Eve's not an Assassin

Any more than any of the previous incarnations of Eve were Assassins.

The original Eve was a Skirmisher. She had better back-line access than other Skirmishers due to her invisibility, but she paid for it with lower damage. Unlike other Skirmishers she didn't have any way to break focus or avoid death while in the middle of the battle, but she DID have her massive Ult heal to keep her rolling provided she knew when to bail. Her back-line access was more in line with an Assassin, but she lacked the burst and the focus-break of one. In short, she was a Skirmisher with a few Assassin traits sprinkled in.

Eve 2.0 was a Diver. Her sustained damage was (quite a bit) lower than Original Eve, but instead she got her new Ult as a potent dive tool. Its shield allowed her to sponge the brunt of enemy attacks and her W gave her a solid way to move in (and potentially out) of a battle while running down foes. Her burst was better, and she could move in and out of combat with greater ease, but she couldn't just poof away in the fashion. In short, she was a Diver with a few Assassin traits sprinkled in.

And New Eve? New Eve is a melee Burst Mage with a few Assassin traits sprinkled in. Allow me to explain a bit.

Burst Mages and Assassins fill similar gameplay space. They blow things the fuck up. Heavy burst damage is a thing both of them do. But they have several really important differences. Burst Mages (typically) have better AoE damage, better range, and pack hard CC. Sometimes even multiple sources of it.

Assassins, on the other hand, have better mobility, better target selection, focus-breaks to protect themselves, and (perhaps most importantly) follow-up damage. See, after a Burst Mage has blown their rotation they're basically left standing around awkwardly. When an Assassin blows their rotation, they have options. They can keep auto-attacking (AD Assassins) or they can take advantage of low cooldown skills to polish off injured foes (AP Assassins). Or they can use their focus-break if things are too hairy to wait on their longer cooldowns to pop back up. Staying in the fight is an important option for Assassins because their goal isn't to chunk the enemy team (like Burst Mages) their goal is to neutralize priority targets.

So.

What does New Eve do?

Well. She has quite possibly the worst target access of any Assassin in the game. Worse target access than several Burst Mages, for that matter. She has a pretty strong source of single-target hard CC. She has absolutely no follow-up to her damage to speak of. And her Ult serves to get her out of the fight so she can awkwardly wait on cooldowns, since being in melee as a Burst Mage is a pretty terrible plan.

'cuz that's what she is. A Burst Mage with an Assassin-style focus break. Because having an Assassin-style focus break is absolutely required for a melee Burst Mage to avoid popping like a paper bag full of beef stroganoff.

SO!

Third time Riot has tried to make Eve an Assassin. Third time the attempt ate turf. Maybe the fourth time's the charm?