Ivern W Quality of Life issues

Let me start out by saying I love the direction that Riot has taken with recent champions having some pretty distinct niches. Ivern is quite a stride in this direction, and he is so unique that it will be some time until we full realize his potential.

One of my major peeves with Ivern is the responsiveness on his W passive. Specifically as a self casting and snap targeting spell, When I am on the move and alt+W to self cast to hope to refresh my passive, the animation on the bush spawning is long enough that I am no longer in the bush by the time it spawns, and do not get to refresh the passive.

Another common play pattern is when you are Kiting your opponent, throw a Q behind you, it hits! I cast W to give myself the passive and then right click the opponent. Oops! You're in melee now, because the W passive didn't trigger yet.

I think if you either increased the detection radius of the W passive, and/or caused the casting of W to perform an additional check for "is player in range -> refresh buff", our lumbering friend would feel much more fluid.