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The biggest issue with Evelynn's rework (hint, Evelynn is fine)

Linna Excel·9/27/2017, 6:55:02 PM·2 votes·3,490 views

@reav3 @ghostcrawler @meddler

Hi guys, it's me Linna Excel!

Evelynn's new rework has a small issue. You see, in riot's attempt to push her new theme as a sexy succubus, they kind of crossed a line in terms of narrative design space. Namely we already had a sexy soul-eater in the league and her lore was recently updated to make her more of a soul eating monster, not less. That'd be Ahri.

So allow me to set up a case where Evelynn's rework is fine in a vacuum but bad in context of existing league champs.

Thematic Copypasta As I mentioned, riot already had a definite sexy soul-eating waifu: Ahri. Ahri is a female humanoid with nice tits who just so happens to drain the souls of her seduced victims. Evelynn is a female humanoid with nice tits who just so happens to drain the souls of her seduced victims. See the similarities? Where Ahri once was someone who aspired to be better, which would have been a difference, now it seems like the two champions basically share the same idea space.

So theme wise, these two champs are very close.

Charming people is so cliche Mechanically speaking, Ahri is an AP burst mage who uses a well placed charm to make picks and kill her victims. Now Evelynn is an AP assassin who uses a well placed charm to make picks and kill her victims. Evelynn has a strictly better charm than Ahri.

Ahri has a weak passive that gives her sustain. Evelynn has an OP passive that gives her sustain.

Ahri has AoE damage on her Q. Evelynn has AoE damage on her Q.

Ahri has a dash R. Evelynn has a dash on her E.

Ahri has an AoE ult that lets her escape danger. Evelynn has an AoE ult that lets her escape danger.

As you can see, mechanically these two champs are quite similar.

Weebait Ahri is animu. Evelynn is animu.

They are both clearly inspired by chinese cartoons.

Similar visual inspirations Ahri has boobs, fox ears, and multiple tails. Evelynn has boobs, two horns, and multiple tentacles because the rework team watched too much hentai during ideation.

Basically their silhouettes have similarities.

Annoying fanbases Ahri has an annoying fanbase full of pervy weebs that expects a new skin for their waifu twice a year. Now Evelynn has an annoying fanbase full of pervy weebs that expects a new skin for their waifu twice a year.

DO YOU B******S REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sorry Khazix and Zyra fans. No new skins for your mains ever. In fact every champ who has less than 5 skins can't expect anything new because the skins team is going to be spending half of their time on Ahri and Evelynn. The rest of their time is going to Teemo, Lux, Ez, master Yi, Ashe, Annie, and SKT skins.

Summing things up Ahri and Evelynn are now very close champs in a lot of ways.

So what does this mean? This means we now have 2 champs that are stepping on each others toes in a lot of areas. I'd expect this level of overlap in season 1 or 2 when riot was trying to crank out champs as fast as possible. This isn't that time. We are going into season 7 and riot basically took a champ that already existed and copied it because another one needed a rework. These champs are just too close to each other in a number of areas. If there weren't a lot of overlap in every ahri-ah I wouldn't mind but Evelynn-tially your rework team managed to cross a line.

This is just too much overlap. I mean yes there are differences, but it looks like both of these champs follow the same template on everything. Especially the animu. I mean what's the point of taking one champ (evelynn) and then try to make it similar to an existing champ (Ahri) in just about every area. I mean I get it that there are 140 and originality is getting to be difficult. But making 1 champ inspired by another champ across the board isn't the answer in the long run.

Usually the teams on reworks try pretty hard to make a champ that feels new and unique. This is the first time I've seen a rework champ that feels a bit like a retread when you start to dig below the surface. That's an issue that needs to be talked about. I mean when I looked at the rework I could argue that this is a lot like ahri. This other thing is a lot like ahri. Oh hey, there's something else like ahri. At some point I realized you guys were trying to remake Ahri as much as you could.

Take gameplay. Ahri is a flashy playmaker who relies on hitting the charm. Evelynn used to be a methodical stalker with a unique approach to jungling. Now she's just another flashy assassin who relies on hitting that charm, just like Ahri.

That's the problem. Evelynn's biggest issue now seems to be she's a lot like Ahri in a lot of places. I mean we already had Ahri and judging by the boards, we didn't need a second one.

4 Comments

KuroCaliber9/27/2017, 11:33:31 PM11 votes

Ok so Linna, usually you're pretty reasonable, so I'll give my point of view. If you zoom out far enough, every champion is the same. Like Garen and Darius, Yasuo and Master Yi, Nautilus and Blitzcrank. However, with a roster this large, it is difficult to be 100% original. You have already recognized this.

Let's look at Eve and Ahri a different way. We'll look at Lore, Kit, and Visuals, just like you have.

Lore

So let's start with Ahri, she's a very powerful vastaya- a being born from the union of man and Vasthayshai’rei. She was left behind by her family due to unknown circumstances and was raised by a pack of ice-wolves. She, at some point, found she could absorb the life essence of humans and gain their memories. She currently had the mindset of a child, having never been raised beyond learning to survive in the wild. She went around killing people and stealing their memories to sate her hunger for experiences. She was not malicious, inherently, only curious. However, her methods led to the deaths of multiple people as collateral. While she strives to have her own experiences, she still falls prey to easily ripping the memories from someone else. (The lazier path).

