get your bird on: a guide to zephyr

[S2Cracky]

GUIDE TO ZEPHYR

Zephyr is god of wind and stuff. He is the ultimate in lane control and pushing for someone who knows how to play him. This has been my build in a few games but it by no means a final solution I have built him in many ways to try go against the other team. I believe playing zephyr can make you a better player because how well you do relies on how well you deny and last hit early on in the game.

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Abilities:

leap
Zephyr Leaps toward targets. Dealing damage in a line and pushes away effected targets

Target: Position
Damage type: Magic
Range: 550/700/850/1000
Mana cost: 100/120/140/160
Cooldown: 20/19/18/17 seconds

Deals 75/125/175/250 Magic Damage and pushes targets back



This is a great spell for which to take advantage of your primary tornado ability. getting the creeps low and then using it as a method of last hitting
--------------------------------------------------------------
Cyclones

Zephyr spawns a small cyclone for every kill/deny he makes. Spawned cyclones patrol and damage in the area around him. activating the ability calls the tornadoes back for a health.

Target: AOE Patrol
Damage type: Magic
Range: 700/900/1100/1300
Mana cost: 75
Cooldown: 25/22.5/20/17.5 seconds

spawns cyclone which lasts 20/30/40/50
maximum # 5/6/7/8
deals magic damage for 15/20/25/30
heals 50health

--------------------------------------------------------
Wind Shield

Zephyr creates a shield which improves evasion and has a chance to return projectiles

self
type:magic
mana cost: 120/110/100/90
cooldown: 45/40/35/30 secs
applies for 10/15/20/25 secs

wind shield effects
15/20/25/30% Melee evasion
15/20/25/30% chance to return projectile based attacks using this ability just before your last creep dies when pushing a tower will allow you to tank it a bit for a final hit and possibly return its own damage towards it.

-----------------------------------------------
Wind Control
Zephyr creates an area oh high winds increasing movement and attack speed for Allies and decreasing for enemies

Target: position
Range: 600/800/1000
Radius: 550
Mana cost: 150/200/250
Cooldown: 120 seconds

uplifting wind effects
+30/40/50% movement speed
+20/30/50 attack speed

harsh winds effect
20/30/40% reduced movement speed
-20/-30/-40 attack speed
-----------------------------------------------------


Skill build order:

1. Cyclones
2. windshield
3. cyclones
4. leap
5. leap
6. cyclones
7. clyclones
8. windshield
9. leap
10.leap
11. Wind control
12. windshield
13. windshield
14. wind control
15. stats
16. wind control
17. - 25. Stats

----------------------------------------------
What you should do:

1. Early game
Items:
Punch Dagger 500 and Runes of Blight 90
Broadsword 1200
Rift shards 500


the idea behind this is that last hitting will be come far easier for you. You will start out by denying your creeps to get your first cyclone out. then continue to last hit and deny. doing this better than the other person is the only way zephyr will have a good game. You have cyclones so if you get too low you can heal yourself but you want to avoid taking to much damage and focusing on getting your cyclones out to help you fast and take out their creep waves.
getting regen could be good too because using your cyclones for healing will basically leave you open to being rushed and killed quickly.

2. Midgame
New items:
Hellflower 5025
Thunder Claw 3250
Runed Axe 4350
Brilliance Mock 5325

here is where you will need to make decisions based on countering the other team. Hell flower requires 3 steam staffs which will increase your attack speed and abiltiy to last hit and will allow you to silence an enemy who needs spells to be effective. ie countering fairy or torturer Thunder bringer... hell flower will also give you the mana and regen you need to pretty much never run out of mana

Runed Axe Thunder Claw and Brilliance mock are all items designed to help you cut through creep waves. in combo with your leap you will annihilate a creep wave instantly giving you cyclones.

Mock or Runed Axe is probably the best choice if you can manage to farm for one, and dont need to buy something else for countering. Aquiring Mock early will allow you purchase pretty much any item you will want or need for late game.

