Should I get mag or zephyr?

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

So after you all helped a lot with telling me to get titania before lavos, I have now obtained both warframes. I now go onward onto my next couple of frames to try: Mag and Zephyr. Yeah I know both are incredibly easy to farm but it would be nice if you could say their strengths and weaknesses. You know, because Warframe slots exist, I kinda want to know which one to start building first. (I'm asking because their kits seem somewhat similar from what I have seen.) Also I might even consider getting their prime versions if you all can persuade me enough. Ty 

[Kaggelos]

As a (almost) Mag main, i have the feeling that my answer will be biased xD

Having said that, i can only speak for Mag, since Zephyr's aesthetics are not to my liking at all (although her Airburst is one of, if not, my most Subsumed ability in other Warframes).

Mag can be really, really interesting to mod and play with. She might take time to invest and make universaly viable, but the pay-off is immense.

Her 1 is a cheap and easy CC.
Her 2 is a damage multiplier to a single target, and those caught around it.
Her 3 is... well, kinda hard to describe. Depending on her augment, it can have various uses, it restores all your shields instantly, with minor damage and armor strip and some CC.
Her 4 is CC, some damage, and shield and overshield restoration (very usefull imo).

Personally, I mod her for lots of efficiency and range, while strength is normal (~145%) and duration is almost less than 100% for quick bubble explosions, and have replaced her 3 with Breach Surge. 

And the strongest argument in her favor is this; her Pneuma Skin.

I'm serious xD 

I hope i helped you somewhat ^^

 

[Pakaku]

I'm the opposite, so my biased opinion is that Zephyr is good if you prefer gun-play, CC, and focusing on buffing your own mobility. 

Passive gives your weapons a crit buff while mid-air, easy to buff weapons of any crit percentage no matter what you're doing, as long as you're not standing on the ground. This technically applies to all weapons, but it's a lot easier to shoot mid-air than to melee. Also any mods that apply while mid-air will be effective on her due to having an easier time staying in the air.

First ability acts as an air-dash if you tap, or you can prevent falling by holding it. If you use it to fly downwards into the ground, you'll send an AoE out from the point of impact. Doesn't work when crashing into walls, for whatever reason.

Second ability gives you a way to gather enemies in a spot (air-powered Nidus Larva) or knock them outwards.

Third ability gives you a wind bubble that deflects bullets and projectiles. Can't protect you from other stuff (melee, AoE clouds) but you can usually move away from those.

It also has an augment that will increase your own projectile speed and your move speed, and I prefer to subsume Helminth Empower over her 2 to power this one up for very quick movement mid-air and even faster projectiles.

And her fourth ability is CC + indirect gun buffs. Shooting your tornadoes will damage anything the tornados are holding, and the range is big enough that you can usually hit all three tornadoes if you cast them stationary.

As for her deluxe skin... bit of a hit or miss, I didn't like it at all. Fortunately Zephyr Prime is presentable enough, and I like her Immortal a lot

 

[Raarsi]

I'd say both are equal in terms of practicality.  While I'm not as familiar with Mag, she definitely has her moments of entertainment.  Armor strip, bullet magnet, group-wide overshielding, lots of offensive support that makes her really good for a considerable amount of content.

Zephyr on the other hand takes a bit of getting the hang of, but gets pretty powerful as long as you know what to do in whatever landscape you're in.  Ranged defense, loads of CC, and about as close as it gets to aerial combat in regular missions.

Personally, I'd go with Zephyr, but I also know that it's definitely a "love it or hate it" frame, so unfortunately it is a case of going with whatever you find yourself leaning toward.

[Slayer-.]

I really like them both but feel Zephyr/Prime might offer a little bit more maybe, some will disagree with my thoughts.

I use all of Zephyr/Primes abilities but awhile ago I was looking for another way for doing Defence and Mobile Defence I was getting bored with the norm, so I built a Zephyr/Prime config with more range for Turbulence at 181% Range 10.86m Radius, reason 181% is Narrow Minded at R8 is more than I need to cover everything including Teammates and Sentinel, now I've found with this build I can keep Defence/Mobile Defence targets covered and not have to think about it to much if I'm in a lazy mood.

