Zephyr's Movement+Tailwind Mechanic: Nerf&Balance Changes

[HalfDarkShadow]

Hey guys!~

So this really only applies to you seasoned Zephyr players out there, and wanted to give the heads up on some recent [unintentional?] Zephyr changes (nothing to do with Turbulence).
I will break it down as well for everyone else reading this and try to explain what was changed and why it's important.

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Topics to read for reference: 

 

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To get everyone else up to speed, please refer to this lovely Topic that @[DE]Danielle awesomely pinned in the "Player Guides, Tips, Apps, & Useful Websites!" Topic archive you can find in the "Players Helping Players" sub-forum (thanks again for showing the birb some love Danielle!), or click the link above.

So as with this recent update today via Update Lunaro, there have been 2 major and direct changes to [one of] Zephyr's playstyles and general movement:

The first being the obvious Turbulence change found here:

Spoiler

20 hours ago, [DE]Megan said:

•    Fixed Zephyr’s Turbulence not deflecting bullets from hitscan weapons while in mid-air as per https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/4nsj44/bug_turbulence_hitscan_inconsistency_source_found/.

It's pretty self-explanatory. After some self-testing, the only things in the Simulacrum that actually damaged her out of 20, level-135 Heavy Gunners were their melee attacks or ground-pounds (if I'm on the ground of course). Great fix, I think many of us are definitely happy to finally see that year+ long glitch discovered and fixed!

 

The other one (which is the purpose of this Topic) is this very specific change:

20 hours ago, [DE]Megan said:

•    Fixed gaining an unintended amounts of sudden velocity when rolling in perfect timing with a double jump. A Developer note here: the parkour combination is still possible and remains an effective way to maneuver and travel forward if you have mastered the keystrokes. 

I highlighted the particular words I wanted to address.
Basically the long story short, prior to this update, Zephyr's Tailwind velocity could be controlled and measured based on how long you held the space-bar down. With this, you could control how far and quickly you could get from point A to point B, as little as a few meters (via hitting CTRL while in Tailwind) or as far as about 70-90 meters.

Please refer to the aforementioned link for more details, but for a TLDR; here's some footage I recorded back in December for how far and fast you could actually go (remember, this is just an extreme/at-max-capacity example to demonstrate the possibilities and such since I already mentioned that you do have control of the velocity and distance):

 

 

Since with the recent change, you can no longer do this. Which for the most part I was at first okay with it because of the developers note: 

20 hours ago, [DE]Megan said:

the parkour combination is still possible and remains an effective way to maneuver and travel forward if you have mastered the keystrokes. 

To which I assumed that now Zephyr wont be able to go 90+ meters, but likely/practically 40 to 60 meters tops. Unfortunately this does not apply to our little birb at all. As of now, when trying the Tailwind mechanic, Zephyr's model will slight move upwards, but you will only go as far as 28 meters (if on a flat surface, it's a bit less than that, unfortunately...), regardless of Duration and if you even pressed the Spacebar or not.
At least regarding on the modding end, it seems it always has been capped at 28 meters, but I'll need to double check that later.

But still, my personal opinion on this: with the ever expanding tilesets, and all the changes in-between since her debut, 28 meters is honestly just not enough to which I would argue is completely outdated. Since all you need is to slap-on an elemental jump mod like Ice Spring and can easily surpass that with much more consistency.

 

But anyways point being, for all your Zephyr's out there like myself, having this small and situational but very useful and tactical technique really did help capitalize on her mobility in battle as well as outside of it with just traversing. Unfortunately it's gone now, and I do hope that there could be something else they could tweak around so the developers note in the recent update today actually applies to Zephyr again.

Honestly, because of Parkour 2.0 and despite popular belief, this really did make her mobility even better and amazing which truthfully at the end of the day really made her...well her. I mean, they did tell us in quite a few Devstreams prior that the new parkour system will make her even better, and for the most part, it absolutely did!
Understandably that (at max) going 70-90 meters was a bit ridiculous, so I was always hoping it would get toned down to a more reasonable 40-60 meters so we could have even more control, I just personally wasn't expecting it to be gone all together.

And regarding the pinned Topic at the beginning, I do hope it still stays pinned in there since there is still plenty of relevant information on there about Zephyr anyway that I believe many players can still benefit from. All assuming the Spacebar technique doesn't come back eventually, if at all..

If you need screenshots or footage of what it is now, I can do it sometime later this week/weekend, but you can easily try it yourself since it's not a hard technique to replicate.

Anyway, thanks for your time guys and enjoy the rest of the Lunaro update!
Cheers!~

Edited June 16, 2016 by HalfDarkShadow

[(PSN)RenovaKunumaru]

I'm glad turbulence is finally fixed the the velocity nerf on parkour is a drag. I'm losing enthusiasm to play when I see uneccessary  nerfs like those.

[Enno69]

Could you please post a simulacrum video about the new movement, OP ? I can't log in right now and would very much like to compare Zephyr before and after. Thanks :)

[VampirePirate]

Might as well just give her the ability to hover and fly in any direction for a duration,

[Birdframe_Prime]

Many thanks OP.

Now excuse me while I go shake my head at yet another guy that wants to make Zephyr have a hover/flight ability... honestly, it just doesn't work.

[HalfDarkShadow]

9 hours ago, Enno69 said:

Could you please post a simulacrum video about the new movement, OP ? I can't log in right now and would very much like to compare Zephyr before and after. Thanks :)

Sure thing!~   Though to note, I just noticed there was a Hotfix today, one fix regarding some Lunaro/PvP movement tweaks seeping into the main game (PvE) by accident.

I don't know the specifics since I only skimmed through today's patch-notes, but if there's any correlation to Zephyr's Tailwind when I check again later this evening, I'll make sure to update my post and record some footage of what it is now (:

Edited June 16, 2016 by HalfDarkShadow

[(PSN)Gaelic-_-Flame]

A sad day... :(

This change haven't hit consoles yet, but I'll be really sad when I'll no longer be able to fly through large rooms with a single jump...

I guess it's time to rework Tail Wind now, to be more awesome on its own.