3. Late game
New Items:
barbed armor 2200
Frost field 5050
Totem of Kuldera 5675

by the end of the game your tornadoes may or may not be doing enough damage to keep the team down you will need more survivability or disables to keep tanks down and "one hit" casters at bay.
barbed armor could be more of a mid game purchase if they have alot of melee units its always a good choice.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Other notes:

countering the bird: early game preventing owl from getting last hits will shut him down he attacks slow doesnt have much hp and has low damage.

his cyclones are magic damage and so is Mock so for low hp heros its probably pretty important to get a shamans headdress. if you notice their team going for headdress you should attempt to switch and go for runed axe and hell flower



Heroes to watch out for:

Legionnaire: a good Lego will sit behind your creeps wait for you to go in for a last hit or deny and then taunt and counter attack you preventing any good cyclone creation early on.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to comment and suggest your own ideas on how to use the ultimate in pushing technology.

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu44/grandarz/BIRDMAN.jpg

[Rob]

Key thing for zephyr (and soulstealer) - try and start solo, the character is mostly about outlevelling, outfarming. It's perfectly equipped to do that, however only with a good enough start so that if needs be you can drop back to the forest for some early neutrals.

[RedStone]

Warning to all new players out there. Zephyr is maybe the single most hardes char to play. I just played a round and I was doing FAR FAR FAR worse then my first game of HoN I ever played. I couldn't even kill creeps. Zeyphyr gets realy good starting lvl 16. But my guess is that new players will stand no chance and never reach that high up.

[LodeRunner]

Warning to all new players out there. Zephyr is maybe the single most hardes char to play. I just played a round and I was doing FAR FAR FAR worse then my first game of HoN I ever played. I couldn't even kill creeps. Zeyphyr gets realy good starting lvl 16. But my guess is that new players will stand no chance and never reach that high up.
He's fragile. He's a MELEE INT HERO. Plus, you shouldn't be out going toe to toe with creeps anyway; that's why we last-hit. You give yourself a buffer with cyclones first so you can recall them for health and mana if needed. Once you get a few cyclones going they're INSANE damage early game.

[RedStone]

He's fragile. He's a MELEE INT HERO. Plus, you shouldn't be out going toe to toe with creeps anyway; that's why we last-hit. You give yourself a buffer with cyclones first so you can recall them for health and mana if needed. Once you get a few cyclones going they're INSANE damage early game.

I know I tried to creep neutral creeps as lvl 10 and died like a chiprel. All I want to say is that this hero aint for new players. So keep you fingers away from him until you feel comfortable with the game.

[Peters]

yeah zephyr looks like a fun hero to play, but if you are in a game where you are going to dominated by early game heros, you might as well throw in the towel. I can see Zephyr being a hidden gem, and I can also see him being the feeder in a game. Sort of like Goblin Techies, sometimes you own, most of the time you do not.

Good new creative idea for a hero, can't wait to see what else you guys have.

[Fielding]

My $.02 - Zephyr probably has the highest learning curve out of all the HoN heroes at the moment. It's not that he's hard to play - although he is harder than many heroes - he just requires a slightly different approach than most other heroes.

[Blu3]

Out of all new HoN heroes Zephyr is my favourite. His model/voice are awesome as well as his spells have great synergy effects. He can even compete in lategame if he manages to farm through early/mid game. Many ppl underestimate him. Hurricanes sometimes act strange tho and unforunately dont deal damage while chasing someone :/

[LiChE]

he was the first hero i played

i adapted to his skills within seconds, but his ultimate is such a worthless pos...it would be fine if the AoE was bigger OR that the effects last for 2-3 seconds after leaving the cloud

his other skills are nice though

[S2Cracky]

Id like to see the AOE slightly bigger also. I often feel like by the time i've placed it down i'm already on the other side of it and no longer being effected by it.

however i have used it several times where it has saved my life and several times when i've gotten a kill from using it so i don't think its completely useless

possibly just effecting the vision of enemies while inside of the cloud could be nice too.

(obviously nothing is going to change with out a lot of thought and testing from people smarter than I)

[Mamacita]

From a new players POV - definately a char that challenged me - didin't really get it at first and only got to level 12 before end of game. But I had a solid team which enabled me not to die so much. I did do a lot better when I moved from mid, to top, and was able to farm alone.

This was the single best XP I had at learning to try and last hit and deny - great hero, love the gfx and will most definately pick again over others.

[Deezul]

I really enjoyed playing Zephyr, very original and interesting hero. However I do think the ultimate could be a little larger as well, I definitely noticed that it was as affective as it seemed like it should be.

