Evelynn Build Guide by 501g Gehacktes

Preamble

Hi there :)

This is the english translation of my original german guide for playing Evelynn on ability power that reached a rating of 70% in the first 3 days. Because of this pretty nice feedback I decided to make this guide international and here it is :)

If your native language is German and you'd prefer to read the german version, click this link [GERMAN] AP Evelynn.

So let's get started.

Introduction

"Evelynn... why of all things Evelynn?! This champion is completely useless and nothing more than feed for the opponents!!" - WRONG!

In fact you often see bad Evelynns and such can sometimes ruin an entire game.

I certainly know from my own experience that it can be crucial different from that, if you just got used to Eve and you know, what to avoid.

In this guide i want to show you the way i like to play Evelynn most. This is according to my own opinion so I would like to invite you to get your own picture of that and to let me know about your ideas of improvement ;)

This build is ment to be played on the bottom lane or, in case that your team is missing a jungler, as a second top lane champion.

I wish you lots of fun while reading, much success with my build and thank you for your interest :)

Why ability power and not a hybrid build?

Advantages of hybrid builds:

Most players use hybrid builds for Evelynn, this means builds that consist of attack damage and ability power in equal parts.
And this has its reasons, because Evelynn can deal lots of damage on the one hand using her abilities, that grow with her increasing AP, and on the other hand with her normal attacks in case she possesses enough attack speed and attack damage.
The last one is in my opinion especially useful if you want to destroy a turret or inhibitor by backdooring as fast as possible, in order to disappear in the shadows again, before an opponent can reach you.

From my point of view Evelynn's abilities are not getting maxed out playing her this way.




Advantages of ability power builds:

Her Ravage deals damage proportional (1:1) to her ability power. Do you have enough AP, this skill offers an enourmous burst damage that suits a rapid entrance to a fight or even an unexpected heavy last hit.

Even Hate Spike profits from the AP and deals considerable more damage. Since you can spam this ability, we gain a constant high base damage, as long as we have enough mana.
Furthermore Hate Spike offers us after about every second use a proc of Lich Bane, so that we deal additional damage, according to our AP, with our normal attacks between the exertions of abilities.

From this it follows that we can pass on attack speed by the penetrative use of Hate Spike.

This makes us become a very strong champion quite early that will provide some annoyance for our enemies and lots of fun for us :)

I guess I don't need to explain further, why I prefer to play Evelynn that way, but I have to warn you... make your gender clear in early game, otherwise you will get about four proposals at the end of the game ;)

Runes

Other AP-Evelynn guides make only use of AP runes. This might be useful in early game to make high damage quite early, especially with Ravage but it seems like people forget that Evelynn can't do much without rear cover that early and even if you have it, the chance to get out of a fight alive is little for lack of health and armor.

I choose runes to deal high damage aswell but with the difference that my focus points on being able to stay as long as possible on the lane.

Greater Mark of Insight: Magic penetration! :) What do all that AP serve me if I can't make use of them effectivly? This runes guarantee us, together with our items, to be able to enforce that enormous magical damage, which we are capable of.


Greater Seal of Replenishment Greater Seal of Replenishment: This is the point, where we become able to stay on the lane pretty long, the regeneration of mana. The steady thirst for mana of Evelynn is the main reason that forces us to teleport back to our base. This runes counter this at least a little but definatly noticeable. Together with our first item, the Regrowth Pendant both our mana and health regenerate a little faster.


Greater Glyph of Potency: There is not much to say about... AP = damage. Ravage's damage grows proportionally to the amount of ability power points we have, that means 1 AP is equal to 1 damage point.


Greater Quintessence of Potency: Here applies exactly the same -> AP = damage ;) Just as well we could make us of AP-quints that increase our ability power depending on our level to get a bigger benefit in late game. I personally see the advantage of this runes in dealing high damage pretty early and in being able to help a team mate more effectively. Moreover we may not forget that we are an assassin and ganks are our job ;)

Masteries

I do not want to spent too much words into this as the mastery tree is very simple. It is completely geared to ability power, magic penetration and delt damage. The cooldown reduction pf Sorcery is an especially nice feature because Shadow Walk needs to be useable again as fast as possible.

