The bird queen, air elemental, most underappreciated frame - Zephyr!
Release date: 2014-02-05
Passive: Striking from the skies above, Zephyr is significantly lighter in comparison to other Warframes, dramatically altering her airborne physics. While airborne, Zephyr’s equipped weapons gain a 150% Critical Chance bonus.
Tail Wind - From the ground, charge and release to launch Zephyr into an airborne hover. From the air, tap to dash forward, or aim down to dive bomb enemies below.
Airburst - Launch a burst of massively dense air. Hold to send enemies flying, tap to pull them toward the burst. Damage increases per enemy hit.
Turbulence - Creates a wind shield around Zephyr, redirecting all incoming projectiles.
Tornado - Create deadly tornadoes that seek out and engulf enemies. Tornadoes deal the elemental damage type they absorb the most. Shoot enemies engulfed in Tornadoes to do additional damage.
Acquisition: Zephyr’s blueprints can be researched from the Tenno Lab in the dojo.
I didn’t have a specific idea for a Revisited thread this week so I though I would bring Zephyr back to once again tell you HOW ABSURDLY POWERFUL THIS FRAME IS! Please, play Zephyr! We don’t have the 2024 playrate stats yet but I am certain Zephyr will once again be in the bottom half of frames. More people play LOKI PRIME than Zephyr! Chroma has more playrate then her! This frame is amongst the strongest warframes in the game and it’s like it’s some hidden secret nobody knows about. If you don’t know what Zephyr is capable yet, let me enlighten you! Would you like a frame capable of doing any Steel Path mission with no mods equipped and just a moderately powerful crit weapon? Pick Zephyr! Would you like immortality from all projectiles for you and anything close to you (including defense objectives)? Pick Zephyr! Does moving around sound like a hassle and you wish enemies just came right to you and grouped themselves into a nice little ball for you to blow away with a warcrime inflicter of your choosing? Pick Zephyr! This Warframe has an insane kit that requires barely any modding to work at it’s maximum effectiveness and can turn any crit weapon into a monster with the passive crit buff and doubling of your total crit modifier on any enemy affected by Tornadoes, all while floating around impervious to anything but some Eximus abilities. Zephyr makes so many mission types a complete breeze yet for some reason absolutely NOBODY is playing this frame and I have no idea why. So if you haven’t touched Zephyr is some years, pick up the bird frame again and give her a go, you won’t be disappointed!
As a Zephyr main that come back after a multiple years hiatus: I’m doing my part. Even with all these new frames I always come back to her. She’s just so comfy.
I heard a similar pitch from someone else after I came back to Warframe around the launch of Duviri. Initially I wasn’t impressed, but the incremental improvements from Archon shards and properly built Electric/Gas weapons made a pretty large difference to me (even better now after status reworks). She’s definitely a regular in my Circuit/EDA rotation now, and an easy frame to recommend for new players.
Also, as someone that still plays Loki and Chroma, there are dozens of us! Ok, maybe just one dozen, but still.
Totally aware of how busted zephyr is, Just wish her flight was less clunky as it feels bit like Ivaras crit zipline where its something you set up in place rather than use dynamically like say Hildryn or Jades flgiht.
They really should at least add some particle effect / gust of wind below her when she’s hovering with her #1, it looks so janky lol. She’s basically A-posing mid air…
Honestly, I also have no idea why I don’t play her more often. I remember using Zephyr for defense missions many years ago but I guess nowadays there are just newer, flashier frames to play? I’m guessing if DE drop a good deluxe skin for her she’s gonna be played a lot again.
How do you build her mr Zephyr main? Any augments that I ought to take, any specific stat I should maximize or do I just go for the usual 155/130/145/130 simple spread? Strength maybe seems like a possible dump stat, at least enough to mod overextended, and Funnel Clouds might be a good mod to slot? Will Jet Stream be addictive and I won’t be able to play WF without it anymore?
The only stat that you need on her is range, it makes her 1 dash go further and 2 and 3 bigger which helps you suck things into her 4 and protect a larger area with her 3. Going all in on it is a good bet as unless you plan to use her 1,2 or 3 augments (which do scale with strength) you can safely dump it without any downsides. Duration is the second best stat, it’s mostly a QoL to have to refresh her abilities less often. Other than that, do whatever you want! Rolling Guard is great for dealing with anything Turbulence doesn’t protect you from, you can double down and also run Catalyzing Shields with Brief Respite for the absolute safety. I like Energy Nexus for it’s constant energy regen, you have so much free mod space on her there is no reason not to use utility mods like these. Funnel Clouds is an option if you prefer to have a wider area Tornadoes over ones that group up enemies for you, I personally prefer the default skill. I don’t run any of her augments myself as I don’t consider having to actually build strength to make them worth slotting in worth it.