It's also very funny playing Corpus missions and watching just how far the Turbulence ends by the Corpus Lazer guns deflect off.

 

Mag/Prime I really like when I'm in a certain mood and playstyle, all her kit is fun, I'll leave it to the Mag mains to explain why Mag is good.

Appearance wise.

Mag/Prime imo is the better looking frame compared to Zephyr/Prime.

/my 2c worth.

[(PSN)IdoThea]

2 hours ago, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

So after you all helped a lot with telling me to get titania before lavos, I have now obtained both warframes. I now go onward onto my next couple of frames to try: Mag and Zephyr. Yeah I know both are incredibly easy to farm but it would be nice if you could say their strengths and weaknesses. You know, because Warframe slots exist, I kinda want to know which one to start building first. (I'm asking because their kits seem somewhat similar from what I have seen.) Also I might even consider getting their prime versions if you all can persuade me enough. Ty 

You could start building them both and claim only one. Things don't disappear from foundry so you can keep fully build frame there waiting. 

Hard to say which one because it's pretty much matter of playstyle. Zephyr has low gravity passive and her abilities are air based summoning tornados, flying forward, air slash etc. 

Mag is well magnetic based I used her as starting frame and she is good but I totally forgot what she does because I don't have her anymore and Prime is so hard to get. (please unvault Mag Prime) 

[(XBOX)Bibo1GerUk]

Assuming you're a newer player just going up the starchart or getting warframes and not having loads of rarer mods or weapons I'd go for Mag.

Much more forgiving to play imo and Kaggelos posted numerous reasons.

You can always have Zephyr waiting in the oven if you can't afford her slot or build costs yet.

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

6 hours ago, (XBOX)Bibo1GerUk said:

Assuming you're a newer player just going up the starchart or getting warframes and not having loads of rarer mods or weapons I'd go for Mag.

Much more forgiving to play imo and Kaggelos posted numerous reasons.

You can always have Zephyr waiting in the oven if you can't afford her slot or build costs yet.

I'm at MR 12 (almost 13) btw, the reason why I'm asking is because now I'm going over all the frames I never tried using and now I'm trying Zephyr and mag, so I was asking about their playstyle differences so I would know which to grind first. (Yeah I know they are easy to farm, but it's nice to see what everyone thinks and all that.)

(If you need context I asked about 2 weeks ago on my previous two frames - lavos and Titania with the overwhelming vote being for titania and I have now played with both frames.)

Consider this the sequel.

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

7 hours ago, Slayer-. said:

I really like them both but feel Zephyr/Prime might offer a little bit more maybe, some will disagree with my thoughts.

I use all of Zephyr/Primes abilities but awhile ago I was looking for another way for doing Defence and Mobile Defence I was getting bored with the norm, so I built a Zephyr/Prime config with more range for Turbulence at 181% Range 10.86m Radius, reason 181% is Narrow Minded at R8 is more than I need to cover everything including Teammates and Sentinel, now I've found with this build I can keep Defence/Mobile Defence targets covered and not have to think about it to much if I'm in a lazy mood.

It's also very funny placing Corpus missions and watching just how far the Turbulence ends by the Corpus Lazer guns deflect off.

 

Mag/Prime I really like when I'm in a certain mood and playstyle, all her kit is fun, I'll leave it to the Mag mains to explain why Mag is good.

Appearance wise.

Mag/Prime imo is the better looking frame compared to Zephyr/Prime.

/my 2c worth.

Tbh I didn't know turbulence was as powerful as it sounded until I started asking about it recently, definitely the most interesting sounding thing to me about zephyr. Well, maybe second if we are considering the blender tornados exist.

[Slayer-.]

27 minutes ago, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

Tbh I didn't know turbulence was as powerful as it sounded until I started asking about it recently, definitely the most interesting sounding thing to me about zephyr. Well, maybe second if we are considering the blender tornados exist.

Yes Turbulence is very powerful, I use all the skills, it takes a bit of time getting over the lighter than air feeling while moving as Zephyr but it's great for what I mentioned, the one thing I have to watch for is a melee enemy hitting me, the Tornados are a great CC while you deal with the new Overguard enemies.