The remaining points i spent in Meditaion and Swiftness .
The increased mana regeneration through Meditation is especially useful for us in early game and that one percent more movement speed can be exactly that one percent that we are faster than our opponent and that enables us to flee successfully from a fight.

Summoner Spells

The determination of the summoner spells is in my eyes clear.

Justification:

Of course I do not want to miss to explain my decision.

Ignite is useful in many respects and this even in general.
Heal's advantages should be clear to everyone.








Why do I pass on the other spells?

1. Ghost... well, for what reason did we buy the Boots of Mobility?? ^^
   
   
2. Exhaust, yea exhaust :) Of course this is a really useful spell for us, as we need several attacks to kill a champion and if he uses Ghost or something similar, he might be able to flee from us. But actually we almost ever attack out of the invisibility of our Shadow Walk and its attribute is, to slow an enemy if we attack him stealthed. In late game we additionally will habe a Rylai's Crystal Scepter and at the latest then there is no running anymore ;)

This should be all the alternatives, you might think of. Or course you may use this three spells aswell and you surely will have your benefit from them but for me the decision is quite easy :)

Items

Now we come to the more exciting content, to the items! :D


First of all:




Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion enable us to stay long time on our lane, without having to teleport back to our base. In this manner we can earn more EXP and gold then elsewise that are crucial especially in early game.




Earning gold and leaving some more farm to our laning partner:




The Philosopher's Stone is from two ways a useful item for us, because on the one hand it improves our mana regeneration and quenches our immense mana thirst a little. Furthermore it gives us 5 gold every 10 seconds. In combination with the Kage's Lucky Pick, we will now have 10 gold every 10 seconds, or 1 gold per second more than normal and also a bonus on our ability power. These objects give us not only gold, but actually strengthen us for a meaningful way. With this gold bonus, we can confidently leave sometimes one or the other minion to our laning partner, without having to worry about our equipment later.

We will need the Kage's Lucky Pick later anyway for Deathfire Grasp an we will sell the Philosopher's Stone as soon as we wand to buy Rylai's Crystal Scepter.




The core items. These items are INDISPENSABLE!




The Boots of Mobility are essential for us to be there on time, if we want to start a gank. Thus, we can also quickly look into the bushes by using our Shadow Walk in the jungle and even destroy via towers or inhibitors very well by backdooring, just before an enemy champion can reach us. Furthermore, we can quickly rush a team member for help or cover his tower, if he should teleport back or has been killed.

For the purpose of attacking the Lich Bane is invaluable to us! In addition to the bonuses on skill level, magic resistance, movement speed and mana it allows us to perform a normal attack with bonus damage equal to our overall ability level after each skill. That's toward the end about 480 points of additional damage! And in Evelynn'S case, it is not as if we carried out every 10 seconds a skill, because we can spam Hate Spike and thus claim this enormous bonus damage every 2 seconds!
I think I do not need to leave more words on that ^^




Recommended and very useful items:




To buy the Deathfire Grasp just springs to mind, as we already call Kage's Lucky Pick our own. It gives us further damage and makes us more independent from the "blue buff". More important is that it reduces our cooldowns by 15% and we are are dependend on our Shadow Walk to be always useable. We also have the option of using the active ability to cause a nice amount of damage.




Zhonya's Hourglass can save us in various situations and is especially worth its price with Evelynn. On the one hand we get 100 points on ability power, which is a rather large increase in damage, and 50 armor points, that are certainly not wrong with a creepy champion as Evelynn. The active ability of Zhonya's Hourglass is what really excites us. Because if we want to flee from a fight and use Shadow Walk it takes 1,5 seconds to make us completely invisible and thus invulnerable. Suffered damage during this period, the time wil extend accordingly. But immediately after we enabled the Shadow Walks and activated Zhonya's Hourglass after that, so we are invulnerable while webecome invisible and can escape the fight securely. Priceless, if you ask me :)




Rabadon's Deathcap is the item with the biggest bonus on ability power and makes our damage increase rapidly. That's it :)




Rylai's Crystal Scepter is the perfect item for the late game. It gives us a great HP bonus, a little more damage and slows enemy champions if we hit them with an ability, that means always ;) These are perfect conditions for a gank or in case you want to pick out a creepy champion out of a team fight in order to quickly eliminate him.




