The Ivern Rework Hits the PBE, Leaves Fans Underwhelmed

The Friend of the Forest was in desperate need of some changes, and while Riot Games did change him on the PBE, it doesn’t seem to be enough.

The developers of League of Legends are continuing the trend of giving Champions in need mid-scope updates or mini reworks. After the success of Ahri, Olaf, Jax and now Neeko, the next candidate on the list is none other than the warlord-turned-tree Ivern, who has been in a rough spot for a few years now. Riot Games is trying to change that, bringing the jungler back into the meta, and they finally dropped his changes on the PBE – sadly, I’m not impressed. But let’s take a look at the new abilities of the Green Father.

The reworked abilities of Ivern

Passive – Friend of the Forest

The new passive of Ivern is almost the same as the old. He still can’t hurt non-epic jungle monsters, but he can enchant them, and after the timer is up, free them from their shackles, claiming the gold, experience and occasional buffs for himself. Riot Games have nerfed this ability, as the Green Father now takes more time to cast this ability, and it also costs more health and mana than before. Also, they removed the buff sharing mechanic from the passive, as this will be something all jungler can do further down the line.

Q – Rootcaller

His Q remained almost the same as well, even having the exact scalings as the live version. However, Ivern can now recast Rootcaller to dash into autoattack range of the enemy hit from anywhere on the map, almost like a Lee Sin Q – but allies still have to attack the rooted enemy in order to get in range. Ivern also had his AA range buffed significantly, which will work well with the new mechanic of his Q.

W – Brushmaker

Ivern’s W is the first ability with bigger changes. Casting this spell still makes a brush of tall grass as before, and standing, or for 3 seconds after leaving in it still buffs the Green Fathers auto attack damage by the same amount. However, Ivern now grants a weaker version of this buff for 1.5 seconds to nearby allies. The brush also reveals the surrounding area for 5 seconds instead of 3, and stays on the Rift for twice as long – but if Ivern or his teammates lose sight of the brush, it will disappear quickly.

E – Triggerseed

The shield amount of Triggerseed got nerfed in the PBE, along with the damage of the ability, while Riot Games also gave it a longer cooldown on all levels. With such nerfs, players can expect some buffs in other areas, right? Sadly, Triggerseed’s new effect doesn’t really make up for the nerfs it got: after the shield expires, if no enemy Champions were hit by the ability, the ally is shielded again for 2 seconds. While this might be helpful in disengages, and even dives, I believe that it’s against the purpose of the ability to not hit opponents with the damage and slow just for a small shield again.

R – Daisy!

While Ivern’s kit got nerfed overall, Daisy got some new mechanics to help his friend out. When summoning the friendly golem, she smashes into the ground, dealing damage and knocking enemies up on arrival. She can also be cast on enemies hit by Rootcaller at any range, meaning opponents that are not careful can find a golem trying to end their lives at any given moment.

She still sends enemies flying into the air with a shockwave after hitting them 3 times, but she deals physical damage instead of magical with this ability as well. The knockup duration is also reduced to .75 seconds to match the knockup of her arrival on the rift. As always, Daisy’s AI has been improved, so now she can be a more reliable companion to Ivern and his team.

Here are the Ivern mid-scope update tooltips
– Not listed attack range increased from 475 to 525 pic.twitter.com/myHiq3hRXm

— Spideraxe (@Spideraxe30) May 4, 2023

Overall, the changes to Ivern does little justice for the pick. The last time he was meta was in Season 7, where he had 181 professional games played according to stats site Games of Legends. While he has never disappeared completely, over the years, less and less players picked him, and so far in Season 13, he only has 6 matches under his name, and won just a single one of them.

When will the Ivern Rework release?

There is no information on when Ivern’s changes will drop on the live servers, but usually, the PBE changes only get implemented after 1 or 2 live patches have been added to the game. Riot Games still has some time to iron out the details of the Green Father’s changes in order to bring him back from the gutter. In the meantime, check out ESTNN’s other League of Legends content, such as the 2023 MSI Previews and Predictions!