By: MasterTadpole/Snow
Overall Grade: B-
Yes, Zephyr. The “worst frame” by many, but who I think is incredibly underestimated. And those who do play her commonly spam her Tornadoes and Turbulence, but her true power is unlocked when you go through her whole kit and combine your abilities to become the true master of Zephyr, and the mobility she has under her belt.
Tips & Tricks with Zephyr
The most common mistake I see players making with Zephyr is not utilizing her mobility passives. The way her passives work makes it tricky to move when you just want to make a small jump, or a large one that is small enough that her 1 can’t work. The main thing in these situations is I’ll jump and right before I’m at the level where I want to be, I start aim gliding and immediately release. This stops you right where you are and your momentum will push you the rest of the way. Also; if your range is large enough, you can have teammates and allied NPCs inside of your Turbulence, but this comes at the price of letting those players get shot if enemies get inside. Her Tornadoes also will use the status effect that last hit them. What I mean by this is: if you have a toxic pistol and you shoot the tornado, the bullet will cause the tornado to deal toxic damage. I’m not sure if this works for slash, blast or puncture.
Pros/Cons
Some people will say other frames do Zephyr’s job better than Zephyr; which is dealing damage. I do think that there are better DPS frames, but I don’t use Zephyr as a DPS frame. In my eyes she is a hard CC. That is our first con; she, alone, can’t deal much damage when fighting higher level enemies. But Tadpole, there are better CC fram- shhh. Zephyr can not only CC, but she can shield herself and possibly other people from projectiles, fly through the air, (further than a bullet jump) and dive bomb, along the main CC of Tornadoes. Adding the Divebomb Vortex augment makes her 2 a very considerable CC as well, as it allows you to do finishers. She is also a bit squishy during the in-between of casting Turbulence, unless you have health mods.
Worthwhile or Fodder?
Zephyr was my first frame (after Mag). She has been with me for 2.5 years now. I love playing her; not only is she fun, but she can significantly do CC in any area.
Zephyr Build
With this build, Zephyr gets the best possible sprint speed I could manage without sacrificing too much capacity/slots. Primed Continuity/Narrow Minded is for keeping the Tornadoes/Turbulence up. Stretch/Overextended is to allow my dive bomb and 1 some flexibility so I can adapt to situations. Aviator is probably only good on Zephyr, since Zephyr is in the air 50%+ of the time. Armored Agility is just for sprint, but it’s tiny boost in armor is noticeable when you escape with 2hp and 3 shields left. Fleeting Expertise is just for being able to spam my 1 & 2 in case shit hits the fan. Energy Siphon and Primed Flow can be swapped out for other things; Flow isn’t too good on her but it feels nice having a bigger energy pool. A Streamline could work on her instead of Flow if you wanted to spam 1 and 2, or keep Flow and swap Fleeting into a streamline for more on the Turbulence and Tornado side of things. In this build, I have 3 formas on Zephyr.
Fashion Framing Zephyr
This tiny segment isn’t necessary, but it’s nice. For my Zephyr, I’ve got the default helmet/skin, since I like the dangly parts on the back of her head, but any helmet looks good. Personally, I use the Sari Syandana, Titania Noble animation set, and a blue/white color scheme.
Colors:
Primary: White
Secondary: Baby Blue
Tertiary: White
Accents: Champagne Gold from Halloween Pack
Energy: Blue (this doesn’t really add to her look much)
Appearance in All:
