I finally understand Ivern- He's not over or underpowered, he's just incredibly team-reliant.

all this time I've been thinking about those games where I did amazing as ivern, landed incredible rootcallers, did some awesome blind rootcaller work and actually landed hits without vision, took dragons and turrets, and my team still loses, its not even close. So naturally I think "Damn, my champ sucks." In reality....Ivern is just fine, in a team. By himself, his chances of carrying the game are very low. It's not impossible, but it's generally not going to happen, not because Ivern is weak, but because his strength lies in numbers. Allow me to explain.

If Ivern and Daisy are just cruising along and someone finds them, if they have even a quarter of a brain they are going to kill the knockup bot (Daisy) first, and there's a billion ways to do that, smite, nunu and tahm can eat her, syndra can throw her away, etc etc etc. However, in a team fight where you jump in and daisy is not focused? she is a total wrecking ball because her damage+her line knockups are amazing in a team fight.

By himself, Iverns rootcaller is pretty pathetic, it's just a root with a really low duration with a really high CD, it's range doesn't matter much at low levels because it starts out at 14 second cd and you max Triggerseed first so you don't get rank 2 in it till like, past level 10. It's good for low level ganking, if your team mate is on the ball, if not you might get a flash, might not. This is for the random champion.

However, certain champions synergize really well with Ivern's abilities, like say, If you go top and Fi-Fi (Fiora) is on your team, and you rootcaller someone and she uses the dash mechanic on Rootcaller? it is one of the more effective ganks I've seen in the game, it's brutal, feeds Fiora, and it's a lot more fun than being Mr. Badass Testosterone Muscles.

in a 1v1 fight, ivern's triggerseed is useful if you have some sort of advantage, levels, red buff, plus kiting, that relies on the enemy being dumb enough to chase. In a straight up 1v1fight it isn't much, because triggerseed starts out with low numbers. You also can't expect to have it at 4.8 or 4.4 seconds early game, so it can't be utilized enough. However, in a teamfight, Triggerseed is excellent because it's aoe damage at 80% ap ratio and aoe slow and the max CD is 4.8, 4.4 with cosmic insight. It scales really well.

By itself, Ivern's passive is amazing for early game counter jungling, later on it's pretty bad on its own because pretty much anyone else can clear it faster. However, if your team actually gives a fuck and is good, they will pick up the extra buffs you generate which again, is really damn good if your team actually tries.

TLDR-Ivern's not a carry, he's a win-more champion. If your team is losing, Ivern isn't going to save you. If your team is winning, Ivern is one of the better champs at securing that win and preventing throws.