Zephyr - And How She Is Not What De Claims Her To Be

[FrozenVoid]

To get this started let me queue what DE made up for her description:

'Light-footed, and graceful, the beautiful and deadly Zephyr is in her element while airborne. With the power to bend air currents, she is an agile skyterror who delivers swift judgement from above.'

 

Now look at her skill build... See the problem?

 

She is supposed to be an airborne Warframe that delivers damage while being soaring through the sky.

What her actual skill build allows you...well you can quickly glide from one point to another. Thats really about it. Tail Wind is the only ability that fits her theme.

On the other hand Dive Bomb is just contra-productive to her skill build. Taking the air advantage away from her by letting her faceplant into the ground maybe enemies.

Don't get me wrong there Dive Bomb is not a bad idea but honestly as Standalone-Ability rubbish.

 

My idea here is to replace Dive Bomb with a totally different Ability which allows her to stay airborne for its duration.

It basically should let you Hoover in air when you activate it so you can really "deliver swift judgement from above".

You could chain Tail Wind and Hoover in order to fully dominate the Battlefield from above allowing you to swiftly reposition yourself via Tail Wind and Hoover over the next group of enemies without having to touch the ground once as long as you got enough energy of course.

 

Additionally I wouldnt totally scrap Dive Bomb. I would just merge it either with Tail Wind or with Hoover.

For examble:

Tail Wind - If you aim downwards at a certain angle it will activate Dive Bomb and Zephyr would Dive at where you was aiming.

Hoover - Upon reactivation Zephyr would dive straight done or maybe like with Tail Wind at the point you was aiming

 

It really would improve her theme as an airborne fighter and would open way more possibilities in open areas.

And her skill build would truly match her description.

 

If you guys got any suggestion/additions/critics just write it down.

And hopefully the Dev team will stumple in here and give it a serious thought. I really love this Warframe but this just feels wrong in my opinion.

Edited April 28, 2014 by FrozenVoid

[Syzodia]

I'd say tailwind should just simply perform a heavy impact when colliding with the environment, so you can "dive bomb" into walls (like oxium ospreys) or the ground like the original dive bomb - voila! An ultra versatile #1.

 

Other than that, I approve!

 

A duration based free flight? HELL YEAH.

If it is added though, either this or turbulence should cost 50 energy.

[yarash2110]

btw you can use tornado in the way vortex used to be, if you jump it gives you a massive lift, and vortex got it back too

[Syzodia]

btw you can use tornado in the way vortex used to be, if you jump it gives you a massive lift, and vortex got it back too

Really?

 

I only get the tornado lift if I'm sliding into them....

[Cosmeo]

When I initially saw "Light-footed, and graceful, the beautiful and deadly Zephyr is in her element while airborne. With the power to bend air currents, she is an agile skyterror who delivers swift judgement from above.", I expected Zephyr to have some kind of carpet bombing skill.

As of now you can't really do anything "while airborne" except dropping down slowly or quickly.

 

Edited April 28, 2014 by Cosmeo

[Kaokasalis]

I like the sound of this. Hell it might even make aviator usefull.

[Stormandreas]

Zephyr is supposed to be a WIND caster, NOT an AIRBORNE fighter. Her abilities work together brilliantly right now, and essentially you're wanting her to have 5 powers (by combining divebomb and tailwind), making her pretty much the best warframe in the game (asides from rhino).

I think Zephyr is fine as she is, and flying would break the game completely, as it would remove the need for wallrunning COMPLETELY, skyboxes would break, glitches everywhere. No thanks.

[dadaddadada]

Does the relation: "hoover" = "hover" apply in OP's post?

Anyway, I think OP is full of truth.

 

 

I expected Zephyr to have some kind of carpet bombing skill.

 

 This. So much. Thought the same thing.

[FrozenVoid]

Zephyr is supposed to be a WIND caster, NOT an AIRBORNE fighter. Her abilities work together brilliantly right now, and essentially you're wanting her to have 5 powers (by combining divebomb and tailwind), making her pretty much the best warframe in the game (asides from rhino).

I think Zephyr is fine as she is, and flying would break the game completely, as it would remove the need for wallrunning COMPLETELY, skyboxes would break, glitches everywhere. No thanks.

 

You can already chain Tail Winds to fly into the sky... So whats your exact point in that?

[Armadaius]

Tbh to really solve her airborne prob my suggestion would be to remove cooldown/limit on tailwind to allow more mobility in the air and to allow turbulence to allow her hover a bit longer or descend even slower. Other than that her skills ideas are ok as is, removing dive bomb would hurt her more than help as you'd be a sitting duck whenever you're landing in a war zone.

As for her being a skyterror its kinda truthful just require practice but its possible to rain hell while in tailwind just hard as hell but kinda fun at times.

I use to do it with Ignis and Soma when I was bored its a hit 'n' miss also can be done with Valkyr's Ripline but still needs practice practice

[FrozenVoid]

Well as the game right now is its not even remotely possible. Because of the bug that lets gravity affect her normally after you used Tail Wind a second time without touching the ground. And Dive Bomb isnt removed. Just merged with another Ability as you amy have read in the main post.

Edited April 28, 2014 by FrozenVoid

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

In the original fan post Dive Bomb was suposed to lift her up for a few seconds meaning she could fly and then actívate divebomb again to drop down kicking the enemy below, the original Zephyr was a flying frame and i dont really get why DE dont let her fly since Grineer and COrpus are more tan capable of shooting upwards. And dont get me started on the Infested we all know they need a facelift, as well as COrpus.