If I need to keep my Sentinel alive in a mission Zephyr does it easy, with the Turbulence shield covering a big area.

[Birdframe_Prime]

I'm going to throw my oar in for my name-sake.

Zephyr takes a little bit to rank up the first time, but since she has Dive Bomb as part of her first ability you should be able to make some decent levels and unlock the more fun abilities.

If you're new to Zephyr, and don't have all of the mods you'd like, just mod her for positive everything except Strength, you can sacrifice a little of that to get better Range, Duration and Efficiency, but not a lot.

A recommendation for controlling her Tailwind is to mod for enough Duration to get 35 Seconds of Turbulence and Tornado (which is ample in the current game settings, you won't need more). Tailwind will still be fast, cover a lot of distance, but won't cram you into all of the walls and ceilings all of the time. Use Hover sparingly when you don't have Arcane Energise.

Combining Zephyr's low gravity and Turbulence will survive nearly everything the game can throw at you, and everything that you won't survive will be either CC'd by Air Burst, or blitzed down with Tornado.

Always prefer the stationary version of Tornado, it has a decent area of effect and it combos with her Passive Crit Chance to boost weapon damage to pretty much insane levels, I have had wonderful long runs of Steel Path Survival with just a Catchmoon for general shooting of Tornado and a primary that can help with Acolytes. It's very zen.

And when you're a little more familiar with how she plays, get her Augments, which are a lot of fun to play with. The Funnel Clouds augment will spread damage and status like there's no tomorrow, the Target Fixation allows for the best meme Dive Bomb build in existence, and then if you swap out some of your Range for Strength you can take advantage of Air Burst Rounds for some further damage boosting with secondary weapons, or you can have some fun with Jet Stream.

I feel Jet Stream needs its own little section. With a reasonable Strength (I literally only use about 155% Strength) you run faster, your projectiles are almost hit-scan, and anything in the game that has fall-off damage suddenly doesn't appear to. Shotguns, Catchmoon, anything with an arc to it... Jet Stream loves.

And that's basically Zephyr. One of the best Weapons Platforms in the game because she's also an off-tank that just stays permanently un-touchable to ranged and melee damage, and she's also got great crowd control and even high mobility.

But be warned; the low gravity passive will mess with your current habits of when to bullet jump or when to double jump. She's definitely floaty. Having a lot of practice, the best strategies are to jump lower than you think, to always have a Melee equipped for ground slams to get down, and to remember that her 1st and 2nd ability have literally 50% cost when she's in the air too. Learn to love being off the ground ^^

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

2 minutes ago, Birdframe_Prime said:

I'm going to throw my oar in for my name-sake.

Zephyr takes a little bit to rank up the first time, but since she has Dive Bomb as part of her first ability you should be able to make some decent levels and unlock the more fun abilities.

If you're new to Zephyr, and don't have all of the mods you'd like, just mod her for positive everything except Strength, you can sacrifice a little of that to get better Range, Duration and Efficiency, but not a lot.

A recommendation for controlling her Tailwind is to mod for enough Duration to get 35 Seconds of Turbulence and Tornado (which is ample in the current game settings, you won't need more). Tailwind will still be fast, cover a lot of distance, but won't cram you into all of the walls and ceilings all of the time. Use Hover sparingly when you don't have Arcane Energise.

Combining Zephyr's low gravity and Turbulence will survive nearly everything the game can throw at you, and everything that you won't survive will be either CC'd by Air Burst, or blitzed down with Tornado.

Always prefer the stationary version of Tornado, it has a decent area of effect and it combos with her Passive Crit Chance to boost weapon damage to pretty much insane levels, I have had wonderful long runs of Steel Path Survival with just a Catchmoon for general shooting of Tornado and a primary that can help with Acolytes. It's very zen.

And when you're a little more familiar with how she plays, get her Augments, which are a lot of fun to play with. The Funnel Clouds augment will spread damage and status like there's no tomorrow, the Target Fixation allows for the best meme Dive Bomb build in existence, and then if you swap out some of your Range for Strength you can take advantage of Air Burst Rounds for some further damage boosting with secondary weapons, or you can have some fun with Jet Stream.