What shall I do with remaining gold, if there is any?

It's simple ... We continue to strengthen us with elixirs! ^^ If there is just enough gold for a single elixir, then you ought to decide for Elixir of Brilliance, because it increases our damage and cooldown reduction, as already said, is very valuable to us.

Otherwise, I think it is wise in the late game to buy an Oracle's Elixir in order to detect enemy wards. As we move very quickly across the map, we are able to quickly locate the wards and destroy them. In addition, Vision Wards make our life become much more difficult and should be destroyed as fast as possible. This is true even for the early game, because if they are placed skillfully, it is very difficult for us to succeed a gank.




Optional items:




The Hextech Gunblade plays the same role as the Deathfire Grasp, certainly it is little more offensive, and by the additional attack damage geared more toward a hybrid build, which will not disturb us. Who can do without the 15% cooldown reduction, replaces the Deathfire Grasp with it and thus get an additional damage bonus, an active attack ability, 15% life steal and 20% spell vampire. This combination should make you very difficult to kill in the late game. In this case you would have to sell the Kage's Lucky Pick in order to obtain the necessary space in your inventory.




The Void Staff is actually a useful addition to this build. It gives us again a very large number of ability power points and thus further damage. But the most important thing here are the 40% (!) magic penetration. We can use this especially good when we have champions in the game that have a lot of magic resistance. But otherwise this is the subject of a possible replacement for Rylai's Crystal Scepter in any case. However, I would pick Exhaust then instead of Heal or ensure to have the "red buf" as often as possible in order to not miss the slowing effect.




The Sorcerer's Shoes are a useful addition, if you omitted the Void Staff in your build. They offer you again a few percent of magic penetration and help you get your magic damage. If the game has progressed so far that your team lays siege to the enemy base and we are therefore no longer dependent on the speed of the Boots of Mobility it lends itself to replace them.




Situative items (both to replace Rylai's Crystal Scepter):




The Thornmail is then strongly recommended, if at least one opponent in the game deals immense melee damage. Examples are, among others, Fiora, Master Yi, Garen or Irelia. Feature of this Armor is to return 30% suffered physical damage back to the attacking champion. Does an enemy deal a lot of damage, he may also have to bear 30% of his own damage in addition (!). We also get 100 armor points and you will definitely notice them.




The Banshee's Veil offers itself whenever you become often the victim of stuns in team fights. This object allows us to avoid a stun every 45 seconds and simply march through this ^^ Furthermore, we obtain additional magic resistance, HP and mana.

Skill Explanation

Determined Killer is the passive ability of Evelynn. There is not much to say about it, because it is not a tactical weapon. Its only benefit is that we suffer only 50% of normal damage from non-neutral minions ((neutral minions are those in the jungle). This gives us a great advantage while farming but this is not too important for this build. On the other hand it reduces the chance that you get killed by minions before you could make you invisible while fleeing from a battle :)




Hate Spike is the skill we will use most often. It can be used every 0.8 seconds and can therefore be be spammed. It is reinforced by ability power and deals 50% damage to nearby targets. Therefor is to say that the target, that suffers 100% of the damage, is always that one, that stands closest to you. This property is observed strongly in the jungle, because it forces us to place ourselves entirely accurate! Also: Use Hate Spike never out of stealth to slow an enemy champion!! Should it happen that a minion is closer to you than the champion, it will slow down the minion and your opponent runs away.
But now the crucial advantage of this skill. The passive ability of Sheen or later Lich Bane is activated (with a cooldown of 2 seconds) after about every second use of Hate Spike and ensures that we constantly inflict high bonus damage with normal attacks between skills. So I recommend to make brief pauses between uses of Hate Spike, always aware of when your hands turn red or yellow, and to attack the enemy again with a right click.