[GSDAkatsuki]

I was so hyped about aviator and what it meant for zephyr but after release i was mad dissapointed. Assuming from the mod picture and it's description, i thought zephyr would have a hover ability to fight enemies from the sky like princess peach. Hope DE still decides to add it by removing dive bomb and then let narrowminded boost the duration of the hover, and tapping skill early cancels hover mode. It would give an interesting change in style to her combat, giving her larger vision of an area and enemies behind covering granting better capabilities to target them while at the same time its a cost of making her more vulnerable as now all enemies have an easier time hitting you since you're out in the open and not behind cover.

[TitanEX]

I approve the addition of a hover like ability for zephyr.

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

I mean come on if Grineer of all people can fly why nthe F*** the "WIND WARFRAME" Cant? like really?

[SgtShaeffer]

Zephyr is supposed to be a WIND caster, NOT an AIRBORNE fighter. Her abilities work together brilliantly right now, and essentially you're wanting her to have 5 powers (by combining divebomb and tailwind), making her pretty much the best warframe in the game (asides from rhino).

I think Zephyr is fine as she is, and flying would break the game completely, as it would remove the need for wallrunning COMPLETELY, skyboxes would break, glitches everywhere. No thanks.

Zephyr is my current main---And i can say that broken skyboxes and glitches are everywhere. My entire screenshot folder is full of odd crap i've seen after using Tailwind...

More on topic: While Zephyr can't perpetually stay airborne, with 75% efficiency I can stay "pseudo-airborne" for a good 15 minutes straight in survivals and defenses by sliding into a tailwind directly after hitting the ground, staying in mid air 95% of the time, only dropping long enough to slide into an energy orb here or there before instantly taking off again.

Zephyr is exactly what they said she was---Mobile and deadly.

Also, Dive bomb isn't meant to be a damage dealer---it's a momentum breaker and mild CC. Try tailwinding over to a fallen buddy in T3S and being mid air for 5 seconds just floating aimlessly down while he bleeds out----Oh, slam attacks, you say? Well, news for ya. those are also affected by Zephyr's decreased gravity... Yeah, it might shave off a full second but if you are half way to the ceiling and your buddy is on the ground surrounded by a group of enemies, then you floating ever so slightly down over 5 seconds into the waiting hungry arms of a squad of heavy gunners is not going to help---At that point you divebomb, allowing you to hit the ground significantly faster than a slam attack ever would, all while knocking down the majority of enemies nearby.

-Tailwind can keep you airborne as long as you need to be, provided you've learned it's nuances---And before you say "But i can't aim my soma!" Well obviously you should be using something that doesn't require much aim, like a penta or ogris... Oh, hey! There's your carpet bombing =P

-Dive Bomb has to be one of the most misunderstood abilities I've seen in warframe, as most people seem to think it's for damage---but it's almost purely utility.

-Turbulence works great for keeping fire off of her while she does her thing.

-Trollnados are easily one of the best ultimates in Defense and Survival, behind Vortex and Chaos, as they can quickly scatter and disable an entire wave allowing you to pick off the weaklings or help a teammate----hell, it can even be casted in midair!

All in all, Zephyr is one of the best designed frames out there in terms of abilities---Every ability has it's purpose and is effective in that purpose, with each one being versatile enough to help out in many situations. Not Psychic Bolt among them.

 

[Dimachiirus]

I like the hovering idea.  Perhaps add it to Turbulence: if used in the air it keeps you suspended over the duration.

[Kernalgohd]

I thought zephyr looked really cool, and while the concept is cool, there is also major flaws. Immediately I thought "Her kit is useless in like 60% of the game where you're in tight hallways or low ceilings. Tailwind is fun to dash around, but for being "graceful" you're about as graceful as a bull with a jet strapped to its behind. a free flight would be much more so, and also let you control divebomb better (though its damage is so weak you're better off using a gun). With warframe, Ive always felt like guns and weapons are your form of sustained damage, and warframe skills are to help you out in a pinch, as a temporary "kick &#!" button. Zephyrs skills really just make a mess of things; either flying off in some crazy direction with tailwind, slamming right down into the middle of a tonne of enemies, barely damaging any of them with divebomb, spending nearly all your energy to push bullets to the side for a little bit (which you do still have a chance to be shot, AND is entirely useless against infected) with turbulence, or throw all your enemies around to unknown places and do little to no damage with tornado, and then wonder from which direction the enemies are going to come from after being flung across the room. If you like the CC of her tornado, play vauban, his little sucky ball thing does a much better job, and doesnt throw items and enemies all over the room. If you like the dash, play excalibur or valkyr, both of their dashes do more damage anyways, if you like the turbulence, play rhino or valkyr if you like feeling untouchable, if you like divebomb... well then you're just silly (jk, its just a unique skill with little practical use in my opinion).

 

If you are one of the few who manage to do well with zephyr, then good on you, maybe you can pick out a few things that could be better, or make the character feel more avaliable in a mass sort of way, I mean honestly compared to characters like oberon, vauban, and nekros, in places like defense missions, where they have usually the largest open areas for zephyr to "do her thing" you only end up with sub par usefulness and damage. Why play zephyr when someone like ash is way more durable and deadly? What would you better zephyr players say she needs to bring her up to a more on par level?

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

SgtShaeffer sure you are trolling right?

 

If your buddy is bleeding out in the middle of a large group of heavy units then its probably his fault for getting to close to them. And it should be the Tank's Job to give enough CC or distraction for you to drop down and help them. Or your weapons strong enough to dispatch them and help your buddy. Or you know just get a Jat Kitten and send them flying sky high.