I feel Jet Stream needs its own little section. With a reasonable Strength (I literally only use about 155% Strength) you run faster, your projectiles are almost hit-scan, and anything in the game that has fall-off damage suddenly doesn't appear to. Shotguns, Catchmoon, anything with an arc to it... Jet Stream loves.

And that's basically Zephyr. One of the best Weapons Platform in the game because she's also an off-tank that just stays permanently un-touchable to ranged and melee damage, and she's also got great crowd control and even high mobility.

But be warned; the low gravity passive will mess with your current habits of when to bullet jump or when to double jump. She's definitely floaty. Having a lot of practice, the best strategies are to jump lower than you think, to always have a Melee equipped for ground slams to get down, and to remember that her 1st and 2nd ability have literally 50% cost when she's in the air too. Learn to love being off the ground ^^

Cool 

[Lutesque]

22 hours ago, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

Should I get mag or zephyr?

Get them Both....

22 hours ago, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

because Warframe slots exist

Then forget Mag & Zephyr for 60 Minutes and get Slots.....

 

 

[(PSN)robotwars7]

22 hours ago, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

Yeah I know both are incredibly easy to farm but it would be nice if you could say their strengths and weaknesses.

depends on your preferred playstyle: both have good kits.

Mag is more offense/CC oriented, able to control enemy groups with her 1 and 4, and Bullet Attractor is still one of the games strongest abilities if you mod it right or pair it with certain weapons. she does rely on her Polarize for survioval but it does OK now we have shield gating and I HIGHLY recommend her Counter Pulse augment, especially for Copus missions, because with just one ability, you will:

- steal your enemies shields/armor

- add it to your shield

- damage anyone who is behind an armored enemy (Polarize rips shards out of them and throws them at people)

- jam the guns of any ranged crewman/grineer units, just like with Mesa's Shooting Gallery.

- put any and all Proxies (MOAs, Ospreys etc.) around you to sleep for a plenty long enough to go up and finish them.

and this is a very low cost, spammable ability too. a full strength Polarize built Mag can clear rooms, it's kinda nuts.

Zephyr on the other hand is more about mobility, but her 3 makes here one of the best tanks in the game as long as you avoid Melee/AoE attacks. bullets and projectiles are stopped 100% of the time by Turbulence, build it for duration and you can enjoy nearly a full minute of invulnerability from 95% of ranged units. on larger tilesets and open worlds, it's great fun flying around and divebombing enemies, and you can also summon an aircloud and roleplay being a grineer Hellion for a bit, shooting from up high. when you have to defend stuff, her 4 is actually not that bad if placed right, it just gets overlooked because there are more effective frames for locking an area down, but Zephyr can absolutely pull her weight in Defense/MD/Interception etc.

personally I find Zephyr marginally more fun, and Mag marginally more effective at killing, ut both are pretty strong frames, and I don't think you'll be disappointed whichever one you get!

[Mag_Gaming]

Funny that I find this post as I just rebuilt (as in remoded) my zephyr yesterday after not using her for a while.

Because I remembered using her before and she got a rework in the meantime and needless to say she feels pretty alright and my biggest gripe with zephyr (the extra anti-gravity) can be fixed with an augment that I slapped right on as well as helminth.

 

You could get both.

 

If you´re looking for the easier out of the 2, zephyr definitely is easier to play and she offers more survivability with less input.

But I still love mag more personally, however tho I´m pleased to have rebuilt my zephyr into a usable state again and that the god damn anti-gravity can be removed.

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

I personally really like both, and consider them very generally underrated. Though both have really dedicated and knowledgable forum representatives that pop up here and there (and already) which is always nice to see. 

