IMO the best way to play/build ivern (its mid)

ultimately this is just my personal findings and opinions but here they are ^_^

after thinking about iverns kit and his strengths and weaknesses, ive concluded this is the best way to use him

iverns best build in a 5v5 is imo fulltank with rod of ages and scaling CDR in runes to hit 40% cdr. the reason you want scaling CDR runes is because HP tank items are better than mana tank items, and normally you have to buy mana to get CDR, so its better to just get CDR in runes since ivern likes rod of ages which wolves all mana issues

also i feel rylai+liandry feels weaker than pure tank items.

the reason i decided fulltank is best is because in a 5v5 the enemy team will certainly have damage to take you out, and i felt every damage item you make on ivern is probably doing less in a teamfight than a pure tank item like a randuins or warmogs. Each tank item you have lets you last a bit longer, letting your other 4 teammembers do work while you are focused

so now that we know the best build. heres how you actually play ivern in the 5v5.

in a "open field" 5v5 (away from enemy tower) then its pretty simple you throw a brush in the fight to get some range, you shield yourself since your tanky frontline so you want your shield on you and you move your shield into the enemies to pop your shield damage. and of course you try to land your root skillshot on the enemy team as they run away. and of course you want to summon daisy at the start of the fight and have her hit something. I like to target daisy on the melee frontline, since they will be frontlining and they wont be trying to kite daisy (and if they do try to run back and kite daisy, you throw your root skillshot to root them and your team takes advantage of the root). so i think putting daisy on the enemy frontline is best, since the enemy adc will just kite daisy, and so having daisy hitting their frontline gives her a better shot of landing 3 hits and knocking up their frontline for a moment

however do not make daisy target things like wukong, or akali, as their invis totally messes her up. you probably dont want daisy targeting a kassadin either. but a riven is ok i think cuz if she runs away from daisy then she isnt murdering your adc

in a "siege 5v5" (where your whole team is sieging the enemy tower) then you throw up 1-2 bushes like 700range from enemy tower giving your team a nice siege bush, and you shield yourself to help waveclear, and your team sieges. remember to control daisy well and dont let daisy take tower shots before the fight. and if any enemies do engage on your team then you can hit their frontline wiht daisy

ive noticed daisy is pretty weak, and shes weak to the enemy smite if the enemy jungler is smart and saves his smites to help take out daisy. but in a 5v5 fight the "power" of daisy is that in a full blown 5v5 if the enemy team focuses their damage on daisy, then daisy dies in 3-4 seconds, however thats 3-4 seconds where the whole enemy team is wasting their damage on daisy meaning your FOUR OTHER TEAMMEMBERS can do tons of work in those 4 seconds and probably nearly kill the whole enemy team. So with this in mind, i think daisy is not that weak, in the entire context of the 5v5. daisy is like a "giant shield" for your whole team. if the enemy team takes out daisy, then your teammates can do work in those few seconds. and if the enemy team doesnt focus daisy then she does a bit of damage/knockup to their frontline

next topic. does ivern want zzrot? ivern can make use of zzrot since hes tanky. and after thinking about it ive decided yes ivern totally wants zzrot.

with ivern youll probably mostly be doing a "siege 5v5" with your team. and in a siege 5v5, a zzrot is very helpful to put 1000range away from the enemy tower (sounds like alot but thats not much range. its a bit more than nidalee spear range) and your whole team is protecting your zzrot and the zzrot will constantly help your team siege and basically acts like a second minion wave. and as your team sieges the zzrot constantly helps damage the enemy tower every time your wave crashes and the voidlings mess with enemy skillshots. so definitely, ivern wants a zzrot and its strong on him. so YES to that zzrot

next topic. something ive noticed that should be iverns gameplan is "level 16 asap". heres what i mean by that.

the normal rate to hit level 16 with full powerfarming is around 26 minutes for a jungler or solo-laner. if a toplaner goes toplane and hypothetically "never leaves" (thus letting his enemy toplaner TP and take dragons or do 4man plays botlane). But still my point is hypothetically if the toplaner never leaves, he will hit level 16 at around 24 minutes. 26 minutes if he misses some minion waves (as you should, since sometimes you walk back to tower. you cant get every minion that spawns)

and with ivern. ive concluded a big part of his power is level 16 so he can have constant daisy. at lvl16 with 40% cdr daisy lasts 60 seconds with a 72 second cooldown, so she will pretty much always be alive if you control her well and she has strong regeneration outside of combat and tons of health

