Zephyr 2.0 - Whisperer of the Storm

[WarspitePOWAAAAH]

As Zephyr Deluxe is coming in the near future, I decided to have a go at Zephyr rework, who is arguably one of the worst performing frames in the game right now. Needless to say she can barely kill a thing, and is underperforming in pretty much all aspects other than speed, mind that I am using "speed" instead of "mobility", because despite her speed, Zephyr is not as agile as someone like Wisp, leaving her pretty undesired and pathetic.

Zephyr 2.0 not only aims to bring her effectiveness up to meet standards, but also to make her speed and levitation theme more usable in normal games. In more enclosed space, Zephyr can use shorter bursts of speed to maneuver around more easily, while letting her retain her long distance dashes for open maps; Zephyr also gets to manipulate her airborne mobility more easily, being able to switch between normal freefall and hover mode similar to Hildryn; Finally, Zephyr gets major boosts in offensive power, which increases her overall effectiveness in missions. These changes are hopefully to encourage more Zephyr usage and make her more usable.

ABILITIES
NEW PASSIVE : AVIAN STREAMLINE

Spoiler

Slow falling and better aerial directions removed from passive. It will be reintroduced in her kit.

+30% ability efficiency while in the air.

 

1ST : TAIL WIND
Changes :

Spoiler

Tap cast costs 8 energy to greatly shorten dash distance and cast animation, hold cast performs the default long distance dash. The function to take off with charge is removed. Energy feathers emits from Zephyr as an indicator that Dive Bomb will be cast instead.

Addition :

Spoiler

Aiming downwards performs Dive Bomb, holding down the ability sees Zephyr charges up mid air, then warps herself towards the surface with immense speed, exploding upon impact to deal massively increased damage to enemies and suspends them midair. Dive Bomb receives additional damage according to the enemy level and amount of hit enemies.

 

NEW 2ND : WIND VORTEX(50 energy)

Spoiler

Launches a short-lived wind swirl traveling along the landscape, staggering nearby enemies and grouping them at its location. The swirl explodes upon deactivation by holding down the ability, or ability expiring, flinging caught enemies outwards while damaging all nearby enemies to inflict bleeds.

Casting Wind Vortex midair summons 2 additional projectiles to the sides with a fan spread, pulling airborne enemies towards it and creates a longer lasting, stationary wind swirl when it hits the ground. This move causes Zephyr to recoil in a backflip, resetting falling velocity and parkour(double jump/bullet jump). Holding down the ability detonates all existing wind swirls.

Synergy :

Spoiler

On top of working with Dive Bomb's damage multiplier on multiple target hits, enemies tethered by Wind Vortex also receives more damage from Dive Bomb.

Dashing through a wind swirl using Tail Wind grants temporarily increased movement speed and reload speed.

 

3RD : TURBULENCE

Changes :

Spoiler

Changed to be a toggled ability. Upon activation, Zephyr summons a wind shield around her to trap incoming projectiles, as well as giving her hover capabilities in similar fashion to Hildryn's Aegis Storm. Hovering counts as being airborne and activates aerial mods such as Aviator and her passive. Has an activation cost of 25 energy and drains 4 energy per second, her old slow falling passive is also activated when Turbulence is active.

Addition :

Spoiler

Incoming fire are trapped inside Turbulence, causing them to spin around Zephyr and damage enemies within close proximity. The more fire Zephyr absorb, the more damage Turbulence deals. Zephyr also takes 75% reduced damage from incoming fire and drains additional energy to sustain the bullet storm, released upon deactivation to deal a large amount of burst damage to nearby enemies. Energy drain increase has a cap.

Synergy :

Spoiler

Dive Bomb gains additional range and no damage falloff when Turbulence is active.

Wind Vortex swirls are pulled towards Zephyr when she is in close proximity and has Turbulence active, orbiting around Zephyr, bringing them into Turbulence's damaging range and attract additional enemies.

 

4TH : TORNADO

Changes :

Spoiler

Damage on impact greatly increased. Summons 7 tornadoes traveling outwards in a star-shaped pattern, orientating themselves to Zephyr's pointed direction. Tornadoes expands as they travel outwards and becomes stationary once they have reached a certain distance. Explodes upon expiration.

Addition  :

Spoiler

Casting midair condenses the 7 tornadoes inside a frontal cone, creating a large wall of tornadoes at the end of its tracks. Recasting soon after summoning tornadoes will stop tornadoes dead in their tracks. A maximum of 14 tornadoes can exist at the same time, summoning new ones will detonate the oldest ones.

Tornadoes leave behind a trail of Windswept terrain, slowing enemies on top of it

Synergy :

Spoiler

Hitting a Wind Vortex with Tornado expands its size and grab range, hitting a Tornado with Wind Vortex transfers all its enemies held captive to the tornado and increases its size.

Using Tail Wind to dash through a Tornado temporarily increases movement speed and fire rate/attack speed. Stacks with the Wind Vortex buff.

While Turbulence is active, tornadoes summoned on ground spirals outwards, covering a circular area and hitting enemies multiple times, the maximum distance traveled is unchanged and thus results in tornadoes being closer. When cast midair, tornadoes spirals out of the targeted designation.

 

Feel free to suggest ways to improve!