Shadow Walk is our most important skill. With it we can become invisible and be untraceable and untouchable during the run. However, you should note that we are not completely invisible until 1.5 seconds without suffering from any damage have passed! As already explained, Zhonya's Hourglass can help us enormously (see tips and tricks). We can also use the invisibility for ganks, for backdooring, for scouting or for safe teleportations. Another feature of this ability is that an opponent who is attacked by us out of stealth, is slowed. Reason explained above (see Hate Spike) I recommend strongly to initiate this effect only with Ravage or normal attacks, because the focus of Hate Spike is more or less random. Important! Do always pay attention to the time that remains for staying invisible. Otherwise, you might find yourself in the middle of a group of enemies, who rejoice in the fact that food has suddenly appeared between them ^^




Ravage is above all very valuable with our AP build, as its damage increases in proportion to our ability power! That means each point of ability power results in a point of damage! In the late game we are hereby capable of an insane burst damage. Another nice feature is that the ability decreases both the armor and magic resistance of the target. This is another reason, why it is offered to begin a fight with this skill.




Malice and Spite is our ultimate. This ability gives us an enormous boost to our attack and movement speed, which is not stacked with other skills. Therefore, this ability is not very suitable for fleeing, but certainly much more for the fight. Furthermore, we will get back a certain amount of life, when Agony's Embrace was active, when we have killed an enemy hcampion and its own cooldown reduced to 0 then. Therefore it is sensible not to use this skill directly in the beginning of a fight but when we can be sure that the effect persists longer than we need to kill our opponent.

Skill Sequence

By "skill sequence" can be understood two things. Once the order in which we expand the skills and even the sequence in which we use the skills during fights. I would like to discuss both here and start with the development of skills.


In which order do I build my skills?

Ialways start off with the Shadow Walk, because this allows me to examine the bushes at the beginning and I can disappear unnoticed from the lane.

Right after that I spend a point in Hate Spike, as our main farming-ability and the third a point to Ravage for the burst damage.

I used to subsequently max Ravage first, because this skill will cause enormous damage early on, which is not least a benefit during ganks.
However, I am now of the opinion that it makes more sense to focus initially on Hate Spike. On the one hand, because we can thereby farm better and on the other hand it offers a continuous high damage. That may be a matter of taste, as both roads lead to Rome but I prefer the latter course ^^

Let's get to the way we use the skills now.




How do I use my skills cleverly?


=> => => => => => => => => => ...

It's not more than this basically. We are creeping up with Shadow Walk closer to an enemy champion, open the fight with Ravage, which slows down the opponent, because we've run out of stealth, activate our ultimate Agony's Embrace, to get a lot more attack speed and finally continously and rapidly hit Hate Spike.

When Ravage's cooldown should subside during the fight, of course we can use this skill as often as possible because it causes the most damage.

If you want to be sure to get the kill yourself, you can keep Ravage until the end of the fight and wipe out the enemy champion's last quarter or third of health (depending on who the opponent is definatly possible) with one blow ^^

Otherwise the skill order is of course dependent on the situation but it should suffice as a small guide for now.

Gameplay

To begin with:

Let us now turn to the most important of all, dealing with Evelynn.
Because this is where it fails for many players, who just look guickly at a guide on the net and try to recreate it and play Evelynn as they played ordinary AD-carries in the manner of Master Yi or Vayne before. That will not work and I guarantee it.

Basically, it should already be clear to you, how both teams are set up at the beginning of a game. It is important to know for us, if we have other champions in our team that can support our slow from Shadow Walk with other crowd control abilities, whether we have a jungler with which we could jointly initiate ganks or if an opponent's jungler could surprise us with a gank. It is equally important for us at the very beginning to pay attention to the equipment of our enemies, because in the first few minutes you are often able to recognize the kind of build a player uses and we can adjust to it (possibly with Thornmail or Banshee's Veil)

It is very important that you pay attention throughout the game to whether the opponents buy or use Sight Wards or even Vision Ward, so you can always remain untraceable.

So let's begin the game! :D




Early Game - Playing on your own lane:

I personally prefer to play Evelynn on the bottom lane, preferably together with a supporter that offers me healing, such as Soraka or better one that additionally has crowd control abilities, like Alistar or Sona. However, even in combination with a carry, we can dominate the lane.

