Overview
How to play Ivern effectively requires mastering his unique “Friend of the Forest” passive for efficient jungle clearing and embracing his supportive role focused on utility rather than damage. Unlike traditional junglers, Ivern excels by enabling teammates through shields, crowd control, strategic brush placement, and utilizing Daisy to disrupt enemy formations, making him a powerful pick for players who prefer creating advantages for their team over personal glory.
Table of Contents
Are you tired of playing aggressive, damage-focused junglers and looking for something completely different? Enter Ivern, the Green Father – League of Legends’ friendliest jungler with a truly unique playstyle. If you’re wondering how to play Ivern effectively, it starts with embracing his supportive jungle approach. Unlike traditional junglers who brutally slay camps, Ivern befriends them, bringing a refreshing alternative that can catch opponents off guard and elevate your team’s performance.
In the current meta where team utility and objective control remain crucial, how to play Ivern successfully revolves around protecting allies, controlling vision, and disrupting enemy positioning. His ability to bring massive team value makes him a surprisingly powerful pick when mastered.
Understanding Ivern’s Role
Before jumping into specific tips on how to play Ivern, it’s essential to understand what makes him different. Ivern functions more like a support living in the jungle, with his strengths lying in shielding, crowd control, and creating advantageous fights for his team.
Ivern excels at enabling teammates to shine, protecting carries, and controlling objectives with his companion Daisy. His weakness is his limited solo carry potential and vulnerability to counter-jungling from aggressive duelists like Graves in the jungle. Playing Ivern requires shifting your mindset from “how can I carry?” to “how can I best support my laners to carry?”
Tip #1: Master the Passive Jungle Clear
Ivern’s unique “Friend of the Forest” passive completely transforms how you approach jungle clearing. Instead of fighting camps, you’ll be setting them free after a channel time.
For optimal clearing, start by tagging your first buff, gromp, and wolves. The initial tag costs health, but subsequent camps cost less as you level up. Return to collect your first buff after it’s ready (around 0:40 on the game timer), then collect gromp and wolves. Continue this pattern of tagging and collecting throughout your clear.
A crucial efficiency tip: when you’re about to collect a camp with a teammate nearby, wait for them to get in range. The passive grants shared experience and gold without splitting it, essentially creating free resources for your team. This is particularly valuable for buffs – always try to give your mid laner blue and your ADC red when possible.
For multi-camps like raptors and krugs, tag them in advance but collect them when all the small monsters are ready to maximize efficiency. With practice, you’ll develop a rhythmic tag-and-collect pattern that keeps your clear speed competitive despite not dealing damage to camps directly. While Fiddlesticks clears with area effects, Ivern uses a completely different approach.
Tip #2: Perfect Your Ganking Technique
Ivern’s ganking style differs significantly from other junglers. Your primary engage tool is Rootcaller (Q), which not only roots enemies but allows you and teammates to dash to the rooted target.
When approaching a lane for a gank, consider these Ivern-specific strategies:
- Use brush to your advantage by creating paths with Brushmaker (W) that conceal your approach
- Lead with Q rather than saving it – landing the root is more important than the dash
- Time your Triggerseed (E) for maximum value: place it on your engaging ally just before they make contact for the slow and damage
- Post-level 6, send Daisy in from one direction while you approach from another to force difficult decisions
The best Ivern ganks often involve letting your laner engage first, following up with your Q and E for additional crowd control and protection. Remember, your goal isn’t necessarily to secure kills for yourself but to create advantages for your team, unlike Bel’Veth who seeks to snowball.
Tip #3: Utilize Daisy to Her Full Potential
Daisy is a game-changing tool when mastering how to play Ivern. Controlling her properly is vital for winning extended team fights.
Players learning how to play Ivern should focus on positioning Daisy aggressively to interrupt enemies and block skillshots. Knowing when to summon and reposition Daisy is one of the clearest skill gaps between average and exceptional Ivern mains.
To maximize Daisy’s effectiveness:
- Direct her attacks by using R on specific targets (Alt+Right Click also works)
- Position her to block skillshots or zone enemies away from objectives
- Remember that her third attack knocks enemies up – time this for interrupting channels or following teammate CC
- Use her to tank towers during dives, check brushes, or even proxy waves in a pinch
A common mistake is summoning Daisy too late in a fight. Deploy her early to maximize her presence, as she remains active for a substantial duration. Also, keep in mind that recasting R when Daisy is far away will cause her to run back to you, which can be used to reposition her quickly. Unlike Elise’s transformations, Daisy acts as an independent unit that requires careful management.