Her 1’s travel distance actually scales with duration, it was funny how short it actually traveled during a deep archimedea mission with negative duration as a curse. Luckily dive bombing was unaffected. More range does make it easier to hit enemies you fly past and obviously increases the slam radius too.
You’re right, I thought it scaled with range because of how absurdly far it goes but that’s just cause my Zephyr also has a ton of duration.
Energy nexus is really underrated, I’ve started putting it on some frames like Cyte and it’s makes for a much smoother experience.
c/RoastMyBuild? https://i.imgur.com/8hfHTDB.jpeg (might actually be an interesting idea for a community)
If #3 alone is not enough for survivability I think I’ll replace streamline with rolling dodge or primed redirection, I’m probably being too paranoid about energy usage.
Dunno about the aura slot, maybe I should be a good samaritan and reforma to fit in Power Donation?
It’s actually tough to make build when you can’t just hyperfixate on strength, I’m not used to it lol. We have so much room for activities
That’s pretty much exactly the same as my build, just with Augur Message instead of Rolling Guard and a different aura. You even got the same Arcanes as me! I also got 2 Tau duration shards (which is where the extra duration comes from), 2 normal casting speed ones and a Tau parkour velocity one to make bulletjumps go fast (sometimes 1 is just TOO FAST!)
I kind of wish they would revert the change to Tail Wind so it wouldn’t stop you as soon as you come in contact with the floor when traveling along the ground. I’ve always had fun playing it as a meme Target Fixation build.
The best change was probably changing the tornados to spawn at max range instead of requiring you to hit them with airburst to increase their size. It felt like a hassle to do every time you wanted to use the tornados just to force some synergy between the two abilities and it was more of a hidden mechanic unless you’re someone that reads the tool tips for warframe abilities.
Zephyr was the first frame I ever truly fell in love with and has shaped the entire way I play this game. She’s been an integral part of my experience of Warframe since 2015. Nothing beats the joy of flying with tailwind or that dreamlike floaty movement. My peak 1999 experiencing was Tailwinding around and wall jumping off buildings.
Oh yeah and Funnel Clouds is one of the strongest damage buffers in the game due to Blast shenanigans. Give her Fortifier and she’s nigh invulnerable too.
There are many good reasons to play Zephyr. Really the only downside is that she’s a life-altering experience…
Alright I remembered why I disliked playing Zephyr despite how powerful her abilities are: she is just nightmareish to control in any non-open world mission lol. Tailwind is super fast but it also constantly gets you stuck in walls or floor unable to stop. Even on Hollvania I lose more time trying to untangle myself from the wall or some random clutter than I save by zooming through a street. It feels like she has to go through the entire duration of the ability no matter what obstacle she hits or which button you press which just makes it feel unresponsive and unusable.
Her low-gravity slow fall is also messing with my muscle memory of every other frame falling normally and I’m not going to waste an eximus slot trying to fix it…
Jade and Hildryn got some love when it comes to their flying abilities and I think Zephyr is really due for a similar care package
If you run Target Fixation, you can freely double jump out of Tail Wind at any time, as it resets your parkour maneuvers. Another tip is to run a lot of parkour velocity on your loadout (such as Consequence, your choice of electric weapon to proc it, and Praedos) so you can more selectively use Tail Wind as a “skip past a long straightway” or something you work in as you become more comfortable with specific tiles.
edit:
I actually remembered wrong. You don’t need Target Fixation. You can actually cancel Tail Wind any time you’re in contact with a wall by wall jumping. This is my Speed Zephyr build, + Praedos or Telos Boltace for more parkour speed. I use Electric Akarius to keep Consequence going.
Zephyr is very strong, but her tornadoes are (fairly) stationary. Despite having a good few hours on her, I tend to gravitate away to frames with more mobile abilities.
My best friend’s a huge fan but for some reason I just never jelled with Zephyr. I occasionally take her into the open worlds, but I just find her too floaty for most of the tilesets.
