Zephyr Build And Loadout Help

[Deidaku]

Just got my Zephyr yesterday.

 

I need some help for modding her and what weapons would be fun to use with her (+ I already have the Penta)/

 

Thanks you in advance :)

[Roxorium]

First of all the most important is duration, it affects positively every ability she have, with the only exception is Dive Bomb.

You will fly further, be nigh-invincible for longer, and your Tornado will wreck havoc for longer.

Then slap on the shield and shield recharge speed mods, also energy mods like Flow etc. will be very useful too.

 

And then just add what you like and prefer.

 

The best main weapon you can find for Zephyr is Ogris, with no doubts. I have no clue which sidearm and melee you should take.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Roxorium

[MushrooMars]

I like to build her with maxed Power Efficiency, then Continuity and Constitution to offset the Power Duration decrease, but that's what I do for *all* of my favorite frames. Zephyr really is one of the most flexible frames, there are 3 ways you can build her competitively as far as I can see:

 

Power Strength - For maximum Tornado annihilation. People will hate you for this one because it will fling all the loot into bottomless pits, but using it on Grineer Galleon isn't so bad due to relative deficiency of bottomless pits and overabundance of ceilings. Maxed Power Strength will bump 'Nados up to something like 300 DPS per Tornado, along with (presumably) Viral proc to deal that 50% health reduction, totals out to around 1200 DPS * 20s, Power Duration mods not included. Problem is, this won't really do much for your other abilities - Tail Wind and Dive-Bomb have some nice damage combos when you're using Heavy Impact and Aviator, but they'll just cost way too much with a Power Strength build.

 

Power Duration - For maximum Zorencopter-emulation. With maxed power duration, I'm pretty sure tailwind takes you something like 0.25 Kilometers with a single cast, which is a ridiculous distance for most Warframe maps. It's useful on Earth and Phobos where you can actually glitch your way out of the map due to your sheer speed. I'm pretty sure you can actually invalidate collision detection and warp through walls with this build, but I wouldn't try it. Problem is you have to be at point-blank for your 'Nados to be cast properly and dealing damage with Tail Wind/Dive-Bomb is a pain, but nobody uses those two for damage anyways and Zephyr is stupid tanky with Turbulence, so closing the distance isn't really hard.

 

Power Efficiency - For maximum fun, fancy-free gameplay. All 4 of Zephyr's abilities can be liberally cast with no real worries of the repercussions, though her low (comparatively) base Energy Max requires a Flow mod to be installed. You also *need* Power Duration mods to offset this, and you can use both Corrupted Power Duration and Power Efficiency mods in order to sacrifice range, which Zephyr doesn't really *need*. Tail Wind carries you a somewhat painfully short distance, but Turbulence and Tornado last sufficiently long to act as viable abilities. This is arguably the weakest build for end-game, but it's the most fun. 

 

A note for all of these - Tornado's AoE isn't affected by Power Range, so aside from Tailwind and Divebomb's damage and (possibly?) Turbulence's Aura, Zephyr isn't heavily affected by negative Power Range from Corrupted Mods. She is most heavily affected by Power Duration and Efficiency mods.

[(PSN)korm-2_0]

I would also like to know which weapons would go best with Zephyr ^^ .

[(PSN)Soju_Fett]

I agree with the first reply. Duration is by far the best build I've found for her. The longer Turbulence lasts, the longer you survive. The longer Tornado lasts, the more damage it does (and the longer it keeps the bad guys off your back). I never use Dive Bomb anyway. While I do keep Streamline and Flow, the longer your powers last, the less you have to cast them ... So mods like Fleeting Expertise are not necessary. The same could be said of Power mods (I don't have any equipped). As I said, I don't use Dive Bomb; it just doesn't seem worth it. And since her damage power, Tornado, is also effected by duration, you really don't need a damage output buff to it. If you build for the longest duration you can, you won't be able to squeeze power mods in anyway. But the point is that you won't need to.

 

Weapons are purly personal preference, as far as I'm concerned. I'm good with some, and not so good with others. But any weapon in the game can be modded to be effective.

Edited March 22, 2014 by (PS4)Soju_Fett

[(PSN)friedricetheman]

Will you blow yourself up with an Ogris or does your turbulence deflects the blasts from Ogris?

[(PSN)Husky_Pride]

Power Efficiency - For maximum fun, fancy-free gameplay. All 4 of Zephyr's abilities can be liberally cast with no real worries of the repercussions, though her low (comparatively) base Energy Max requires a Flow mod to be installed. You also *need* Power Duration mods to offset this, and you can use both Corrupted Power Duration and Power Efficiency mods in order to sacrifice range, which Zephyr doesn't really *need*. Tail Wind carries you a somewhat painfully short distance, but Turbulence and Tornado last sufficiently long to act as viable abilities. This is arguably the weakest build for end-game, but it's the most fun. 

I don't get it why this is the weakest build for end game. You can have both Turbulence and Tornado most of the time, with long enough duration and high efficiency, so why this makes Zephyr weak?

[Darzk]

You need at least stretch when using max narrow minded, or turbulence will start letting a lot more stuff hit you.

 

Endgame I like both stretch and overextended to deflect rockets far enough that the splash wont hit you, and gives you enough warning when one wont be deflected.

[escape123]

I heard u need power range to improve turbulence. of course duration is still king

[Deidaku]

Yeah I guess i'm gonna stick with duration builds. thanks guys ;)

[(PSN)Soju_Fett]

I have stretch on my duration build too. Narrow minded is ranked up to where it decreases range -42%. Stretch maxed is 45%, so you don't lose anything. I'd throw on an overextended but, since I'm already not buffing power strength at all, I can't justify it.

[Deidaku]

I have stretch on my duration build too. Narrow minded is ranked up to where it decreases range -42%. Stretch maxed is 45%, so you don't lose anything. I'd throw on an overextended but, since I'm already not buffing power strength at all, I can't justify it.

but what does range affect in her powers?

[VKhaun]

Just want to chime in and note that most of the advice in this thread is for the low to mid game. At higher levels Tornado is unreliable CC outside of very tight quarters and won't get all the enemies and damage will wane.

 

At this point Turbulence will take center stage. Turbulence is heavily dependent upon range mods and does not care about power strength. A full duration build is also MASSIVE overkill for flight distances on Tail Wind. Although hilarious and absolutely worth trying, it is not widely useful. Even the largest tiles are too small to actually use all of that distance. 

 

I'm not at home, but my Zephyr is something like...

Vigor / Quick Rest / ??? / Tail Wind / Turbulence

Streamline / Constitution / Continuity / Stretch / Over Extended

 

 

The wiki will seem to argue with me if you don't read it carefully. Please try a full range build with turbulence once before you post arguing with me by quoting that page. Using my build on an outdoor Corpus Defense the other night made them all shoot like this ... LOL....

 

Edited March 23, 2014 by VKhaun

[Deidaku]

Just want to chime in and note that most of the advice in this thread is for the low to mid game. At higher levels Tornado is unreliable CC outside of very tight quarters and won't get all the enemies and damage will wane.

 

At this point Turbulence will take center stage. Turbulence is heavily dependent upon range mods and does not care about power strength. A full duration build is also MASSIVE overkill for flight distances on Tail Wind. Although hilarious and absolutely worth trying, it is not widely useful. Even the largest tiles are too small to actually use all of that distance. 

 

I'm not at home, but my Zephyr is something like...

Vigor / Quick Rest / ??? / Tail Wind / Turbulence

Streamline / Constitution / Continuity / Stretch / Over Extended

 

 

The wiki will seem to argue with me if you don't read it carefully. Please try a full range build with turbulence once before you post arguing with me by quoting that page. Using my build on an outdoor Corpus Defense the other night made them all shoot like this ... LOL....

 

Thanks for the advice :)

[Darzk]

A full duration build is also MASSIVE overkill for flight distances on Tail Wind. Although hilarious and absolutely worth trying, it is not widely useful. Even the largest tiles are too small to actually use all of that distance. 

+157% Duration works pretty well with Rank 0 Tail Wind. With +107 using FE I like Rank 1 :D

Edited March 23, 2014 by Darzk

[(PSN)witch3rDC52]

I agree with the first reply. Duration is by far the best build I've found for her. The longer Turbulence lasts, the longer you survive. The longer Tornado lasts, the more damage it does (and the longer it keeps the bad guys off your back). I never use Dive Bomb anyway. While I do keep Streamline and Flow, the longer your powers last, the less you have to cast them ... So mods like Fleeting Expertise are not necessary. The same could be said of Power mods (I don't have any equipped). As I said, I don't use Dive Bomb; it just doesn't seem worth it. And since her damage power, Tornado, is also effected by duration, you really don't need a damage output buff to it. If you build for the longest duration you can, you won't be able to squeeze power mods in anyway. But the point is that you won't need to.

 

Weapons are purly personal preference, as far as I'm concerned. I'm good with some, and not so good with others. But any weapon in the game can be modded to be effective.

Still working on my Zephyr build as I just got her today but something to note about power efficiency.  I have put together on paper a duration build and balanced build of duration and efficiency.   Both builds use Flow, Narrow Minded, Continuity and Consititution.  

 

Without Fleeting Expertise and just Streamline at 30% efficiency, Tornado or Turbulence should last 44 secs per cast.  If you just use Tornado at 70 energy cast, you could cast 6 times for total of 264 secs before running out of energy.

 

With Fleeting Expertise at 60% and Streamline at 15% for 75% efficiency, Tornado or Turbulence should last 32 secs per cast.  If you use Tornado at 25 energy per cast, you could cast 18 times for a total of 576 secs before running out of energy.  I only have one Fleeting Expertise mod at the moment.  If I get a second one, Fleeting Expertise would ranked to 45% and Streamline at 30% for 75 efficiency, the duration would be longer.

 

One thing I have noticed, particularly when soloing, energy orbs aren't always so plentiful so depending if you run with energy syphoon or not, you'll go further with a build focus on both Power Efficiency and Duration.   I could also skip Energy Syphoon and throw in Corrosive Projection in its place.  Plus I can use more combination of abilities together without energy running out fairly quickly. 

[(PSN)Soju_Fett]

I started running Rage instead of Streamline, and Vitality in place of Redirection. I've been soloing Ceres and Pluto (no one's been joining my games), and it seems to be working well. I have Rejuvenation in the Aura slot. I've been finding energy orbs hard to come by ... Hence my experiment with this build. It's been working great. Yeah, I get pummeled initially but, as soon as I get enough energy, I cast Turbulence and my health regenerates back to full in no time. I haven't even been close to dying, and my energy gets filled sans orbs. I suppose it's a dangerous game, but it seems to be working. I personally like Tornado, and have found it useful. But after what Middle Master posted, I may drop Narrow Minded and put Streamline back on (keeping Continuity and Constitution for the Duration - albeit half of what I have now). That'll let Stretch do more than simply cancel the negative of Narrow Minded. Regardless ... I love this frame. I'm praying they don't mess with it.