[Volshok]

Id like to see the AOE slightly bigger also. I often feel like by the time i've placed it down i'm already on the other side of it and no longer being effected by it.

however i have used it several times where it has saved my life and several times when i've gotten a kill from using it so i don't think its completely useless

possibly just effecting the vision of enemies while inside of the cloud could be nice too.

(obviously nothing is going to change with out a lot of thought and testing from people smarter than I)

I think the ult is fine. While it's radius isn't huge, it essentially gives your carries a free kill zone. When pushing/defending towers/bases it's a massive boon for the team fight.

[Liquidsword]

I played a few games with zephyr trying different item builds out.
Here's what I did and how it worked.

Game one was easy I was laned against 2 melee heros so I could freefarm right from the getgo. I went:

+Stat newb items (crowns etc, i don't know the HON equivalents)
Marchers
Mock Brilliance
Heart
Heart

I went supertank comedy option just to see how well plain ol' HP worked on him and let my cyclones/mock do the work and it did pretty well.

Game two was a bit more tricky I was laned against puppet master and pestilence with a newbie teammate. Up until level 6 it was pretty slim pickings until someone came and ganked. I couldn't go straight to mock brilliance due to a couple earlygame deaths so I opted out for:

Marchers
Helm of the Black Legion
Mock Brilliance
Heart
Wingbow

By the time I got the mock brilliance up I was roaming around the map destroying people despite lackluster support. Once the game was said and done I could stand in the fountain for ~15 seconds with 3 of their team swinging at me including their fed earlygame arachna with a shieldbreaker on. I may skip heart completely in the future and go straight for wingbow as the stacking dodge between his buff and wingbow is quite absurd. Given that he has leap I may end up dropping Marchers, though I always loves me some marchers.

Skill Build I've been taking is

Cyclones
Leap
Cyclones
Evasion Buff
Cyclones
Evasion Buff
Cyclones
Ultimate
Evasion Buff
Evasion Buff
Leap
Leap
Leap
Ultimate
Stats
Ultimate
Stats ad infinum

[Lexicon]

Definitely a hero that needs to farm and last hit early as everyone has said. I also found that building him to tank was very effective. A helm of the black legion, as well as frost plate, in addition to his cyclones, evasion, and ultimate, made him virtually unkillable. I tanked a fed moon queen late game and killed her, while surrounded by enemy creeps. I used the frost plate much like mock of brilliance - to take out lanes. A mock would be more or less as effective, but I like the armor and enemy attack reduction. Different opponents might call for a different build. All in all, he can be a strong support in team battles, and one on one, his evasion, cyclones, and a leap to finish are all very effective.

[Netukka]

I kinda wonder why this hero is int rather than str. I see no point in getting ANY real caster/int items on the hero instead of tank/carry stuff. He cant even spend his mana with his int growth in end game o,o

[summ1else]

Can anyone give me stats on Stat Gain and base stats? Melee int has been known to work well in the past (dark seer). Skill synergy looks promising, though it's clear he will be slightly item dependent, namely a slow/stun mechanism. I'll be testing this hero tonight with a high level team to see what goes down.

[Netukka]

Str 17 (+2.5)
Agi 18 (+1.8)
Int 19 (+3.0)

The thing is, he has a ridiculously high int growth for the amount of mana he can spend. Compared to Dark Seer from DotA (who has just slightly more int growth, although much more base int [29 + 3.1]), who has 2 low cooldown, high mana cost and 1 spammable low mana spell, Zephyr has only mid cooldown spells which dont even have such a big mana usage. Its just odd to me that he is int because the few times Ive seen people play it, its mostly been used as a tank/carry with stuff like Heart/Lifesteal/Cleave/AC etc.

[summ1else]

I would hate to try to carry with anyone with that ridiculous base str. That's very very close to what would be the worst starting str in dota. I'm thinking of AM. The str gain is pretty good, but there are better heroes for tanking IMO.

The int gain and lack of mana based skills leads me to believe that when we test him tonight we'll find that his skills need to require more mana than they do (they look OP on paper) and he'll be very very good for active int items (refresher's high mana cost comes to mind, shivas, orchid, eul's) though each of those tends to lend it's own mana to the equation (again refresher is absurd though). Probably needs to have mana cost on skill increased.

