# Ivern Counters, Matchups & Tips | Baron Buff See Ivern counters, hardest matchups, and tips to play against or draft around Ivern in League of Legends. Canonical HTML: https://baronbuff.com/champions/ivern/ Markdown URL: https://baronbuff.com/champions/ivern.md Language: en ## Breadcrumbs - [Baron Buff](https://baronbuff.com/) - [Champion Tier List](https://baronbuff.com/champions/) - Ivern ## Page Content Enchanter · Enchanter · Jungle Prepare for battle with Ivern — master their strengths and exploit their weaknesses before the game starts. ## Playstyle Profile Ivern is a protector — defends carries by neutralizing incoming threats Teamfight Role Backline Protector Power Spike Mid game Split Threat None Backline Access Low ## Ivern's Strengths - Keeps carries alive through burst — Ivern's peel makes hyper-carries nearly unkillable in teamfights ## How to Play Ivern Champion-specific pre-match tips ### Lane Phase Cast E on yourself or an engaging ally immediately before hitting Q to guarantee the shield's delayed explosion damages and slows the rooted target. ### Lane Phase Place W directly on top of yourself when initiating a trade to empower your basic attacks with bonus magic damage and instantly drop enemy minion aggro. ### Lane Phase Cast your ult immediately when a skirmish breaks out at level 6 to force the enemy to burn key cooldowns on the pet's health bar instead of yours. ### Mid Game Shield your ult with E and command it into the enemy backline to safely deliver the delayed area-of-effect slow without risking your own positioning. ### Mid Game Place W directly over objectives like Dragon or Rift Herald when your team is attacking them to obscure allied health bars and deny the enemy team critical vision. ### Mid Game Hit Q on an isolated target and wait for your melee allies to right-click the root to take the free dash before casting E on them to guarantee the slow connects. ### Late Game Hold Q and E exclusively for your primary carry when the enemy team has heavy dive, layering the root and shield explosion slow to peel incoming assassins. ### Late Game Drop W along the edges of the lane when sieging inhibitor towers to create unwarded pockets where your ranged carries can safely attack the structure from. ### Late Game Keep your ult positioned between your backline and the enemy team during Baron standoffs to physically block linear skillshots and threaten the three-hit knockup. For matchup-tailored tips, download Baron Buff's AI Coach & Companion App. ## Core Build Ranked from real ranked-match itemization We look at ranked games after each item was bought. If the player or team gained ground in gold, we rate that item higher. - Malignance — 2,700 - Ionian Boots of Lucidity (Boots) — 900 - Void Staff — 3,000 - Luden's Echo — 2,750 - Archangel's Staff — 2,900 - Horizon Focus — 2,700 total: 14,950 ## How to Counter Ivern Counter strategies and draft context apply grievous wounds, dive past the frontline, or burst through their shields before they stack - Struggles against multi-angle pressure — Ivern can't peel multiple threats at once - All-in engage supports that outpressure in lane - Champions with anti-heal in their kit or builds - Assassins that delete carries before shields apply ### Ivern's Weaknesses - Multiple dive threats at once — Ivern can only peel one target, and coordinated dives overwhelm the backline ## Best Synergies with Ivern Team synergies and draft context - Hyper-carry ADCs that thrive behind Ivern's protection — the longer fights last, the more value you get - Hyper-carry ADCs that scale with your shields and heals - Bruisers and fighters that become unkillable with your buffs - Late-game compositions that benefit from your scaling support ### Draft Context - Drafts only squishies — Ivern can peel, but there's nothing to absorb damage in the frontline ## Learning Curve [Based on 1.2M+ matches](https://baronbuff.com/blog/mastery_by_tier/) across all ranked elos, showing how Ivern's win rate changes with mastery level Ivern rewards dedicated play — meaningful improvement continues well beyond the basics, and the learning curve is among the steepest in the game. Expect a long stretch of low win rates before meaningful improvement — mastering this champion demands serious commitment. Skill Cap High Cost of Learning Extremely High Win Rate Delta by Mastery Mastery Level | Win Rate | 1-2 | 32.1% | 3-4 | 49.5% | 5-6 | 53.2% | 7-8 * | 57.7% | 9-12 | 57.7% | 13-16 | 57.7% | 17+ | 57.7% | [← Champions](https://baronbuff.com/champions/) ## Machine-Readable References - [LLM index](https://baronbuff.com/llms.txt) - [Full LLM reference](https://baronbuff.com/llms-full.txt) - [Sitemap](https://baronbuff.com/sitemap.xml)