Proposed Ivern changes, a step in the wrong direction

Ivern changes

Auto attack: Instead of having to sit in bushes, Ivern’s auto attack is now permanently ranged. Riot justifies the change as Ivern is already receiving the ranged auto buff.

W: As expected due to the auto attack change, staying in bushes with W no longer grants Ivern a ranged auto attack boost. Instead, Ivern’s bush will be changed to an ally buff ability. Allies inside the bush will be granted bonus damage on their attacks.

R: Daisy’s movement can not longer be controlled. As an automated character, she will prioritize champions, and fight in her summoned area. That said, landing Q on an enemy will continue to cause Daisy to leap to the target.

© Riot Games

A second Janna?

By granting Ivern a large shielding ability, along with an auto attack damage buff ability, Ivern has basically been transformed to another Janna. The change has essentially made himself a support, now with a drastically reduced skill cap. Unlike the current Ivern which largely depends on positioning and controlling Daisy to zone enemies to win, the proposed new Ivern is now almost completely team reliant.

The tuning of the proposed changes will also be hard, likely causing Ivern to be too strong after his initial release. Balancing a flat AoE ally buff will certainly be a major challenge, likely leading to a large amount of level one cheese invades, without any opportunity for contest.

Taking the easy way out?

As many know, Riot has trouble regarding secondary controllable characters. For example, Mordekaiser being reworked, and his ghost / phantom ultimate being removed, and Annie’s Tibbers having being riddled with bugs for years.

Considering Daisy has also been filled with bugs ever since Ivern’s release, instead of fixing her, Riot may be simply taking the utility to control her as a method to avoid fixing their spaghetti code.

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