Reviving Our Favorite Sadist

So here's the thing. Eve (and those of you that read the name and went "BAIL BAIL BAIL!" just need to gimme a chance and read through this once because I love you) is problematic because of her ability (if she's not nerfed into the ground at the moment) dominate gank-heavy jungle style by virtue of her capability to circumvent wards entirely, making it very difficult to anticipate her ganks. As a result, in her current state, she is inherently about as balanceable as a fat kid on a tricycle (barring tricky-to-test weirdness like the new ward idea). That means Evelynn, due to her binary state, is allowed onto the playground for a few weeks before being sent back to timeout with each rework. Riot has always alternately allowed her to be a nightmarish bogeyman, or simply removed her from the game. So I have a proposition for you guys. What if she didn't have permanent stealth anymore? Now, I know, we Evelynn players have the grab our nuts and squeal "it's central to her playstyle," and "without it, Evelynn's not Evelynn.” That's fine, but now that I’ve thought about it, I disagree. Here's why. The strength of Evelynn's ganks is dramatically enhanced by her ability to simply drop out of nowhere like Trogdor coming out of your closet at mach 3. However, the core thing that makes this all terrifying is the mach 3, not the closet. To translate, the speed, timing, and positioning are the three most important elements to making her feel satisfying and terrifying. It is because of this that I would like to see her run alternatively, and in a way Riot can balance without modeling certain counterplay styles uniquely to address her. In this rework, I’ve changed her passive to “Torment,” gaining further consistency with her central theme as a sadistic assassin who prefers blood to chocolate. Torment provides an effective method by which her abilities can gain increased power and crowd control effects, but must be used with careful consideration to maximize their potential. With the addition of the Torment effect on Dark Frenzy, Evelynn retains the element of surprise, so long as she plans and positions carefully. Additionally, if she uses the mobility afforded by Dark Frenzy’s passive effect to close in on blood in the water, she can potentially utilize the invisibility afforded by Dark Frenzy’s Torment effect to escape a fight that isn’t going her way. She even regains her previous ability to actually drop some hard cc on a target with Ravage’s new torment effect. Her ultimate builds on her central theme of the diabolic tormentor, draining the target’s strength and making her a terrible destructive force for a short period of time. Another thing to note is that Evelynn is now required to decide whether or not she wants to move rapidly from fight to fight, or wait to maximize the strength of her combat prowess. Like the cunning assassin she is, she must choose precisely the right time to strike the weak point for massive damage. If she is ready to do it, the results are scarier than your grandma in yoga pants. She has lost the mana generation ability of her passive, so I have raised her mana regen slightly, and lowered the cost of Hate Spike. Because of her requiring to get right up to a carry to effectively victimize them with ultimate, she’s acquired a bit more armor and Magic Resist, at the expense of some health.

With these changes, Evelynn retains her core identity, she adds versatility and calculation to her playstyle, and her bag of tricks gains some marked uniqueness, beyond simply “semi-invisible halfass tank assassin.” Or “she who must now be nerfed.” So here’s the actual meat and potatoes, folks. I hope you like this as much as I liked trying to put it together!

Armor: 32.5-100.7 Magic Resist: 22.5-76.5 Health: 492-1932 Mana: 285-1257 Mana Regen: 10.1-20.6

PASSIVE: Torment: After not damaging or being damaged by another champion for six seconds, Evelynn gains one charge of Torment every 15 seconds (Affected by CDR). She also gains one stack of Torment on kill or assist. Evelynn can store 2/3/4 charges of Torment. Torment gives a special effect to each of Evelynn's abilities.

Q: Hate Spike: RANGE: 500 COST: 8 / 13 / 18 / 23 / 28 MANA COOLDOWN: 1.25, Missile Speed Decay removed. ACTIVE: Evelynn fires a line of spikes through a nearby enemy, dealing 50 / 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 (+45 / 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 % AP) magic damage to all enemy units in its path. A charge of Torment is used if Hate Spike hits an enemy champion, slowing all targets hit by 20/23/26/29/32% (+5% AP) for 2 seconds and dealing 10/15/20/25/30(+5/10/15/20/25% AP) additional Magic Damage. A charge of Torment cannot be used with Hate Spike more than once per 6 seconds.

W: Dark Frenzy: COOLDOWN: 14 seconds PASSIVE: (Range 1200) Evelynn gains a percentage bonus to speed when moving towards targets with less than 50% health for every 6 seconds she is out of combat. Decays 1 stack per 3 seconds in combat. This effect stacks up to 3 times, and one stack is gained each time an ability hits an enemy champion. FLAT MOVEMENT SPEED PER STACK: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% ACTIVE: Evelynn removes all slows affecting her, purges all stacks and gains 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% +1%AP increased movement speed per stack for 8 seconds and ignores unit collision. Champion kills and assists refresh Dark Frenzy's cooldown. A charge of Torment causes Evelynn to become invisible for the duration of the ability, until another ability is used or until Evelynn deals damage to a target. If used in combat, this effect takes 1 second to activate (delayed up to 3 seconds when taking damage).

E: Ravage: RANGE: 175 COST: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 70 MANA COOLDOWN: 9 ACTIVE: Evelynn slashes a target twice, dealing 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+ 80% AP) magic damage and gaining 10/15/20/25/30(+5% AP) health per hit. Evelynn then gains 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50% bonus attack speed for 3 seconds and deals 4/8/12/16/20% AP magic damage on hit. A charge of Torment causes the target to be stunned for .2/.4/.6/.8/1 seconds.

R: Kiss of Corruption: COST: 100 Mana RANGE: 175 COOLDOWN: 120 / 90 / 60 Evelynn gains a bonus 50% tenacity for up to 6 seconds or until the ability is activated again. Activating this ability a second time causes Evelynn to cling to a target, channeling and suppressing the target for 1 second. Following this, Evelynn deals 50/100/150 damage(+80% AP) to the target, and gains that much health. For 2 seconds after the suppress ends, Evelynn is immune to CC. For four seconds after the suppress ends, the target's AD and AP are lowered by 10/15/20% (+2/4/6%AP), and Evelynn gains a bonus equal to the amount of each attribute lowered in this way. A charge of Torment empowers Dark Sacrament, doubling the length of both the cc immunity and the drain effects.

Obviously, the numbers would likely need to be tweaked in PBE. However, I truly believe that this would resolve many of the reasons Evelynn has been such a dirty little secret in the past. I would love to see her pulled out of riot’s closet and returned to legitimate play, and I don't want to wait for the proper gimmicks to make that possible the way she is now (because that pretty much will never happen without making stealth worthless). So what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments! I really want to hear your opinions.