Zephyr Huh?

[Canach]

So I got Zephyr for my subsum nation, but it turns out I never mastered this one, and she's actually a lot of fun. 

What is she good for? builds welcome.

Thanks! 

[Firepotato32]

I have an eidolon hunter build with jet stream and her 2 replaced with volt or Oberon, for the redeemer. Otherwise, she’s just fun to slam into walls with and cc 

[Birdframe_Prime]

Hi, how's it going? I have a fun name and this is my kind of question.

So, Zephyr is pretty fun. She moves differently to the other frames, she has a fairly unique kit, and there are some things she can do pretty well. Just be aware that everything she does is usually done by other frames that are overall better frames, there are drawbacks to her abilities that many people don't enjoy.

That said? Zephyr is actually capable of several things. I'm waiting on the 'Reduxe' that's been announced with her Deluxe skin to make any more concrete statements, but here's the run-down of what she can do.

Her base play style is good with Range, Duration and a little Efficiency. Give her enough range and Turbulence becomes an AoE defense screen that enemies can't shoot through and even weapons with a large blast-radius like Bombard Rockets get safely deflected away so they can't hurt you. My particular favourite is that if you're close to one of the Corpus Sapper Ospreys, then the orbs of death they drop actually float away rather than landing and priming on the ground.

On basic Grineer, Corpus or Corrupted missions, she'll just survive forever on Turbulence alone. But the CC on her Air Burst and Tornado are great as well. Tornado has a neat mechanic that captures enemies and will then distribute any damage you deal to the funnel itself (including status and crit) to all enemies it's touching, with double Crit Damage. Air Burst is getting buffed to make it a short-duration Vortex that will likely be far better for CC and you'll be able to pull off some nice combos with weapons. (A player above showed off that she's really good with Khora's Whipclaw subsumed onto her, and they're right, but this might actually mean she doesn't need it.)

Do note that currently Tailwind is nearly impossible to control, but the Reduxe says that the 'hover' portion of the ability is going to be useable anywhere in the air, rather than needing to charge it up on the ground, which could be exactly what she needs. It could turn the Hover into an air brake to stop her forward momentum and allow players way more aerial control and mobility. If you use it indoors, be sure to remember that Wall Latch is how you cancel the momentum on it, so just holding aim as you hit the wall will usually allow you to move on without skittering around too much.

Where Zephyr gets more fun is her Augments.

Building her for Strength with her Augments is actually really interesting, because the first one I'll recommend is Jet Stream. This makes you run faster and projectiles/fall-off damage go further. At higher Strength, this can turn most bows into snipers, most throwing daggers into pistols, and extends the range of weapons like Shotguns that have fall-off damage. The Sprint Speed increase means that you'll likely have to put on a parkour mod like Lightning Step in order to make sure that Bullet Jumps don't actually slow her down. It's a great tool for moving around maps that don't support Tailwind, and will even buff allies with the same effects so that they can almost keep up with you.

Funnel Clouds has a very unique interaction right now. If you group enough enemies together and cast Funnel Clouds, these will spawn on top of the group in a more dense cluster. Damaging these funnels with the right Status, like Electric, creates multiplied damage feedback loops for a form of nuke effect. A pure Electric damage weapon, like the Fulmin, will be best for this, as it produces both the damage type and the status chance necessary. And Electric Status is fairly unique in that it creates Tick damage over time that can actually be stronger than the damage that dealt it. The Status sparks in an AoE to other enemies in range, and this includes the Funnels, creating an instant looping Status that deals more and more damage so quickly that crowds of enemies appear to explode. (Side note, this is where Khora's Whipclaw is very useful as it can CC a larger group of enemies for longer than Zephyr's current 2, so it's a good choice for this combo.)

And with the Reduxe coming, I'm even more interested in Target Fixation. The buff to Dive Bomb, in combination with the buff to Target Fixation to make it more useful, could turn Zephyr into a more reliable localised nuke than even the previous combo. I used a friend to help me open doors and activate things while I used this augment to scale up in the Kuva Fortress to well over level 200 enemies before we got bored, and thanks to the scaling it has it was one-shotting at that stage too. With the Reduxe buffs... this could be really, really interesting to build.

So that's a few ideas for you. She's a bit of a meme frame when it comes down to it, but I love how she feels to play.

Let me know if you'd like any other tips on her, she's been my favourite for a good... six years now ^^

[TheDragonMonkey]

Zephyr is the only frame I use and I have all of the primes. Her  number 1 is great for getting to places no matter how high you got to go. Number 2 is great for shooting people behind walls or closed doors before you unlock them. Number 3 I use the most, it blocks all incoming damage. I have mine set at 30 seconds. Rinse and repeat. And her number 4 the tornado's is awesome if someone is down and you go to help hit your number 3 and then 4.

