Zephyr Rework

[(XBOX)Ivan of Jupiter]

This was a joint rework between me and a friend of mine. We were discussing what could be done to make Zephyr better without tearing down her entire kit. We also wanted to make something that would be a blast to play in something like the Plains.

/*===== Zephyr Rework 2017 =====*\

By: Vinhiem and Ivan of Jupiter

 

*Passive:

    While in the air, Zephyr moves more quickly and has a chance to negate status effects. This does not cleanse affects gained while on the ground.

 

*Ability 1: Tail Wind

    * Merge Tail Wind and Divebomb.

    * Add an ability combo counter (ripline, rhino charge, etc.). Each successive cast has a reduced energy cost based on the counter.

    * Adjust damage and range of divebomb (scales with altitude).

    * Consider new take off effects (possibly via augment).

     When looking down while in the air, activation triggers divebomb. Higher altitudes increase the damage and range of the divebomb. Looking any other direction while in the air will move you in that direction as it currently does, but it now works at steeper angles. Activation on the ground will work as it currently does.

 

*Ablility 2: Updraft

    * Creates a swirling updraft of air centered around Zephyr.

    * This is a duration based abiltiy.

    * There is a cap of four instances of Updraft at any time. Additional castings will replace the earliest cast (snowglobe, etc.).

    * Allies who enter this zone will fall at a greatly reduced rate, regaining their bullet jump upon entry.

    * Aiming down sights or blocking while in the zone (bullet gliding) will hold you in place, giving you time to target enemies.

    * Activating this ability durring Tail Wind stops you mid-dash/dive and hold you in place, levitating you.

    * You are immune to the effects of Updraft while sliding, rolling, jumping, or casting Tail Wind. This allows you to easily move through and exit the zone if you wish to do so.

     Coloring of the vortex is clear/white with only minor, muted accents of the energy color. This is to preserve clarity of sight.

 

*Ability 3: Turbulence

    * Mostly Unchanged

    * Zephyr is knockdown immune while this ability is active

 

*Ability 4: Tornado

    * Mostly unchanged

    * Reactivation of this ability causes each tornado to violently burst, releasing a short range damaging wave (Microburst).

        * The damage type of the wave is split between slash and whichever element the tornado was aligned with.

        * The range of the wave changes based of the size of the tornado (Tornado augment reduces the range of the bursts).

        * Causing these bursts costs half of the energy cost of the initial cast of Tornado and disperses the tornadoes.

     Tornadoes serve primarily as a source of crowd control while the bursts contribute damage potential.

 

**Ability Casting:

    * All of Zephyr's abilities can be cast while in the air.

    * Tail Wind - As it currently is, full body animation.

    * Updraft - Instant cast, no player animation lock.

    * Turbulence - Keep current casting time, one handed animation.

    * Tornado - Quicker casting time, still a full body animation.

        * Bursts - Instant cast, no player animation lock (Mend/Maim, etc.).

     The goal of these casting methods is to keep her mobile and allow her access to her entire kit while in the air.

[BiancaRoughfin]

18 minutes ago, (Xbox One)Ivan of Jupiter said:

*Passive:

    While in the air, Zephyr moves more quickly and has a chance to negate status effects. This does not cleanse affects gained while on the ground.

Her Current passive is one of aspects that differ her the most form other Warframes. She jumps higher, falls slower and has much more air control-ability. I think only change that would be needed is to make her Air Glide unlimited.

21 minutes ago, (Xbox One)Ivan of Jupiter said:

*Ablility 2: Updraft

    * Creates a swirling updraft of air centered around Zephyr.

    * This is a duration based abiltiy.

    * There is a cap of four instances of Updraft at any time. Additional castings will replace the earliest cast (snowglobe, etc.).

    * Allies who enter this zone will fall at a greatly reduced rate, regaining their bullet jump upon entry.

    * Aiming down sights or blocking while in the zone (bullet gliding) will hold you in place, giving you time to target enemies.

    * Activating this ability durring Tail Wind stops you mid-dash/dive and hold you in place, levitating you.

    * You are immune to the effects of Updraft while sliding, rolling, jumping, or casting Tail Wind. This allows you to easily move through and exit the zone if you wish to do so.

     Coloring of the vortex is clear/white with only minor, muted accents of the energy color. This is to preserve clarity of sight.

As i mentioned in another post, i think her (2) Skill should be some kind of Toggle Flight or Crowd Control skill. I see no advantage giving allies slow fall/higher jumps at the cost of energy and within limited area.

20 minutes ago, (Xbox One)Ivan of Jupiter said:

*Ability 3: Turbulence

    * Mostly Unchanged

    * Zephyr is knockdown immune while this ability is active

Knockdown immunity is both overkill for a skill that practically grants immunity to projectile damage and also makes non-sense for a warframe that is extremely light and would easily be knocked down by a explosion or enemy melee attacks.

31 minutes ago, (Xbox One)Ivan of Jupiter said:

    * All of Zephyr's abilities can be cast while in the air.

All her skills can already be cast mid-air.

Im glad you didnt try turning her from a Utility/Mobility frame to a Damage dealer. :3

[(PSN)thefallenloser]

Don't be surprised if Thaylien shows up.

[Birdframe_Prime]

Zephyr rework thread number... 594... have found new hope, but not new ideas... (welcome to the Zephyr reworking community friend! I'm your resident 'seen it all' veteran of these threads!)

