LoL Ivern one-trick labels recent rework as a “catastrophic failure”

A Challenger Ivern one-trick with over 4000 games on the champion has panned the recent rework as a “catastrophic failure that should be reverted.”

League of Legends is a massive game with a huge roster of available characters. With 166 champions currently available in the title, the developers are constantly balancing their attention between them. Sometimes certain champions end up feeling left behind the roster, therefore the team at Riot implements mid-scope updates and reworks to refresh their kit for a more contemporary game.

Ivern’s recent mid-scope update that occurred earlier this year was easily one of the most controversial. The rework gave Ivern a bunch of power in his W, E, and R abilities but removed a large portion of their counterplay, leaving Ivern feeling “shallow to play as and oppressive to play against.”

The rework has caused Ivern one-trick GarboTetris to create a post to explain why the rework was a net negative for Ivern.

the Ivern rework has been a catastrophic failure.
by u/GarboTetris in leagueoflegends

Challenger Ivern one trick claims rework removed counterplay

Garbo has over 4000 games on Ivern in the past three seasons and is the highest rank in League. After testing around 350 games on the updated Ivern, Garbo can say for a fact that they believe the Ivern rework was a catastrophic failure.

“The 3 major abilities changed from the midscope (W, E, and R) were greatly buffed, but in the process removed most of their counterplay.” the post states.

Garbo goes on to explain how each buffed ability has basically removed counterplay for the champion.

For Ivern’s Bushmaker ability, Garbo believes that they’ve become far too beneficial for the player, which means they can no longer be punished for poor usage of the ability.

“The problem with these changes is that they make it almost impossible for Ivern’s bushes to be used against him, which was the main source of counterplay. Being able to place a bush is an extremely powerful ability, but if you get pushed off of them or place them carelessly, your opponent can use them against you.”

Similarly, Garbo states how Ivern’s E and R have had too much power shifted to them, once again removing opportunities for counterplay.

“With the new shield refresh mechanic, what previously counted as a whiff will now apply a second shield for another 2 seconds. Once the second shield expires, Ivern will already have his E back up and can cast it again. This basically removes the entire punish window that previously existed.”

The same goes for Daisy, whose number changes have made her far too strong, basically making Ivern reliant on using his ultimate as a source of his power.

Garbo closes their post by explaining that they’re a fan of the developer’s previous works on champions like Sylas and Ornn and believe that they aren’t incompetent. Alongside this, they aren’t completely against the idea of change for Ivern, it just needs to go with the spirit of the champion.

Riot may or may not revert or make further updates to Ivern in the future, but with the sheer amount of champions in League of Legends, we may not see any large changes anytime soon.