Into the Darkness - Eve Rework Concept

Ok, now this will be a lot more work than the other threads, but anyways let's do it!

I wonder if people have already forgotten about her – after all she's always the fourth or fight least popular champion ingame. That's right, even POPPY sees more play in SoloQ than her. Kinda sad if you ask me. But the reasons for it are obvious: Compared to most other champs Evelynn does neither feel rewarding or fun to play and her kit feels more like some game-design-experiment gone wrong...

First of all I wanted to start the thread with her lore to get a grasp on the character, but with Eve... you kinda have no lore. All this text states is “muh deadly stealthy mysterious” - nothing we can actually work on if we are looking for something actually unique.

This rework has to approached from the gameplay side. So, what was Evelynns design INTENDED to feel like? Sneaking through enemy lines, sometimes bursting out of the darkness to murder a squishy and then hide again in the cover or darkness, waiting for your next victim to cross your path.

Too bad that the current kit is not really giving off that vibe – on top of being a thematic mess. She's no hemomancer, why is she getting a blood-shield from her ult? Why should an ASSASSIN have a move that makes them tanky? Her Q... couldn't we do anything better than “press this when enemies nearby”? Or her E... the only reason she might be slightly viable with a jungle build because it applies on-hit effect twice. Since I'm no fan of point&click nukes... let's see how that works...

Okok, but I'm not only her to complain, but I also have some ideas myself how to fix this problem

As we all know her perma-stealth is a problem and for that she had to be undertuned most of the time - and now with the new mandrake ward currently in testing... well, let's just say that perma-stealth won't do the trick anymore. I'm in for removing it AS IT CURRENTLY WORKS. OK, so we need a new mechanic that:

• Gives a "stealth"-feel
• Allows you to bypass wards, minions (and champs if they don't come too close) unnoticed.
• Is shadow themed.

Actually, that's not so hard now that I think about it. How about a mechanic that let's her "become" a shadow? She can hush along terrain like this (preferably with increased movement speed), bypass wards, minions and all, but of course she can't attack stealthed. For that she would have to return from shadow back into a material form.

She wouldn't be able to attack in that state, but wouldn't be target-able either, so that kinda cancels itself out. And of course there needs to be a set time out of combat before she can enter the shadow-mode again. Of course enemies wouldn't be able to “see” Eve as easy as with the current passive. They will be warned, but the radius is a) smaller and b) one could work this out to function like the Rengar ult. Counterplay to this would be really simple: stay away from the walls.

Also this would make her ganks quite unique. Getting ganked from the bottom side of botlane or the top side of toplane isn't something that happens all day...

The “Shadow-Mode” can only be left via one of her abilities that I will explain now:

Q2: Since Eve can't attack in Shadow-Mode, the offensive ability of Q is replaced by “Shadow Steps”. On a low cooldown it allows Eve to leave the wall while being stealthed for a really short time. This tool has two usages: first of all is to jump from wall to wall in the jungle (leave one wall → steathy steps → hush along other wall). This only works for walls close together tho. With bigger distances Eve will unstealth herself, exposing herself to enemies (and their wards) – something you better avoid because even the tinest bit of damage will prevent you from jumping into the safety of your passive.

W: “Dark Frenzy” The movement burst. I think the spell was intended to have this “burst out of the darkness” feel, but until now it was more of a “meh”-feel, caused by how Eve's passive worked until now. The most logical combo would be (on wall → Q → W → fuck up the enemy). Not much changes here, the ability remains your movement booster.

R: “Into the darkness”

For the ult I tried to think of something special. Eve's core theme seems to be “being stealthy/hiding in the darkness”... but how do you create an ultimate form of that? Stronger hiding? No, that doesn't make sense. Still it should be shadow/darkness themed while ALSO being an AoE initiation for teamfights.

I now want you to imagine the following situation: a group of people (your team) walking down a hallway. Suddenly the light flickers and one after another the lights fade from the end of the hallway while an quiet, but evil sadistic laughter can be heard. You panic, suddenly unable to see and the moment the darkness is gone you can only look down on the mangled corpse of you squishy teammate, impaled and torn apart by claws and spikes.

Okay, you understand what I'm getting at? I'm proposing her ultimate to be a strong utility tool in fights. Upon activation darkness spread from Eve's position (having the same effect as Graves' smokescreen but not dealing damage.) Eve can pass through other units and gets a movement speed boost (from the strength of when she is in her passive) while in the area while also dealing extra damage to enemy champions there.

But wait, there's more: usually this ability would only work directly around eve, but if it's cast from a wall it changes from a surround-AoE into a massive skillshot comparable to the Nami-Ult. Only that this is a wave of darkness that by itself deals no damage.

Damaging abilities: this is the part I struggled the most with until now. For this kit we need abilities for Q1, E and maybe something that works together with her basic attacks somehow.

Q1: Hatespike. Gets changed into a low cooldown skillshot that cripples (slows) every enemy it hits. The range and width is slightly increased, but it can miss now.

E: “Ravage”: strikes and marks the target. Basic attacks and Hatespike's damage ramp up the more it hits the target. (Normal Q 0% bonus, first Q after mark 5% bonus dmg, second Q after mark 10 % bonus dmg... numbers don't matter, just an example).

Your basic pattern would be: burst out, hit your E and then try to brutally rightclick & Q your enemy to death. BUT! Since the damage ramps up Eve has to be careful. If she gets greedy and stays longer in the fight than she can handle... well, you will need to learn how to judge situations with this kit. After all Eve is still very fragile and squishy (as an assassin is supposed to be).

This offers a really obvious time window to kill her: when she still needs to ramp up her damage she's required to stick to you, which enables you to fight back. If you can't kill her until her bonus damage actually kills you... well, your own fault. You had your chance then ^^.

Ok, now a basic conclusion of the kit:

Passive: Shadow-walk: “Eve changes into shadow-form and moves along terrain. Movementspeed and mana-Regeneration are increased and she's untargetable. She can't attack in this mode.”

Q: “Hatespike”: (skillshot, low cooldown) “A line of spikes that slows every enemy hit.”

During Shadow-walk: “Silent Steps”: leave the current terrain while being stealthed for 1 second. The speedboost from the passive decays slowly the moment Q is cast.

W: “Dark Frenzy”: Eve breaks free from all slows and gets a massive speedboost. Resets on kill or asisst. Can be used during passive to instantly unstealth.

E: Ravage: Marks a target and deals damage. Basic attacks and Q deal bonus damage. The damage increases the more basic attacks and Qs the target suffers from. R: “Into the Darkness”: Creates a zone of darkness around Eve, impairing the vision of enemy champions. In this zone Eve's Movement speed is increased by X (passive value) and she deals bonus damage/increases attack speed (depends on what fits better).

When cast during passive, “Into the Darkness” changes from a surrounding AoE into a massive skillshot (compare to Nami ult, maybe not that fat). Casting this spell does NOT cause Eve to leave the passive state.

Another, interesting possibility would be, that enemies LOSE VISION on the teammates that are stuck with the ultimate. Not sure if that would be too broken, but I think it's worth trying out somehow.

OK guys, we all know that Eve needs some love. What do you think about this concept? Or what needs change?