League’s friend of the forest could soon get his long awaited balance changes, according to a recent dev post on the official League forums.
Ivern balance changes have been on the cards for a while now. This is the first concrete information released since they were first teased in a dev post in March by Riot’s core gameplay lead designer, Andrei “Meddler” van Roon.
One of the main topics in the recent dev post was Ivern’s unique ability which doubles the red and blue buff in the jungle on a successful smite. This ability leaves two buffs behind, one for himself and one for another ally to use at their leisure.
Riot’s developers are looking at the possibility of this ability being removed, as they don’t feel the double-buff ability is core to the champions design or a trait that comes from his lore.
Meddler also confirmed that Riot will need to target Ivern’s movement speed, clearing speed, and invade power to truly balance the champion to an acceptable level.
Riot are targeting Patch 7.10 for Ivern’s balance changes as well as bringing in multiple changes for unannounced champions to balance the game in the future. For now though, their main target is the mid-season.
Related: Rek’sai changes inbound
Meddler also briefly touched on two other champions that will see some changes in future patches.
Meddler said the company is working on Heimerdinger, whose changes have been teased in another earlier dev post. But his balance changes are a slower project and are unlikely to hit the Patch 7.9 deadline the developers originally anticipated.
Meddler also briefly touched on the Maokai mid season update, and specifically changes to his W, which will now have a slow start but accelerate rapidly. The ability is currently just too slow, and Meddler is keen to fix this before the midseason update officially releases in Patch 7.8.
