It's very interesting when you see champions come and go in the current high-level metagame. Whether it is from the changes made from a patch (champions, items, and the map itself) or trends set up by the pro teams such as 2v1 lane swaps, we get to see picks becoming top priority one day, then barely used in the next. One of the more recent examples is Shyvana. After being used as an aggressive jungle pick by the Chinese during late Season 3, she exploded into popularity during the pre-season, due to the changes in the masteries, as well as the rise of manaless top lane champions such as Renekton and Dr. Mundo. Now, with the latest patch nerfing her numbers, she was suddenly barely used during the past week.
What I want to talk about however, is Evelynn. Ever since her rework in 2012, she has had fluctuating popularity among the pro players, putting her in the jungle and for some time during 2013, in the mid lane. Whatever her position though, they all had one common build for her: an AP burst mage. The newest patch weakened that style greatly, as her Ravage now deals physical damage. Though Jankos from ROCCAT has used her recently, it was the same old build, and had mixed results to boot.
Enter Diamondprox, a man synonymous with "jungle innovation." When he decided to bring back the Widowmaker post-patch, he did so in a fresh way. Last week in the European LCS, he pulled out a Hybrid Fighter Evelynn with AD itemization. This was a completely new way of playing her compared to before. What's more, it synergized perfectly with Gambit's strategy and team composition.
So for this episode of Deep in the Rift, let's take a look at Diamondprox's Evelynn when she was played versus Alliance and Fnatic during Week 3 of the European LCS. We shall analyze what she does differently compared to her previous incarnations and find out what kind of team composition is best suited for her.
GMB vs [A]
GMB vs FNC
First off, we need to look at the drafting stage of the game, to see when she was picked. As we see from the picks and bans of both games, Gambit banned out LeBlanc and Elise. The LeBlanc ban was there simply because Alex Ich prioritizes other assassins. It is the Elise that is important to note, as she is one of the most sought after junglers right now. A common first pick, she is definitely a strong threat with her ability to carry from the jungle even with tanky items. The Caitlyn vs Fnatic and the Vi vs Alliance were target bans to take some key players away from their comfort zone, though this applies more heavily to Shook than Rekkles.
In the pick phase, we see that Gambit prioritizes getting Kha'Zix and then Jinx immediately. Alex Ich and Genja can carry their team hard with these champions, and they need powerful snowballers to get this team comp going. The Kha'Zix ban from Fnatic was there for this reason, though Alex Ich settled for an assassin, Zed. Right here we already see how Evelynn changes how the drafting phase works when you decide to pick her. Before, it was more common for Elise or Vi to be picked up first, as they bring so much to the table with their damage and crowd control. With Elise out of the way and Vi not really Diamondprox's best pick, this opens up more oppotunities for the rest of the team to get what they want, as her low popularity during that time allowed Evelynn to be picked last.
This also means that Darien and Edward get second or third dibs, depending on Kha'Zix being available or not. While different champions were used, the purpose of each was the same. For Darien, his job is to become a splitpush threat, constantly forcing his opponents to send more than one person to deal with him. As for Edward, his goal is to set up picks for the team, even to the point of using the Annie ultimate on one person, as long as that target is eliminated.
Versus Alliance
Sadly in this game, there wasn't a lot of data regarding Evelynn's play, as Gambit simply outplayed Alliance in every lane. In addition, Alliance going for the 2v1 lane swap was a big mistake, as Trundle is significantly better at handling this kind of situation than Malphite. What we can see here, however, is how Evelynn works during the first clear and the early game. Her Hate Spikes allow her to clear the camps quickly. Even when invaded, she doesn't fall off hard and could still hold her own versus other strong early game junglers.
After the first clear, she became an immediate map threat to [A], as her invisibility allows her to roam around the map with ease. This is Evelynn's unique asset: she renders normal warding useless. This advantage is improved in Season 4, as pink wards are now completely visible, making vision control a breeze. We also see here another great aspect of her passive: unique ganking angles. While she doesn't have strong gap closers like Vi and Elise, with good timing and excellent lane control by his teammates, Diamondprox was able to make picks as he was literally behind his opponents. This instils a fear in Alliance, as the team is always under threat of a gank the moment they extend and Evelynn isn't visible.
The last thing one can learn from this game about Evelynn is in regards to her baron/dragon control. As I said, there isn't much about Evelynn in this game; Gambit simply beat Alliance right from the get-go. But if you look closely at how the Russians take the dragon (more importantly, baron, you'll notice how Diamondprox is able to sustain much better with a Spirit of the Elder Lizard and a Bilgewater Cutlass (later, Blade of the Ruined King). All he needed was either Alex Ich or Genja + Darien, and the rest could just play defense and zone out potential stealers.
Versus Fnatic
There is a lot one can take from this game, cause not only was it a close one, but you can see what each member of the team comp does. Also, we learn how Evelynn's kit can bring Gambit back from a disastrous start. Even though Fnatic lane swapped, Genja and Edward died immediately from a poor invade at blue, giving away kills to Cyanide and sOAZ. This is one of Diamondprox's multiple shining moments, as he was able to immediately get the duo lane back on track by punishing sOAZ' overextension.
Throughout the game, we see Evelynn become a strong counterganker, able to use Fnatic's 2v1 laning against them. With sOAZ requiring so much help from Cyanide. This made Lee Sin predictable in his map movements. This also freed up Alex Ich to win against xPeke in the laning phase, which led to Rekkles and YellOwsTaR being the only lane with a lead. The result was Gambit being ahead in the early game, taking dragons with ease and exerting more map pressure.