At first defensive play is the motto for us! Evelynn is initially very sensitive to any kind of damage and if the opposing player focus us a little cleverly, it will bother you very soon. So you should stay behind for the first few levels (approximately up to level 5), gather up some gold and then go shopping ;)

The first skill that you should take is the Shadow Walk, as you can monitor the surrounding bushes with its help and furthermore wait invisible for a good moment to initiate a gank. Above all, you should keep in mind the bush at the corner towards the river, because there often stay hostile jungler or the mid-champion and ambush you. With this approach, it makes use of wards almost superfluous on your lane in this phase.

As soon as you are in possession of Sheen, you will find that you cause much more damage than before. This is due to the passive ability of the object of giving you a certain amount of bonus damage for any skill you use on normal attacks (red light surrounding your hands). From this point you can play a little more aggressive, but remember, you still need backing!

Here begins the second phase.




Mid Game - Roaming

"Roaming" means roving or wandering. And that's exactly what you shall do. With the help of your Shadow Walk we try to escape the eyes of the enemy as often as possible and to walk from lane to lane and from bush to bush. The entire opposing team will not know when and where you're standing. Then you're in the position to be able to appear anywhere at any time and with your Boots of Mobility you can take advantage of any chance to gank.

To start a gank you should stay best in a bush waiting until the opponent is a bit braver and moves away from his tower. Watch out here that you are not next to an enemy's ward! Let your fellow players inform you if the opponent is placing wards. Next, you activate the Shadow Walk and get close to the enemy champion, stand next to him, behind or in front of him. Communicate to the appropriate team member that you want to attack, preferably shortly before with a ping (G + click on the opponent) for example. If your team member now has almost arrived at your opponent, attack him with Ravage. This is now slowing him down and you two (or more) can attack him. Ideal would be, if your partner could use an Exhaust afterwards, if you cant kill your opponent fast enough.

In addition, it is one of your tasks, to disturb the enemy jungler in his work ;) For this purpose, you should now and then scout the opponents jungle with activated Shadow Walk and surprise the enemy jungler, if he just fights the "red buff" or "blue buff".




Late Game - Phase of team fights

In my opinion Evelynn's role in the team fight phase is to scout bushes, monitor all buffs including the dragon and Baron and to eliminate creepy champions during team fights. In this phase you should not initiate a team fight, because you just can't endure the damage ^^

Another responsibility of yours is to pass invisible through the jungle towards the hostile towers and inhibitors in order to destroy those, if, for example, your team hast to defend its own base at the moment. It is advisable, to be already in possession of Zhonya's Hourglass right now, so that you have enough time to disappear in shadows using Shadow Walk, if suddenly an enemy appears near you.

Pay attention on evading the minions on your way, so that you will not become visible on the map, as long as you are not using Shadow Walk right now.
In this way, I have already destroyed the enemy Nexus alone several times ^^ So just try it!

Our Biggest Enemies

The champions, who are making our lives difficult, can be divided into three groups, which I will explain below.

Ranged champions:

Any kind of champion that deals ranged damage is difficult for us at first, because we simply have to close up to the champion in order to harm him. Therefor is not the approach the problem, because we can simply do this with the help of our Shadow Walk.

Rather it is the "Getting-Away-Again" if we should not have been able to kill him, because, as long as we are within the reach of his attacks, we can not escape or make us invisible without the use of Zhonya's Hourglass.

And now we found the solution of our problem :)
If we have a ranged enemy on our lane, we first have to rush the Zhonya's Hourglass as soon as possible and second have to play really defensive, until we bought it. After that, the problem should be solved ^^



Champions with crowd control abilities:

Champions of this sort, such as for example Alistar, Ryze or Sona are simply hell for us!

Does Alistar either use Pulverize or throws us into the direction of our opponents using Headbutt, it is just getting really tough for us.

So, what can we do now?

