She's nowhere near being unplayable, she's still really strong. I think her ult needs to have a base damage added to it, so on those rare occassions when you do genuinely need to use it to seal a kill, you can. Other than that, she's fine right now.

The problem as described in the OP is that the ult feels conflicted. Let me try and clarify:

Building like an Assassin:

You ult their entire team (rarely ever hits all 5, but for arguements sake) at full HP to deal the maximum damage to each target. Even if you run in now with your shield up; you will melt.

Ult them all at full HP and then what? Wait for the rest of your front line to move in so they can soak some CC / damage before you join the foray? So what was the point of the shield portion of the ult, which you just wasted?

Saving the shield for when there are a few choice targets getting lower so you can use the shield to clean up? Never mind, now your ult deals laughable damage.

I also hate how they've made its sole purpose to initiate. I hate that rigidity and linear useage which they have only forced upon Eve's ult, nobody else's. Sure, it's an initiation tool; so are countless other ults. They can still be used for the purpose of catching a fleeing kill.

Just give her ult a base damage value and remove the shield. Voila.

Nerfs were undoubtedly called for but whether these were the right ones im still on the fence about. The ult was the issue for sure and it NEEDED toning down but i agree the damage feels random when you drop it on 3 targets of varying hp. Giving it some kind of base damage and reducing the percent hp would probably bring it in line. She would be able to use it when a target is half hp and follow up with the kill instead of it doing no damage after half health and having it physically unable to kill anyone ever.

Agree.

You do know that pre-rework Evelynn was exactly like that, right? Riot is just making her harder to actually be successful with.

A thing I found was, I couldn't harass my lane opponent. Well I can, but if I do, I lose out on a big source of damage. I use to get my opponent to maybe, half or less than 3/4 health, and then ult and go in. It's not really efficient to do so anymore I learned.

g
This is something that really bothers me. Eve is essentially told to kill her target from 100% to 0. If we start less, we lose out on damage; so much so, that we prolly can't kill them. It's completely counter intuitive. Hurting the enemy hurts your damage output..

No, that's not it at all.

She was WAY too strong. Getting blown up before I can even have a chance to fight back is ridiculous.

Yes she's an "assassin". I at least have a chance to fight Talon/Kassadin/whatever because I can see them.

Stealth is SO tricky to balance in this game seeing as there are now two counters (excluding character abilities). One of which was nerfed to a five minute duration even.

If you can see Talon you're probably dead.

Make of that what you will.

The difference is that having an option is good. Cait's ult is about executing a fleeing target, but caits have the choice to use it when they know they wont get a kill in order to force the enemy out of lane. Choices.

Her kit is now built for her to be a tanky initiator of fights. She does a ton of damage in the opening, absorbs damage with her shield along with initial cc, she hits W and sprints out before she dies, and then cleans up when the rest of her team are nuking the opposing team. You build Warmog's. Why do you insist on her being squishy? Her role now is initiator and she's good at it. Why are you trying to keep her as a squishy high damage executor? If you like squishy high damage executors, pick a different champion: there are plenty who do the job.

She can still gank in lane just fine. Her W + Q spam + E do the job. So she can assassinate low health targets. She still has stealth so she can sneak past wards that aren't pink. You just want the ability to 100-0 someone almost instantly like she could before and Riot doesn't want you to be a unstoppable killing machine. Because it's fun for you and not fun for everyone else. Nor balanced.