12

Ever since his release in season six, Ivern has been one of the least popular champions in League of Legends. At that time, the idea of a jungler that plays like a support was unheard of. Sure some tanks like Nunu or Sejuani had interactions that buffed up their teammates but their main purpose was something different.

Unique but failed design

So the concept seemed fun, and the previous example of a unique jungler like Kindred was hugely successful. Like Ivern, Kindred was the first of its kind. A champion that was designed by marksman standards, but adjusted to thrive in the jungle. Yet Ivern never took off the same way Kindred did. After his release, he received some buffs, quality of life changes, and adjustments to his Ultimate, Daisy. The new jungle changes for season seven, as well as the new support item, called Redemption, made Ivern one of the better junglers in the game.

But after a few nerfs and more bug fixes, almost everyone stopped playing the champion. He has consistently had one of the worst pick rate percentages, and if it wasn’t for Tyler 1, many players wouldn’t even know what the champion can do. Just like his season seven peak, he once again returned to relevance because of item interactions during spring in season 11. When the Moonstone Renewer/ Staff of Flowing water combo was gutted, so were Ivern’s chances of having success.

Preseason 12 and his Krug interactions

In preseason 12, a huge amount of changes hit the Rift, and not knowingly, they negatively impacted Ivern. The straw that broke the camel’s back were the changes to the scuttle crab. In preseason 12 the scuttle crab got its shield and health lowered, making it easier to obtain but also giving less gold and experience.

This doesn’t sound like something that would hurt Ivern directly but it did for a completely different reason. The unique part of Ivern is that as a champion he cant damage non-epic jungle monsters. Instead, he channels a spell over a camp that costs him health and mana. After 40 seconds the spell has fully matured and Ivern can claim the full gold and experience from the camp, as well as get his health and mana back. This was an issue back in season seven where his unique clear outpaced most of the meta junglers while having a playstyle that relied on cheap support items and early power spikes.

So apart from the usual nerfs to his abilities and base stats, his interaction with the Krug camp was also nerfed. He received 27% XP and 36% gold from the camp, while it took him more time to clear it due to his passive. Fast forward to preseason 12 and all of this added up to make him one of the worst champions in the game. With the weaker and cheaper Scuttle Crab, as well as his Krug interaction, Ivern couldn’t hit level four after full clearing (six camps) and getting a scuttle crab. Riot quickly noticed this and buffed up his interaction with the Krug camp, but three weeks later the situation still looks worrisome.

What’s holding Ivern back?

Some of his main issues that have been described by the shrinking Ivern community are his passive and his place in the meta. When Ivern was released the jungle looked very different, using different items, runes and the camps had different interactions. Now every jungler has better sustain in the jungle than Ivern due to the healing from Smite and the burn damage.

His optimal clear path is already decided even before the game starts, so you can always know when and where to invade him. Being a supportive champion, he is already not designed to skirmish efficiently, and him being low on mana and health during his clear only makes this worse. Not to mention the issues of junglers counter jungling camps that he has blessed, spent mana, health, and time on without any indication.

The other issues are Ivern’s scaling and place in the meta. Ivern can never fight for a scuttle crab if his team doesn’t rotate or play for vision. He can’t skirmish without his Ultimate and even Daisy leaves him out to dry because of her bugs and interactions.

In the mid-game, his passive still clears the jungle with the same speed, while other junglers, including tanks clear the camps in one spell rotation. Him being reliant on his laners and the power level of support items leaves him in the bad spot he currently is in. And if Riot doesn’t do something to help him he will continue to rot at the bottom of almost all League-related metrics.