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.
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.