As far as which to prioritise? Worth considering is that Zephyr's jumping and in air feeling is distinct from most other Warframes. Zephyr's passive gives her a floating like quality, and its often a reason why people say they aren't a fan. So you can have people who acknowledge she is great but still won't play her because of that passive. You can turn this off with an augment and many people, myself included, get use to it, and may even consider it a positive to her playstyle. After all you can jump kick downwards to move faster, and have other abilities that will let you move faster... but this is where personal preference comes in. You might either like it or hate it. Could be worth watching a Youtube video that demonstrates the float feeling to see where you fall. 

More subjective considerations? I personally prefer Mag a little more? Except I also don't use Mag against Infested. Like rarely. Too harsh a match up, abilities wise, toxin can be too hard to deal with (not just the status but the damage, and even with rolling guard etc) so if you want a Warframe that you can casually just use against all factions, I would go Zephyr. Alternatively, whilst I do like many of Zephyr's skins and aesthetics, Mag in my opinion, has some of the most diverse and interesting skins. Another reason my Mag play time is higher. I feel like I have made my Mag look too cool, not to use frequently. So maybe look into the store at their different skins and see if ones options stand out more for you? After all fashion frame is endga...

Offensive wise, both are amazing. I feel as if with Mag, you want to be more specific and thoughtful. Like with say Magnetise, you want to target enemies in a choke, it requires locking on to an enemy, you want to ensure you suck in a lot of enemies, because using CC and killing enemies fast with your bubbles, helps you stay alive. Zephyr is similar... but you can be a little lazier and less cautious, since your Tornados don't need to target an enemy, they will move around, etc Both have really fun with different gun synergies, but thats a pretty lengthly discussion topic, you can learn about later or search around in forums. If you like guns though, both can bring out hidden strengths and potential out from a lot of weapons, and even some unusual elemental combinations. Like if you think viral/slash is boring, then Zephyr can do fun things with gas. Mag with weapons with punch through, certain projectiles, will also put on a laser show. 

Defence and survival? I'd give the advantage to uh Zephyr probably. Turbulence and augment can be really strong and more of a set and forget defensive ability. Mag, using powers can restore shields, get over shields, plus CC and kill fast enough to survive. I think Rolling Guard is great on her, but it also took me a while before I felt comfortable doing high level content. I actually went through a long period where I didn't use Mag, because I use to die on the star chart all the time with her, I thought she was super squishy. I just didn't really get her strengths then, I got more skilled, knowledgable, took her into Steel Path and realised she can survive fine, even excel in the right circumstance. Mag also taught me a lot about the game in general. I actually forget to cast Turbulence on Zephyr a lot, unless I want to go fast, just because I don't really need it. Mag helped me learn how to move, position myself, stay active and mobile, and that skill can transfer to other Warframes. (Of course you can learn such skills with any Warfames, just glass canons give you more incentive to learn fast). 

Good luck whichever you pick, hope you have fun with them! 

[George_PPS]

On 2022-06-26 at 6:31 PM, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

So after you all helped a lot with telling me to get titania before lavos, I have now obtained both warframes. I now go onward onto my next couple of frames to try: Mag and Zephyr. Yeah I know both are incredibly easy to farm but it would be nice if you could say their strengths and weaknesses. You know, because Warframe slots exist, I kinda want to know which one to start building first. (I'm asking because their kits seem somewhat similar from what I have seen.) Also I might even consider getting their prime versions if you all can persuade me enough. Ty 

Both are top frames, if you have tough time picking one, get both and build them up to the max with several Formas for different missions they each excel. For best builds, I'd watch some youtube videos. Both are meta frames in different mission types. 

 

[0_The_F00l]

Zephyr can be a lot more tanky thanks to her turbulence ability , and being able to stay out of range of melee enemies.

She is one of the few frames that can take advantage of many of the aero mods surprisingly well.

And being able to suck in enemies in a group is great.

Also an excellent weapon platform thanks to her passive crit bonus (easily achievable with her 1) that pair amazingly well with her tornadoes crit bonus that can turn single target weapons into AoE.

Her reduced gravity can be an annoyance depending on how you play though.

So an overall amazing frame that needs some getting used to.

Mag on the other hand is a little squishy , 

Is better with projectile weapons (with punchthrough) to multiply damage 

Can reduce enemy defenses while replenishing shields and creating damage spots (a little odd that both her 3 and 4 kinda do this)

A very active but smooth frame to play with.