Ahri is also capable of genuine love; seen as she had had a lover whom she could not bear to forget. Her only truly intimate relationship was with that man. Unlike Evelynn, Ahri is not completely in control of herself. She is mentally a child, drunk on her own power, with no family to guide her. Ahri's charm isn't sexual like Eve's, at least lore-wise. Ahri has complete control of her victim's emotional state. She can bring them peace, cause them to hallucinate, or expose them to sorrow.

Ahri's goal now is to experience the world herself, and find her family. She's adventurous by spirit, but has difficulty with self-control. But her intent is not malicious.

Ok now that we've covered Ahri, let's move on to Eve. Eve is a demoness, so that's already very different from Ahri. Eve has absolutely no human in her lineage that we can infer. Her humanoid form is actually an illusion generated by her own brand of magic to help her seduce her victims. As a demon, she requires conditions to affect people. Hers is that she needs to be touched with desire. That body is only means to that end. (Lorewise), Ahri is voluptuous because she developed that way, Eve is voluptuous because she designed her external appearance that way.

There isn't much lore on Evelynn at the moment so I will work with what I have gotten from the Teaser and Riot responses. Eve's (visual, not magical) charms are purely sexual and are designed to help her achieve her goal of fulfilling the condition for her to act. Eve's intentions are purely malicious. She seduces to fulfill a condition and then cause her victim extreme pain until death. I'm fairly certain that this differs from Ahri's motivations and mindset significantly.

Kit

Passive: Ahri's passive is a 9 count heal, as in it takes 9 targets hit with three abilities to proc it. Then she is healed for each unit hit by her next spell. Eve's, on the other hand, is a stealth tool and regeneration tool. The significant difference is that Evelynn's has a threshold of effectivenes, ie, the healing only procs when she is below a certain amount of health (250-590 +250% AP). She can also only heal while out of combat, while Ahri's only works while she is in combat.

Q: Ahri's Q is linear projectile skill shot that deals magic damage while going outwards, and true damage while returning. Eve's Q is a linear projectile skill shot which then enhances her next spells and autos on hit, while also allowing her to recast Q to summon a row of spikes. While the initial part of the Q is the same, linear projectile Q's are present on almost all champions. While Ahri and Eve both have AOE damage on Q, Ahri has magic and true damage on Q, and Eve has initial single target magic damage, then AOE and enhanced auto/spell magic damage on Q.

Dashes: Ahri had it on R, Eve has one on E, already they're on different keys, meaning ahri has a much longer CD on her dash. Furthermore, Eve has a condition attached to her dash, she must be in Demon Shade form for it to be a dash. Technincally it's not even a dash at all, it's a self pull, a la Thresh. She cannot control the direction she will end up, she'll just be pulled into the enemy. Furthermore, not only can Ahri control the direction of her dashes, she has DASHES, Plural, so she has more than one.

Ult mobility: So Eve already had a pull on her E, but she also has a blink on her ult. Unlike Ahri, she cannot control where it will be, it will always be directly behind where she was when she cast the spell. Ahri's damage is also targeted on her ult, while Eve's is a semi circle AOE. Ahri, unlike Eve, does not always use her ult to escape danger, but more often uses it to go into it.

Charms: Eve's charm has a delay, a la fizz, Ahri's is instant when it connects. Since game devs can't portray exact lore concepts, the magic charm was the closest parallel.

Visuals

you called Ahri and Eve both weeb bait. In truth, neither of them are. Ahri, while in development was once considered to be modelled off of the Japanese Kitsune, but to celebrate the launch of the Korean server they made her according to the similar Kumiho folklore instead. Eve on the other hand, is based on the succubus stemming from both Judaic myth (Lilith) and the Arabic Quarînah. Neither Ahri nor Evelynn is based on Japanese culture, and Japan is where anime originates.

Anime is JAPANESE animation, not Chinese cartoons.

In terms of their silhouettes, Ahri has very visible ears, however, Eve's hair obscures her horns while she is visible. Her horns are only exposed when she is in her Demon Shade form, which I can safely say in terms of posture and shape, is very different from Ahri. Eve also has only two lashers as opposed to Ahri's nine tails. Furthermore, Eve's curve to point forwards while Ahri's fan outwards. This is not even counting the VERY different color schemes the two champions have.

Generalizations

  • Ahri fans do not EXPECT two skins a year, they're just happy when a skin is made for them, which happens often.

  • I haven't yet seen any Eve fan ask for a skin yet.

  • Their playstyles are different. While they both use charm to create opportunities to unload their kits, Ahri can poke very well with Q before going in. Eve, meanwhile is forced to go into melee range to do damage. Eve also retains her perma-stealth gameplay that made her ganking ability special.

I hope this helped clear some misconceptions about how similar two champions are.

Cheers, KuroCaliber

JhinCredible9/28/2017, 8:42:52 PM2 votes

Nah dude voice lines arent literal and its so hot lmao dude why are u complaining?! Homosexualist or what?