Standard Disclaimer; in a recent interview, DE mentioned that they are not making new abilities for warframes in their reworks. This is why both Oberon and Hydroid did not get new abilities in their reworks, since the incredible amounts of backlash/bugs/exploits/testing necessary for Limbo didn't end up being really worth the effort. That said, there are a lot of things that can be done with the existing Zephyr that could improve her greatly and with minimal cost to DE's programming and testing team.

So... let's take a look at this rework of yours.

My main question about this is 'why change this?' coupled with 'why is this better?'

Allow me to explain:

Her passive, currently, gives her unprecedented levels of control in-air, above and beyond what other frames can do. Coupled with Tailwind and the parkour system, Zephyr need never touch the ground. This plays directly into her second and third abilities already, Turbulence being in the top three defense casts in the game, but vulnerable to close-quarters, and Dive Bomb scaling up with height (the fact that this scaling/the base damage, the range, and the quality of the crowd control are all a little lacking is something that needs looking into).

Why change this for status negation? Especially as the only reasons you would get a Status while in the air is if you either had no Turbulence active, or if you were within range of an Eximus Unit (in which case you're barely in the air at all). In short 'why is this better?'

The loss of the passive slow fall would greatly impact how you navigate with Tailwind and parkour, giving her less aerial options overall, and the trade-off would be largely useless if you're playing Zephyr's abilities for full effect.

1. Tailwind and Dive Bomb combination is very, very unlikely to happen. The controls would be clunky, imprecise and would result in the kind of frustration that people already complain about with melee ground slams; if you're not looking down sharply enough (due to wanting to see your enemies) you won't Dive Bomb, and if you are looking to head to a low platform or you're on a wall and want to Tailwind down, but you juuuuust happen to aim too steeply... you Dive Bomb instead. It's even worse if you think about it for you on the Console controller, because your aiming reticule is governed by how fast your sensitivity responds, with a mouse and keyboard you can flick-aim from place to place for quick transitions, but the controller will just be slow.

The question here is 'why is this better?' but it's more directed at your new second ability. I have seen thousands of suggested new abilities for Zephyr and this one... yeah, seen it before, and I have no idea why this would actually be useful to you, or anyone else playing with you.

2. A team buff that makes everyone have a slow-fall passive, and if you cast it during Tailwind's second-and-a-half of animation, you levitate. Excellent... why?

This ability doesn't actually serve any purpose. There is no reason for Zephyr to have it, to cast it, save for the combo levitation, giving her a sort of in-air platform for the duration. And, let's be clear, because you haven't suggested the requisite, relevant change to Tailwind (as in, unlock the fixed animation) you would not be able to cast this during Tailwind at all, only after it.

Why is this better than an instant-cast radial knock down form of Crowd Control, which has low base damage, but could scale to high damage, if that ability were buffed so that the knock down was reliable and the scaling/range were better? Why is this a better ability than what Dive Bomb could be if buffed?

3. I'll actually let the Turbulence buff pass, it's a fair buff with no real problems... I will ask why it would work, though, because she's controlling the air for deflecting bullets, not controlling herself like she does with Tailwind or Dive Bomb.

4. An off switch that does damage. Great, I like the off-switch, but there is so, so much more that could be improved on this ability. Why give this a spam-able 'burst' when you could turn it into a full defensive crowd control skill that denies an area of the map to enemies, instead of one that randomly seeks the nearest enemy until it's half a room away, if not completely in the next room, gets stuck in corners, scatters surviving enemies or pins them to the roof... interferes with you and allies almost more than the enemy...?

You have a great start here, but others have made exactly the same start themselves before, and it's kind of gone nowhere because they weren't thinking through possibilities enough.

There are mechanics in this game that can be used in Zephyr's kit, there are options for making the frame stronger that don't change any of her abilities and only add to them, buff them, revisit the original frame and make it what it always could have been.

Come on over to my thread here;

Read through, get some ideas for what can be improved on her, come back, plan out a new rework. Or hang around and tell me what you think I've missed. I've made that thread based on the combination of hundreds of other threads, some original ideas of my own, and on all the arguments about Zephyr that have been waged for years.

Or don't, if you don't want to ^^

43 minutes ago, (PS4)ArtPrince17 said:

Don't be surprised if Thaylien shows up.

I was already here, the other conversation on the Mag thread kept distracting me.

[Caelward]

Being airborne is nice, but airborne and stationary is not. I wouldn't mind Updraft if it happened to work like a stationary zone of turbulence, but not as a 'floating' ability.

The funny thing about Turbulence deflection, is that it is just that. A 'deflection'. It tends to deflect projectiles upwards. If you aren't moving when you're in the air, enemy accuracy will be better. While you still won't receive as many shots as if turbulence is off, shots will still hit you. More enemy weapons fire will be on target. You will actually take more damage in this situation, and while Zephyr has lots of shield/health, having no armor is a big deal.

Also, I dunno 'bout you. But I play Warframe, and especially Zephyr to move. Not to sit still.

 

Knockdown immune would be nice. Zephyr is surrounded by swirling air, it's not much of a stretch at all thematically to say that it's keeping her from hitting the ground. Might be more sensible to have knockdowns throw her light and buoyant self into the air though, so she is being affected, but she still has a reasonable amount of control from that position.

 

I do like the micro-burst aspect of the Tornado cancel. It's an interesting expansion of the off-switch that people tend to want for Tornado.