Zephyr Tailwind: tap to hover, charge to dash

[(PSN)digitalgabeg]

The recent improvements to Zephyr's Tailwind are excellent, and the ability is very fun to use, but I feel that it has a few issues. Specifically:

• A high duration build makes Tailwind go very very fast. This is great on the Plains of Eidolon, but makes Tailwind far too fast for indoor areas. 
• The hover is great, but using a charge mechanic to activate it makes it difficult to use in the heat of battle and hard to get exactly the desired height. The fact that you have to land to hover also severely limits Hover's utility.

I propose that these issues can be corrected by switching the normal Dash effect from a tap activation to a charge activation, and setting the Hover effect to use tap activation instead.

• When on the ground, tapping the ability would launch you a small distance into the air (about the height of a double-jump) and activate the Hover effect. The distance this ground activation launches Zephyr should not scale with any of her stats, so that a ground-hover always gets you to the same vertical height, whatever your build. This consistent outcome should align well with level designs, allowing Zephyr players to more easily use Hover in the heat of battle.
• When in midair, tapping the ability would cause you activate the Hover effect immediately. If you're in motion (or falling) you would coast quickly to a stop. This would allow players to use Hover to prevent a fall, and would give us more precise control of our position when hovering.
• Whether on the ground or in the air, whether hovering or not, charging the ability would activate the usual Dash effect. A partial charge would have lower velocity and lower cost. This would allow Zephyr players to be more precise in their Dashes, and should make Dash usable indoors with a high-duration build.

I also propose the following minor quality of life changes:

• While hovering, you should be able to refresh the hover effect. This would allow players to hover in one place as long as they desire, provided they have the energy to do so.
• While hovering, you should be able to make small adjustments to your position with the movement keys.
• Activating Hover should reset your ability to jump, as if you had touched the ground, and you should be able to end Hover early by jumping. This would allow players to make larger adjustments to their hover position without resorting to a Dash, at the cost of another Hover activation.
• While the Dash effect is active (ie. actively propelling you) the direction Zephyr is travelling should continuously track the camera. That is, instead of Zephyr simply zooming in the direction she was looking when you started the Dash, you should be able to change course by looking elsewhere. This would help players to get the results they intend with their Dash, and should make Dash feel more like flying.
• You should be able to end a Dash early by activating the Hover effect.

Edited March 16, 2018 by (PS4)digitalgabeg

[Borg1611]

I mostly agree, though I wouldn't add a charge to the dash aspect of tailwind. The charge mechanic for either half of the ability is/would be awful. It needs to be changed to a long-press and regular press with no charge mechanic of any kind. Basically how Gara's first ability works. I think the hover could be on a long press instead of the charge rather than swapping them around, but either way, removing the charge mechanic entirely and giving it multiple functions via a long-press instead would make it much more responsive and feel a lot better to use in practice.

Being able to enter a hover in mid-air or flight would be great as many continue to suggest. 

Those changes combined with the new ability to roll out of tail-wind that they just added in this hotfix (like 5 minutes before writing this) would make her feel a lot better to play (not sure if it works during hover as I haven't tried it yet, but it should if it can't). I don't think we need a charge for dash precision as that would be slower and clunky compared to just being able to break it mid flight. Being able to stop it early and/or roll out would feel better than having to charge a dash I think. 

[(PSN)MrNishi]

I thought you could change in options the Tap/Hold for power to inverse the activation???

Did they remove that?

(Example: Tap cast Quiver and Hold cycles)

[TKDancer]

i think it should be the opposite by default

[(PSN)Croewe]

38 minutes ago, (PS4)MrNishi said:

I thought you could change in options the Tap/Hold for power to inverse the activation???

Did they remove that?

(Example: Tap cast Quiver and Hold cycles)

That doesn't affect things such as current zephyr 1 and Gara 1.

[(PSN)MrNishi]

3 hours ago, (PS4)Chris_Robet said:

That doesn't affect things such as current zephyr 1 and Gara 1.

Thanks, I assumed it did.

[Caelward]

I kinda wish DE was able to do character specific control settings like you sometimes see in Overwatch...