With all these advantages however, Gambit's poor rotations, in particular Darien's overextension, was putting Fnatic in a much smaller gold deficit than it should be. Fortunately, Gambit was able to get it together and slowly take control of the game once more. Now that this game is much longer than the previous example, we get to see an itemized Evelynn. Equipped with a Blade of the Ruined King, not only can she melt down dragons and barons with ease, but she could also duel and sustain herself in a teamfight, something that couldn't be done with an AP build. The lifesteal, in conjunction with the attackspeed bonus from Ravage and the tank items that followed BotRK, made her a secondary tank next to Darien. She can now stay in the midst of the brawl, use her now powerful autoattacks, and be an effective tank-breaker and dive buddy overall.
(build is taken from Diamondprox's solo queue stats at probuilds.net)
Before we continue on to how the team comp works, let's segue for a moment to put the Widowmaker under the microscope. This hybrid fighter Evelynn build not only changes her role in the team, but also how some of her skills are put into context, now that her AP isn't all that high.
(Q) Hate Spike - While is still the first skill max out, it is no longer that powerful. Thus it is mainly used for Dark Frenzy procs and clearing camps quickly. Spirit of the Elder Lizard and Blade of the Ruined King can give it some punch, but not as threatening as the mage-assassin build
(E) Ravage - This skill has much more impact in this build, as it utilizes one aspect of this ability that has never been brought to importance before: its attack speed increase. Now that Evelynn itemizes to improve her autoattacks, the buff powers it up even further, making maximum use of BotRK's passive. This is also the secret of her better dragon/baron control, as she now outsustains the damage these monsters can dish out.
(R) Agony's Embrace - Again, similar to the other skills, the burst damage is not as devastating as before. However, it is still useful for two things: its slow effect; and its shield gain. This is the reason why Diamondprox buys straight-up defense items first like Negatron Cloak and Warden's Mail, as her ult compensates for the lack of health.
At its very core, Gambit created a splitpush/skirmish team composition. Since the Russians sacrificed stronger engagement tools for more power, they need to pick fights where the enemy is either out of position or at a numerical advantage. How does that work? Well, first we look at the top laner. Darien's job is to be a tough threat. Don't let his Ravenous Hydra-first Trundle build fool you. He's there to soak up as much damage as he can (also, his Subjugate will make up for it as he builds tank items later on). He has two game plans. The first is to splitpush hard, forcing opponents to chase him down, which allows Gambit to take other objectives on the map. The second is when teamfights happen. He plows through his opponents and smacks down any target the team tells him to attack. He incites chaos from within the enemy team, splitting them apart and zoning them out into positions Gambit prefers.
Alex Ich and Genja are the two main carries. While Alex Ich dives in and either gets resets with Kha'Zix jumps or jukes around with his Zed clones, Genja fires away on Jinx, raining down bullets and rockets on the entire enemy team. With Darien zoning, the two could coordinate single-target attacks better, as those are their picks' specialties. They could also double as splitpushers, when the lead is big enough for them to attack all three lanes. Edward's job, other than "securing" the kills, is to set up these plays himself. He is the only one with an actual strong engagement skill (Thresh's Death Sentence and Annie's Pyromania). This implies that he has to be spot-on when it comes to catching people. His abilities are used purely for offense, as they can't afford failure when making a pick due to lack of damage or crowd control.
Finally, Diamondprox. Unlike Vi and Elise, Evelynn doesn't have a hard lockdown skill. What she can do, however, is put map pressure everywhere at the same time due to her invisibility. In teamfights, what Diamond does is jump in on someone with Alex Ich and Genja, then immediately help Darien with zoning. Her semi-tanky fighter build allows Diamondprox to join in the fray and stir up more trouble from the inside. What's better is that whatever she's up against, be it a tank or a carry, she is perfectly capable of dueling that champion. Itemized, she becomes a great counterganker and jungle invader, taking out enemy buffs and camps with ease, as well as a strong source of both added damage and tankiness to the team comp.
This lineup excels well versus 5v5 teamfight comps. Forcing the enemy team to break apart and deal with individual threats greatly reduces its potential, as they have no choice but to use their AoE skills on few targets.
Against splitpush comps, it is an even matchup since the two are similar in strategy. The main dictator on who wins is who gets ahead in the early-mid game and takes down towers first. While Evelynn has the roaming advantage, the team still has to be careful in their rotations and pushing.
Siege comps is where this lineup is weak. With three melee champions, and only one ranged champion that can actually deal damage, even if the team manages to get a decent lead, they may still have a rough time destroying towers. Siege comps usually have great waveclearing skills, such as Ziggs' Bouncing Bombs and Caitlyn's Piltover Peacemaker. This makes exerting pressure difficult. What's worse, if the team gets behind, then its lack of waveclear will mean that its towers will fall down quickly due to the nature of the enemy comp.
At this point, I believe that you are itching to go to the rift and try it out either alone or with your friends. If you are going down the pre-made route, then here are a few alternatives (sans the jungler, of course) you can use if some of Gambit's champs don't suit you:
| Top | Mid | Marksman | Support |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Renekton |
LeBlanc |
Lucian |
Leona |
|
Shyvana |
Ahri |
Sivir |
Taric |
|
Singed |
Fizz |
Caitlyn |
Fiddlesticks |
There you have it, an old champion made new by an innovative Russian, and the team comp that goes with it. I hope you guys had as much fun reading as I did writing this lengthy feature. If you have any comments, suggestions, raging emotions, etc., feel free on use the comments sections below, or say it directly to my internet face on twitter (link's at the start of the article).
