New Jungle Ivern Strategy

I spent a lot of time typing this and I know it is a lot, but I would really appreciate if you would actually all of it. ... However, if you insist on reading a TLDR .. it is at the bottom (I'm going to at least make you scroll for it. HAHAHA :P )

Junglers generally start with Hunter's Talisman for three reasons.

• Spell effects steal health over time from jungle monsters.

Ivern CAN'T even attack jungle monsters, with the exception of epic monsters, .. so this is useless.

• Great mana sustain while in the jungle.

This is still good, but not good enough.

• Grants bonus experience for killing jungle monsters.

This is actually a very good reason to get this item for most junglers. It is generally very important for most junglers to reach level 3 as soon as possible so that they have access to all of their abilities to help with their ability to clear camps quickly and healthily. Most junglers also have higher base scaling, making them level dependent. Ivern is an exception to these rules. The only benefit he gets with level while clearing is decreasing the health and mana cost, as well as decreasing the grove maturity timer. His abilities also have relatively low base scaling, but high AP scaling. This means he is more item dependent than level dependent.

With Hunter's Talisman, Ivern's health and mana will be low enough after marking your third camp that you might not be able to mark a fourth without using a potion. This means you will likely be standing around, waiting for your health and/or mana to recharge, .. or waiting at a grove you have already marked to fully mature. Meanwhile you are very vulnerable to being invaded and killed. You might then be able to gank or get a few more camps in before you need to back in order to heal up.

The fact that these benefits simply don't work in his favor causes this item to lose significant value. This value loss extends to Skrimisher's Sabre and Stalker's Blade. Due to this, I would say that there are several other items that are more valuable, so skip the jungle item completely.

So what is your alternative?

Instead, start with Hunter's Potion.

First of all, it only costs 400g, leaving you with 100g for a Control ward.

Lets be honest, Ivern is pretty weak, especially early on. Placing a control ward in your own jungle will really help to keep you safe. (Don't worry, that other 25g comes into play later.)

As you mark camps, start ticking charges of your potion and you should be healthy enough to mark your fourth camp before getting too low to mark another, which also means you are at least somewhat healthy enough that you might not get one-shot by an invading jugnler. At this point, you can return to your first camp just in time to clear it. Clearing camps, restores charges of your potion. This means you can continue clearing for longer before you need to back.

Now I want to start talking about Runes.

I believe Inspiration is the best main tree for Ivern. (No pun intended)

Unsealed Spellbook lowers the cooldown on Smite, which you will want to use to immediately clear camps, especially when you are on the other side of the river. The time it takes for groves to fully mature decreases as you gain levels. It goes from 40 seconds at level 1 to 1 second at level 18. There will eventually come a point where you no longer need to keep Smite, and you can swap it out for a more useful summoner spell.

Perfect Timing is probably my favorite for Tier 1, because it will help you build into Zhonya's Hourglass. Again, Ivern isn't very strong. He definitely does not have much ability to duel without teammates or Daisy. A well timed Stasis can literally make all of the difference.

Future's Market. I told you that 25g would come back into play. As I said before, Ivern is gold dependent. Extending your time in the jungle early on is made even more effective by borrowing that small amount of extra gold.

Time Warp Tonic has great synergy with this strategy because you will almost constantly be ticking potion charges. While you have a potion ticking you also gain 5% bonus movement speed. I would also consider Cosmic Insight to be a good alternative because it further reduces the cooldown on Smite, as well as items and abilities. I would look at Time Warp Tonic as the early game strategy, and Cosmic Insight as your late game strategy. Personally, I would go for early game more often because that is where Ivern is weakest.

For the secondary tree, (okay, I intended it this time) I would go with Domination. I could also see a strong arguments for Resolve, but I'm going to stick with Domination for now.

Ghost Poro will really help with the safety issue that I mentioned before.

Ultimate Hunter means more Daisy. Do not underestimate how important Daisy is to his kit. She is a decent source of damage, a meat shield, and hard cc. You will want her available as often as possible.

As for items, .. I feel like this is pretty up to you. I don't think he really gets all that strong, even when fed (or at least, I have never seen him get to that point or got there myself.) so I would generally suggest that you go for more defensive AP items. He is best during team-fights. Stay alive and provide shields and cc for Daisy and your teammates.

If you are feeling particularly ballsy, .. grab a Dark Seal. It is cheap enough you should be able to afford it by the time you have completed your first clear. It will further increase your potion duration. And if there is such a thing as a strong Ivern, I'm sure he probably has a fully stacked Mejai's in his pocket.

If you are looking for more cooldown, Ionian Boots of Lucidity help decrease the cooldown on summoner spells. More Smites, faster clears, .. more invades ..

Need more vision? Go ahead and pick up a support vision item. You pretty much are a support anyways, right?

Speaking of vision, .. I had one more tip before I wrap this up, don't forget that bushes grant vision and they can be placed at a pretty good range. Don't face-check bushes or walk into the enemy's jungle without putting a bush down. It WILL save your life.

If you have actually read this far, I really appreciate you. Please give me a bump up if you like this idea, or down if you don't agree with me. Also, comments are great.

TLDR:

• Standard jungle items are less effective with Ivern's kit. Do not buy them.
• Why? Ivern is an item dependent champion. Clearning more camps early on means more gold to invest in items, which is more important than levels.
• Hunter's Potion provides great sustain for Ivern. Safer early game. Jump straight to spending gold on more effective items.
• My suggested Runes
• A few suggested Items.