 

So you will get more out of Zephyr in my opinion if you can handle the gravity of the situation.

[Surbusken]

Heheh, sounds like you could use some general tips instead.

 

You should batch as much as you can in the foundry - you can still store it there, until you need it. But since you need tons and tons of items for MR fodder, you really need to worry about getting your hands on as much as possible, fast as posssible... regardless of slots.

... but, the best possible use for non prime frames, and doubly so, for the ones you don't plan on keeping, do yourself a favor and unlock the helminth system.

That way you get the most out of your frames, with the alternative being, you farm non primes early, delete them and then have to re-farm them for helminth.

 

Outside that, you should spend most of your time leveling garbage gear for MR... on relic runs.

You get plat/ducats/prime parts, while increasing MR and getting crafting resources from those maps. Bring a nekros or khora, if you aren't leveling another frame. Optimize your time.

Another reason to focus on relics, is the ducat trader's mods and items. Worst case scenario, you end up converting trash relic primes to ducat weapons, you flip for plat. You can't - not get anything - on a relic run.

Farming for indivdiual items, you can waste 30-60 runs, and still get shafted, thanks for playing.

 

For instance, the flower scans for Titania, could have been done during relic runs, you scanning in the back while the team completes the map.

I play anything on earth, I am definitely in the back, scanning, looking for kubrow eggs, trying to get "bite" to drop, work up some flower keys.

 

Could even go as far as, to only play relic mission, period. Then skipping almost the entire grind, in the whole game, by buying frames from the market.

Then only go after the gear you like or actually want.

The thing you don't want, to get caught up in, is going to one individual spot for one individual item.

 

Like grinding out rare relics, trying to get a stack of 40 for one stupid bs receiver, for a cheap weapon, that's even crap in the ranking on top.

... if you could have made 100-200 plat in the same amount of time, and bought a whole bunch of items, including the entire set anyway.

You have to think in plat-time only, move away from tunnel vision.

Always remember, the game is setup to waste as much as your time as possible, as gameplay. Your job is defeating that objective, that's the game.

 

So I will also say, if you don't plan on using helminth at all, I'd consider ignoring all frames that have prime versions, maybe excluding something like wisp and khora, and then maybe even ignore crafting too, lol.

 

[Wolfdoggie]

Nezha Prime

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

4 hours ago, Wolfdoggie said:

Nezha Prime

And Nezha does what exactly? Like I know he tanks and does some cc and can even damage using his rings, but is that particularly meta?

[Leqesai]

I am a bit late to this but the only correct answer is zephyr over mag. Zephyr is God tier, mag is high tier. 

Zephyr has better cc, better survivability, better damage potential and better overall role strength on a team.

[DroopingPuppy]

For your own survival, and augment for secondary, Zephyr is better. 2 is not so bad damage dealing ability for it gathers the enemy hit and ready to finish it off. Also you may build her by purchase the parts from clan laboratory. Note that you don't have to be flying all the time unless you want to utilize 1 so you don't need to be concern about the flying too much.

Mag is not so good starter but she is a solid later game pick, thanks to her 3 she can obliterate grineers(also corpus if you can clear out the nulifiers so fast). She has somewhat questionable durability, but her 3 is very great - it does not only strips the armor, but also cause heavy damage as well. Only spamming 3 can kill bunch of grineers on very large area at ease. But as she rely on 3, she is not so good for non-grineer missions. Corpus has the nullifier, and infested usually lacks armor.

[0_The_F00l]

6 hours ago, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

And Nezha does what exactly? Like I know he tanks and does some cc and can even damage using his rings, but is that particularly meta?

Not meta , but very versatile.

The augments can really shift the way he works.

He is my default for any content when in doubt.

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

2 hours ago, 0_The_F00l said:

Not meta , but very versatile.

The augments can really shift the way he works.

He is my default for any content when in doubt.

Ah ok, but rn I'm trying to start using some of the "dps" Warframes, starting with the ones who have a mix of cc and dps (basically I normally use cc and tank frames, but now I'm trying dps frames).