The behaviour with this situation is quite difficult and to master it might be impossible. But in my eyes there are two options we have:

1. Changing the lane with a team mate
   
   
2. Starting to roam earlier

If you have another idea, please let me know :)



Tanks with oracle...:

I don't need to say much about this. If we have to face for example a Cho'Gath with an Oracle's Elixir on our lane, we will look stupid ^^'

The only solution in this case is to get the help of our laning partner or even better of both our laning partner and mid player to kill the tank and take the oracle out of the game as soon as possible!

Tips and Tricks

Attacking towers and inhibitors:

When you attack towers or inhibitors, you should activate your ultimate Agony's Embrace everytime, in order to deal more damage in less time and to be able to hide again, before an opponent appears near you. Playing Evelynn on AP, you do not deal that much damage to turrets fortunately and therefor you have to compensate it.



Hiding in the shadows safely:

Like I already said, we have an enormous Benefit from the Zhonya's Hourglass and because I appreciate it so much, I would like to write this down again as one of the tricks :)

If you just destroyed a turret or carried out a gank and want to hide yourself again, first use your Shadow Walk and immediatly after that activate your Zhonya's Hourglass. Its active ability will put you in stasis, which makes us invulnerable for 2 seconds and we need exactly 1,5 seconds to hide in shadows completely. In this manner you can flee securely even from team fights :)



Safe teleport back to your base:

If you have little life and have to teleport back to base, it is often not safe enough to only go to your nearest own tower and bushes are often insecure (imagine Teemo's mushrooms). A Ziggs or Ezreal might catch you, even if your standing under your own tower. Therefore, first use your Shadow Walk and then press "B" to teleport, while you are shrouded in shadow.



Using your ultimate skillfully:

Your Agony's Embrace has the nice property, to restore a certain amount of life and reduce its own cooldown to 0, when you killed an enemy champion while it was active. So use your ultimiate not always at the beginning of a fight, but better if you can be sure that it will still be active when you defeat your opponent.



Stealing Baron:

If you notice that the opposing team is going to kill "Baron Nashor", you should creep with your Shadow Walk, get as close as possible to Baron, without being hit by its AOE, in order not to be revealed. When the Baron only has so little life that you could wipe it with Ravage, then use it and grab the buff and the 300 gold (or 1500 gold for the whole team) ;) If your team does not arrive there in time, you will probably not survive this operation, but this should be worth it ^^


At this point I want to qoute an user's comment, who succeeded on this and has an additional tip for us.

Thanks a lot for this suggestion!

References

Here I show you some reference screenshots of games I have won with this build.




As you can see, I chose current stats of mine and also some that are not that good, in order to draw you a realistic image of Evelynn.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Here you come in! :) Let this guide come to life and make yourselves a part of it, sending me your questions on the guide as either a pm or leave a comment. I will add them to this category and answer them, so that everyone can profit from that.

Closing

I will add a Summary of what I wanted to teach you about Evelynn later. Im still thinking of a good way of virtualisation :)

Moreover I am thinking of writing a jungling-section, because someone told me in a comment that AP Evelynn is even able to do this and this might be an advantage for early ganks. I have to try this out before and I am quite sure there needs to be a second build then.

For now I thank you for reading this guide. Please consider that English is not my native language and I had not the time to read over it again until now. So if you find something curious, just tell me, so that I can correckt it.

If you like this guide and it helped you out a little, please leave a vote and best case another vote for the german version of this guide => [GERMAN] AP Evelynn.

Yours sincerely,

501g Gehacktes

Changelog

13.04.2012 - Initial release of the english version of this guide

15.04.2012 - Changed the purchasing order -> Lich Bane is now bought after Zhonya's Hourglass, to be more efficient.

16.04.2012 - Added the translated versions of the sections "Our Biggest Enemies" and "Tips and Tricks". Furthermore I want to thank you all for this immediate rank 3 rating of this guide :) Thank you all. I hope this guide is still getting more popular. I will keep it updated ;)

17.04.2012 - We're getting closer to rank 2 :) Thanks a lot.

17.04.2012 - Pretty close ^^

18.04.2012 - Flash was added as an optional pick to the "Summoner Spells" section. Moreover a quote of a comment was added to the "Tips and Tricks" section, because it gives us a nice hint.
Thanks to foxy92 for that!