Tip #4: Build and Itemization Strategies
Ivern’s build path focuses on enhancing his supportive capabilities rather than damage output. Your core items should include:
- Moonstone Renewer or Shurelya’s Battlesong as your mythic (Moonstone for sustained fights, Shurelya’s for engage/disengage
- Redemption for additional team healing and utility
- Staff of Flowing Water or Ardent Censer to boost your carries
- Mikael’s Blessing against heavy crowd control teams
For boots, Ionian Boots of Lucidity are usually best for ability haste, though Mercury’s Treads or Plated Steelcaps are viable against heavy magic or physical damage compositions. Unlike Hecarim’s movement speed builds, Ivern prioritizes utility over personal mobility.
Rune-wise, Summon Aery synergizes perfectly with your shields, while secondary trees can include Inspiration for Cosmic Insight or Resolve for additional survivability. Max E first for the increased shield value, followed by Q for reduced cooldown on your root.
Tip #5: Late-Game Team Fight Tactics
In the late game, Ivern transforms from a ganking support to a teamfight enabler. Your primary responsibilities include:
- Creating strategic brush zones with W to provide vision control and attack speed buffs for allies
- Protecting your most fed carry with perfectly timed E shields
- Using Q to catch out enemies or peel threats off your backline
- Controlling Daisy to disrupt enemy formations and create chaos
Position yourself similarly to an enchanter support – close enough to your carries to provide immediate protection, but not so forward that you become an easy target. Use brush creatively to force enemies to face-check or take longer paths around objectives.
One advanced tactic involves creating brush near walls to enable unexpected flash plays for champions like Rengar or to provide attack speed buffs for your ADC during crucial objective fights. While Amumu initiates with bandage toss, Ivern creates opportunities through environmental control.
Conclusion
Mastering how to play Ivern requires adopting a unique mindset that values team utility over personal glory. By perfecting his distinctive clearing pattern, developing specialized ganking approaches, maximizing Daisy’s potential, building appropriately, and executing your late-game role effectively, you’ll bring a refreshing and surprisingly powerful presence to your team.
While he may not be the flashiest jungler, those who understand how to play Ivern unlock the ability to control maps, protect carries, and outmaneuver opponents with vision and positioning. With these five essential tips, you’re well on your way to jungle domination—one friendly camp at a time.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Ivern good for beginners in the jungle?
Ivern isn’t typically recommended for jungle beginners due to his unique mechanics. His passive-based clearing and supportive playstyle differ significantly from traditional junglers, which means you’ll need to learn two different jungle styles. If you’re new to jungling, champions like Amumu or Ekko might be better starting points. Once you understand fundamental jungle concepts, transitioning to Ivern becomes easier.
How do I counter Ivern in the jungle?
The best way to counter Ivern is through early aggression and invades. Champions with strong dueling potential like Lee Sin, Graves, or Kha’Zix can invade his jungle and either kill him or force him away from camps he’s tagged but not collected. Additionally, placing deep wards helps track his pathing, which tends to be predictable due to his passive. Lastly, targeting his carries in teamfights nullifies much of his utility value.
What are Ivern’s best jungle pathing options?
Ivern’s optimal path typically involves tagging Red Buff → Wolves → Blue Buff → Gromp initially, then collecting them in the same order after the 40-second mark. Alternatively, you can tag Red → Raptors → Wolves → Blue → Gromp for a full clear. The beauty of Ivern’s passive is the flexibility it provides – you can tag camps in advance and collect them later when nearby, making your pathing highly adaptable to the game state and lane priorities.
When should I pick Ivern over other junglers?
Ivern excels when your team already has sufficient damage sources and needs utility. He’s particularly strong when paired with auto-attack-based carries (who benefit from his W attack speed buff), champions with engage tools (who can follow up on his Q), or hypercarries who need protection (benefiting from his E shield). He’s also effective against immobile enemies who struggle against Daisy’s crowd control. Consider picking Ivern when your team composition includes strong laners who can capitalize on his supportive style.
How do I use Ivern’s brushes effectively?
Ivern’s brushes (W) offer multiple strategic uses beyond concealment. Place them along escape routes to break enemy vision during retreats. Create brush near objectives to give ranged allies the attack speed bonus during fights. Use them to block narrow pathways, forcing enemies to face-check or walk around. Place brush on top of immobile enemies to temporarily obscure them from their teammates’ vision. In lane ganks, creating brush behind enemies cuts off their retreat path psychologically. Remember that allies gain enhanced auto-attack range when attacking from your brush, making them excellent for sieging turrets.
