I had a lot of interesting answers when I asked about everyone’s favorite non-gameplay thing in Warframe, so I am back with this one.
I have always wanted Mirage because she looked like a jester, the fact that she is a glass cannon was not on my mind when I got her (she is much stronger than I thought though)
Then came Hydroid, I know he is not so useful and needs a rework, but I love Eldrich horror and a Cthulu/Kraken had to be in my arsenal.
So what is yours?
Being able to compose little jingles on Octavia’s mandachord was a major incentive to get her. Zephyr’s mech skin keeps me playing her even when other frames would be better suited to the mission.
I mained Octavia for a while, I got her for free but the marching band look was a big draw for me (especially the “feathers” on her hat). I had no idea I could compose for the Mandachord when I got her. Genuine question, what is Zephyr not good for? she is one of my favorite frames to play, but I have not unlocked everything yet.
Zephyr’s biggest failing IMO are her survivability and the inconsistency of the CC on her 4th ability. It doesn’t really pick up enough enemies to compete with other frame’s hard CC abilities, and those tornadoes wander too much which is a pain on some defense tilesets. She has solid abilities and good augments, but none of her skills are the best at what they do. Despite all that, she’s a solid frame with good ability synergy.
She does have one specific build that I love. Slap some “damage reduction while airborne” mods on her, use Tailwind to hoverglide. Get out your Knell, headshot to activate full auto mode, use Air Burst (with the Airburst Rounds augment) to group enemies into a pile, and then unload. It gets even better if you have Arcane Velocity equipped to increase firerate. It turns Zephyr into an A10 Warthog.
Max range 3 with good duration and I’ve got like, zero issues surviving well into 4-digit level Circuit. Only real issue has been with the bs Thrax Legatus does but that’s the reason I’ve got Rolling Guard, protects from that and whatever eximus units might try to do. Damage reduction build is fun but only goes so far.
You can deploy stationary tornadoes, I almost exclusively use those, especially on defense and excavation. I do agree so much that they don’t attract enough enemies and I have to pull them with her 2 most of the time, which is annoying for energy economy. I have had some problems with survivability but I thought it was because one of my mains is Nezha, who is a tanky boi.
Also now I really want to try your build. I need to get her augments though.
You shouldn’t really have any survivability issues with her 3. You’re only vulnerable to melee and special attacks like Eximus abilities or Thrax lasers, and since you want to be in the air for her passive that keeps you away from melee, and special abilities are things you should be dodging anyways
Her 4 can also create stationary tornadoes by holding the cast button rather than tapping it. It’s true that their innate succ range isn’t too high (and modded range doesn’t help), so her 2 does help out with them a lot (where modded range does help)
That is my only problem with her 3, the Eximus units. Although I would like to see OP try to stay floating far in the Kuva fortress.
I use stationary tornadoes with 2 all the time, and it slaps, this is why I wanted to know what OP thought she wasn’t good for.
Rolling Guard is a great safeguard against special attacks too - even in chaos where you can’t keep track of everything, the shield gate lets you know something’s got through and you can roll out of trouble with added status cleanse
I’ve always felt like her 3 is a good iteration of the “invulnerability” abilities in higher level stuff - Revenant’s Mesmer Skin is a bit too strong, Rhino’s Iron Skin is a bit too weak, etc. Zephyr’s 3 having some vulnerabilities helps keep me engaged and moving around
I agree her kit’s great, imo in most general gameplay she’s one of the best picks for pretty much everything. It’s only in niche contexts where other frames are a far better choice than her
Rolling guard is one of these things that feels like a legend, I hear people talk about it, but have never found one, I will wiki it and see if there is a farm I can do.
Ahahaha, it’s well worth it! It’s bought from the Arbitration shop, so it does require starchart completion unless you trade another player for it
Considering how long it took me to get a non flawed continuity (I got it from the circuit) I expected no less from the primed version.