 

I do use other frames but 99% of the time it is Zephyr. Also I have her run speed at around 1.85 or something like that.So with that and the number 3 you are really moving.

[CR0ME]

If they only would make turbulence an ability that drains energy per second instead of being forced to recast it over and over again... 

Or like already said: Her 1 is to powerful for everything but open world and it lack control. Then you look at how easy Titania is flying...

This bird isn't popular, just give is some updates to make using her a smooth ride.

[TheArcSet]

On 2020-10-03 at 2:05 AM, Canach said:

So I got Zephyr for my subsum nation, but it turns out I never mastered this one, and she's actually a lot of fun. 

What is she good for? builds welcome.

Thanks! 

Go for range, duration and efficiency, then you'll be immune to most ranged damage; which is generally her playstyle.

[Canach]

Thanks for linking the thread - some good ideas there.

------------

Between Zephers now - fed one to Audrey III, the prime is still in the oven - appreciate all the posts!

[(PSN)DiligentDiamond]

Posted a few builds a while back. I main zephyr on my twitch stream same name. Got a Captain Zephyr build with the turbulence augment for group speed and projectile speed, and volts subsumed ability w/ shock trooper augment in zephyrs 2 replacing airburst. 

 

[kwlingo]

16 hours ago, McCIoud said:

The only real thing that she can do is something like this
 

 

This only works in Simulacrum because their are no other enemies around. Try this in mission where enemies spawn all over... your tornadoes may be in another room or going the opposite direction you are aiming. If DE changed this to just suck in enemies then Ensnare or other abilities wouldn't have to used.

[(XBOX)Diderius]

Zephyr makes fishing incredibly easy. Throw jet stream on, mod for some strength and you no longer need to lead fish to hit them directly. Mod her for range and duration and she protects mobile defense, hijacks, defense, and excavation targets with ease from any but melee enemies.

[(PSN)theMycon]

Zephyr is a weapons platform- she's great for delivering damage at from unexpected places, or for turning bullets into AoE effects.

Try Aero Vantage (the 0% gravity mod) and some number or aim-glide extenders, on a high speed build. Air melee is fantastic, and even better if you can stay at a height you like while zooming over the ground.

 

With Jet Stream and enough power, you can snipe with shotguns.

[(XBOX)TehChubbyDugan]

Modding for her 1 with the augment is infinite scaling damage

[BethTheBean]

4 hours ago, Canach said:

So I got Zephyr for my subsum nation, but it turns out I never mastered this one, and she's actually a lot of fun. 

What is she good for? builds welcome.

Thanks! 

Allow me, to steer you in the right direction.

https://overframe.gg/items/arsenal/54/zephyr/

[FreeWilliam]

Toddlernadoes (the Funnel Clouds mod) are crazy brutal now, especially if you've got some sort of "BEEG SUCC" ability (Larva, Ensnare, good Airburst use (I think it's the least of the options but you've got it for free), Exodia Hunt, Magus Anomaly, etc.) to get multiple mobs to converge on a single point (makes multiple tornadoes converge). Very good against beefy mobs too.

I play her as a melee frame (with the QT/HA/PSF holy trinity and a fast Exodia Hunt melee weapon with Healing Return) and she's definitely benefited a lot from Melee 3.0 and the Status update. She's fun with Firewalker on the helminth side (Skywriting!), but for stupid damage you can use toxin tornadoes and Expedite Suffering. Lots of options with the girl.

[Sevek7]

I can tell you how I liked to play Zephyr. Due to turbulence, you are only vulnerable to melee or AOE attacks. I therefore don't use any defensive mods at all. Instead I stack up all the random fun mods - things that buff sprint speed, parkour velocity, holster speed, etc... Then I can have fun dodging around like crazy and shooting some of my favourite guns. It's a lot of fun!

[YUNoJump]

Lots of knockdown-related CC, so much mobility in her 1 that it's actually too mobile for non-open missions as you slam into every wall, Turbulence is decent damage reduction, Airburst can be used for grouping enemies together if you're the sort of player who wants to take advantage of that.

She's certainly one of those frames which doesn't fill a niche other than "has a unique set of abilities" but if you enjoy throwing enemies all over the place and dashing around the map like a pinball then go for it.

[AlphaPHENIX]

The answers ^above have not heard of the concept of fun.

PS: A ''Speed'' build with Jet Stream for when you want a low gravity Volt.

[McCIoud]

The only real thing that she can do is something like this
 

 

[(NSW)realtray11]

she is fun. but her main use is aim glide rivens. you can use her 3 (i think thats the one) and just dodge bullets. or mess around in general. she still isn't actually insanely useful, but i can't say she isn't fun to play as. 

 

[--LORS--Manolin]

To be fair is a piece of garbage, she is REALLY bugged and DE hasn't made anything about it, the only utility I found on her is for unveiling specific rivens, apart from that she does not have any other functions.