so ivern wants to get "level 16 asap" and pretty much avoid fights and focus on farming instead of fighting. but of course, its good to contest dragons with your team, so pretty much the only time you should leave farm as ivern is to contest dragon. and if dragon is down, your 100% focusing on getting farm+exp

now you might say "isnt every champion like that? doesnt every champ want 16 asap" and ill say no. some champions like say leblanc or zed want to avoid farm and hunt kills since they are very good at getting kills, and once both teams start hiting level 16 then zed/leblanc start to get alot weaker. where as iverns strongpoint is as both teams hit level 16. So leblanc/zed want to try to win and secure victory leads at level 11, while ivern doesnt have the power to do that but his goal is to constantly farm and get level 16 around 25 minutes

pretty much the point of this topic is, on ivern you wont have time to gank much since its better to focus on max farm. however if you see free ganks, go for it. but remember a big power point you want is to make sure your EXP flow is high.

so with last topic in mind, since ivern wants to max his own EXP flow and focus on making himself 16 asap, since the "best way" to jungle ivern would be to never gank and max your EXP flow, ive decided iverns strongest position is probably MID. with smite flash. (or maybe smite TP, since your fulltank meaning if your smart you wont die to ganks anyway since your tanky). the smite lets you instantly smite birds and walk into lane level 2. And tell your jungler to never do birds and save birds for you. your smite lets you take birds whenever they spawn (so thats a free exp boost every 110 seconds) , giving you extra EXP flow PLUS full exp from the lane. which is why i think smite/TP might be best letting you get even more exp with TP. and your building fulltank anyway and your maxing your SHIELD so you wont even die to ganks anyway lmao. also the smite is nice to let you secure cannons you think you might miss under tower. or smite even lets you waveclear around lvl7 (with rank4 shield) and instantly take skuttle crab.

so with ivern mid, you probably farm a bit then TP back to lane with possibly a dorans shield (or nah. thats weak. prob better to rush the 650 gold hp+regen item), then a zzrot (to help waveclear) and you put your zzrot on your tower (your tower protects it and it helps waveclear). and you go fulltank cinderhulk+zzrot+rod of ages on mid ivern (same build as jungle), with a late cinderhulk since the item isnt that cost effective to rush. prob 650g tank item >zzrot>rod> warmogs > cinderhulk is best path. probs on ivern you can go RED or GREEN smite for wards or challenging smite. probably challenging smite but wards are OPsauce too

you wanna start the strongest tank items on ivern mid so you can avoid dying to ganks without having flash. around level 7-8 you can throw in a refill potion to help sustain but i wouldnt upgrade that to corrupting potion as its not that strong on ivern and not gold effective. i think iverns shield should always be maxed first as jungle OR mid since its pretty good. so the shield also helps you survive ganks

so lets look at what ivern mid gives your team. basically your a tanky midlane beast that gets BONUS EXP all game by taking your birds instantly whenever they spawn. and your a tanky ungankable monster that just spams your shield+aoe waveclear protecting your tower. and you rush a zzrot and throw it on your mid tower protecting it even more and waveclearing even more. this means at 13 minutes there can be 3 enemies midlane and you can hold them easy no problem while your team pressures both sidelanes. So ivern is almost like a next level tanky ziggs, where your just waveclearing constantly and your tower cannot be taken. but your more on the tank-side instead of damage-side.

so thats what ivern mid provides his team. a extra tanky frontline, that also deals some decent damage and has decent waveclear, with a zzrot added in to help siege (later on) and protect your tower (early on), with bonus EXP flow by instantly getting the birds whenever they spawn. so with the increased exp flow, you will hit level 16 faster, letting you setup 5man zzrot tower sieges with your team

final ivern runes are likely scaling hp yellow. attackspeed reds. 15% cdr quints. 4 scaling cdr blues (6.5% cdr) 5 scaling MR blues (15 MR)

final build likely: warmogs>zzrot> rod ages> cinderhulk > visage > boots (sell for randuins or banshee)

for mid build, prob start talisman+3pots, smite birds or wolves for level 2, go to lane, farm up, recall+TP when you need to. and probably go the 650g tank+regen item (warmogs piece), then zzrot or maybe a full warmogs for regen, then zzrot, then rod (later scaling 20minute rod but its not a issue. i think the warmogs regen is probably stronger than rodfirst vs most meta mids). thinking about it, the zzrot first (before the warmogs) is probably stronger since the zzrot helps counter the waveclear of the enemy mage. so 650 item > zzrot > tier1 boots > warmogs > rod > tier2 boots > cinderhulk is the best path most likely

strongest keystyone is prob strength of ages (on mid and jungle)