[Warframe Critique] Zephyr: Focusing on Wind Supporting Weapon attacks, reduction of ragdoll and new ability "Asphyxiation"

<<CURRENT POSITIVES OF ZEPHYR>>

  • Zephyr's 1st provides a useful traverse utility that is mostly recognized in open-world-like areas.
  • Recent changes to Zephyr's Air Burst make it a somewhat decent crowd gatherer and can even be used for farming Ayatan/Medallion items here and there if modded for max range
  • Turbulence still remains a decent defensive tool with an also decent team & weapon support ability with [Jet Stream] Augment
  • Being able to make the Tornado's stationary can be considered a better change especially since you can recast to reposition the stationary Tornadoes. Along with their damage distribution and the double in Critical Damage makes Tornado a decent CC and damage support tool.

<<CURRENT NEGATIVES OF ZEPHYR>>

  • There is little control in stopping Tailwind when needed. There is also some clunky gimmick to Hover Jump (the holding down ability to levitate). Overall, the ability currently serves as a gimmick for traversing larger maps where mostly Operators/Archwings can cover more efficiently with no Energy to waste.
  • Some people are still put off about the ragdoll effect of Airburst especially when it comes to the "pull" Airburst version. There is also a bizzare 30% Parazon Finisher gimmick to Airburst has (which has a chance to proc) which feels rather unnecessary.
  • Turbulence at base is a non-recastable defensive tool. A personal opinion would be to add more interesting effects to Turbulence's base effects to offer more reason to have it non-recastable.
  • The issue remain that Zephyr can't technically control the positioning of the Tornadoes so that if needed, Zephyr can place a new one or move one wherever she wants. There is also some worry about all the recent changes to make Tornado keep the enemy they suck inside, but they would eventually ragdoll off in some way.

<<THE CORE CONCEPT OF THE SUGGESTIONS>>

  1. Add more purpose to use Tailwind
    1. Improve the control over its mobility and speed
    2. Add a unique support effect for Target Fixation
  2. Adjust the crowd gathering of Air Burst and a new holding down function
  3. A small tweek to base Turbulence and the Augment Jet Stream
  4. Suggestion on a new 4th ability
  5. Overall, reducing the ragdoll effect of Zephyr's kit while offering a new take on how she uses her wind-based powers for guiding weapon attacks and mobility

<<TAILWIND SUGGESTIONS>>

  • [Cancelling Tailwind Animations] Jump/Attack to cancel animation of Tailwind
  • [Remove Charge - "New" Burst Jump] Holding down briefly while on ground will cause Zephyr to jump up and knockdown enemies.
  • Each Tailwind/Burst Jump/Divebomb resets a buff increasing the next Ground Finisher or Melee Slam Attack executed with bonus damage and range

<<TARGET FIXATION SUGGESTIONS>>

  • Tailwind now passes through enemies and marks each enemy hit with a XX second debuff increasing Melee Damage done to them

<<AIR BURST SUGGESTIONS>>

  • Change ragdoll on pull and replace it with a similar effect to Operator Arcane - "Magus Lockdown" effect
    • Staggers enemies it hits
  • Charging Air Burst creates a temporary stationary Tornado with the damage distribution and the Double Critical Damage gimmick
  • Remove the 30% Health Parazon Finisher gimmick

<<SMALL CHANGE TO TURBULENCE>>

  • Base Turbulence receives the movement speed of Jet Stream (40%) while the Augment turns Turbulence into an AOE team buff and offers a passive +XX Aim Glide Duration

NOTES ON THE REPLACING TORNADO

The only reason I have suggested this is in case the Air Burst suggestions were possible. This is only a particular idea I had going on as an Air/Wind-based ability.

Normally, I wouldn't suggest this, but because of the ragdoll of base Air Burst and Tornado I wanted to limit that by combining both Tornado and Air Burst into one.I understand that we have Funnel Cloud as an Augment to prevent the ragdoll of Tornado, but personally I feel that it becomes a bit of a bandaid even if it allows for more field coverage.

My stance with most Warframe abilities is that the better ones are abilities that the player has better control over. The ragdolling of Tornado and Air Burst and how you can't control the placement of Tornadoes brought me to the idea of combining Tornado with Air Burst's charge effect so that there is better placement and designation on the abilities.

As for this wild new 4th ability, consider the idea that Zephyr can gather air around her for her abilities...but now she can gather the air from her enemies.

<<NEW 4TH ABILITY SUGGESTION - ASPHYXIATION>>

Zephyr empowers her weapons with the stolen air of her enemies.

  • Drains XX Energy per target within XX meters from Zephyr
  • Each enemy caught by Asphyxiation are briefly stunned and have their speed reduced by XX% for XX seconds
    • Enemies already hit by Asphyxiation cannot be targeted until their debuff duration ends.
  • Each enemy successfully asphyxiated grant Zephyr adds a +X.X second offensive buff
    • Increases Projectile Speed and Multishot for Primary/Secondary Weapons
    • Grants Melee Additional Melee Combo Counter and increases Melee Heavy Attack Speed
  • [Augment Concept #1 - Suffocation] Enemies asphyxiated receive continuous damage until the duration ends. Damage starts with 200 Impact Damage and the damage increases by XX% each second the enemy is asphyxiated.
  • [Augment Concept #2 - Lightheaded] Enemies asphyxiated receive XXX% Headshot Damage until duration ends.

<<OVERALL CONCEPT OF SUGGESTION>>

Zephyr for me was never a Warframe about flying, but how it uses its wind powers. The use of wind powers can vary in many applications not only for mobility and offensive/defensive purposes.

I tried to make Tailwind more controllable by adding the ability to cancel it and by adding a bonus for using the ability through empowering the next Ground Slam/Finisher Zephyr would do. I feel that relying on the old Target fixation for damage is extremely wasteful and technically it doesn't scale very well at all unlike weapons.

An issue I found was the ragdolling in Zephyr's kit, so I took a chance to combine placing/restarting Tornado by adding Tornado into Air Burst. Holding down will allow the creation of Air Burst and tapping it now acts like a quick Magus Anomaly that staggers enemies too. It adds a bit more consistency on what it does this way.

I felt Turbulence was fine despite being a very dull egg timer. That is why I added the mobility effect of Turbulence as a base effect and letting the Augment change the ability to be a wide AOE effect along with the simple passive to it.

I am still thinking about Asphyxiation, but the idea behind it sounds a bit cruel to be fair. Having Zephyr even use the enemy's own air from their lungs to render their respiratory temporarily critical while using their air to empower her own offenses. I still have to think of different effects for this CC/Debuff/Buff effect that is Asphyxiation in the future.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS/QUESTIONS ON ZEPHYR

  • How much do you feel the recent tweeks to Zephyr fixed her playstyle?
  • Would you like to have a more controllable/replaceable Tornado in Zephyr's kit without neding to recast Zephyr's 4th?
  • How obstructive do you feel Tailwind is?
  • Would you like Tailwind to allow Zephyr to pass through enemies at base?
  • What would you like to be done to Tailwind to make it easier to use in more closed spaces [The suggestions I made include cancelling it by attacking/jumping]?
  • Would you find making Turbulence recastable too powerful for Zephyr?
  • In case you have no melee weapon at all, would you like to have the ability to quickly drop down by aiming down and hitting the melee attack input?
  • What are your thoughts on Zephyr being able to manipulate air/wind to a degree of stealing air from enemies?
  • Do you feel that there can be some synergy between Tailwind and Turbulence?
  • Would you like Tailwind to receive a similar collision gimmick as Gauss' Mach Rush?
submitted by /u/FoxFX
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