I can see the mana cost needing to go UP instead of DOWN when leveling Wind Shield, and perhaps tornadoes have some kind of autocast function that can be toggled where the creation of tornadoes is automatic but still uses mana from the manapool (similar to visage revenants)

[Liquidsword]

Also include the fact that he gets 25 or 30 seconds of 30% melee evasion and projectile reflect with almost no downtime.

He is ridiculously tank.

[Netukka]

Heard the ranged projectile reflect thing also stacks with Wingbow (butter) evasion, true or false? 30% chance of miss and 30% chance of reflect must make it fun for ranged to hit him o,o

[Liquidsword]

I already posted about wingbow earlier in the thread. Yes, it stacks. and yes it probably needs to be nerfed. It's just not so common because people hardly touch zephyr.

[Shinzo]

i play him on sololane with phaseboots/bloodstone in first 20mins and if u manage 2 get it in time u will be able 2 kill anything. start gank with soulbooster if u didnt did it before and gg
after soulbooster u are just undestroyable and make a lot of dmg if u play him right

skill cyclone first then max leap spent 1 point in cyclone again and farm farm farm if u got full hp and enough cyclones up leap in enemy, attack him if he try 2 kill u reg with cyclons and kill or leap out.

i dont like windshield in beginning because u simply dont need it
u got enough hp/mp5 with lasthiting so u can spend ur points in leap and make more dmg. maybe on lev 4-5 u can skill windshield depends on lane but when u go solo u dont need it if u make ur kills/denies

i think its amazing hero but it needs some skill to play him right but i think we will see him a lot more in the next weeks

[Dispers]

Nice effort, but that item build planning is just not good imo.

1. They're all damage items. This hero has very low hp and if you don't get any hp with him you are just food for any hero that throws a nuke or two at you.
2. You have way too much very expensive items listed to buy at midgame. Even if you can farm really well and are feeded this is almost impossible to farm midgame.

I have to confess I've played this hero only once, so I don't know yet for sure what the best playstyle and items are for him. But I do know that what you listed won't work against any competent players.

Trying to get Sacr. Stone early like the poster above me suggested, and then going for Totem of Kultera for example, seems like a better choice imo.

[Glorify1]

Two builds basically. Caster-tank(which utilizes bloodstone), or straight up tank(which utilizes a fast Radiance).

[S2Cracky]

Nice effort, but that item build planning is just not good imo.

1. They're all damage items. This hero has very low hp and if you don't get any hp with him you are just food for any hero that throws a nuke or two at you.
2. You have way too much very expensive items listed to buy at midgame. Even if you can farm really well and are feeded this is almost impossible to farm midgame.

I have to confess I've played this hero only once, so I don't know yet for sure what the best playstyle and items are for him. But I do know that what you listed won't work against any competent players.

Trying to get Sacr. Stone early like the poster above me suggested, and then going for Totem of Kultera for example, seems like a better choice imo.

yea i agree (riftshards is a pretty dumb buy)at the time i wrote this it was like my 4th game with him so its not that great (gonna revisit this when i get some more play time with him).

I'm still a fan of getting punch dagger and runes of blight as my first items (feel free to disagree) only because the punch dagger is like just the right amt of damage increase to help me with last hitting.
So you can create cyclones easier on denys and then if necessary use your cyclones to heal you if your lane is rough.
but Nowadays I go for sacstone and totem as stated by other testers.

[Dispers]

He is an interesting hero anyway, I sucked with him the first time though. Have to play him some more and decide what I think of his usefulness, but the design is nice and fun.

[Khaaz]

I've only played this guy once but it seems like he should really be made to be a strength hero.

It's a really interesting hero but i wish his ult was a little better, maybe instead of making it affect an area, it could be an aoe that stays on the targets you hit with it even when they move out of that initial area. So it could be like the slow that Visage has that increases your move/attack speed and slows theirs, except it would be an AoE that affect both allies and enemies, would have a longer cd, and shorter duration.

He seems like a really good jungle hero though, throw some lifesteal on him (i went for vlads first) and he's a creeping machine. Once you got a good number of cyclones up you can go gank. I had Vlads, Battlfury and treads on him and was doin pretty good considering how hard the other team was gettin fed.

[zanirzrold]

the fact that he is int makes him more fun to play. Making him str would just be EZ mode since his str increase would probably be like double. Zeph makes some great ganks level 5 if you can 4-5 cyclones by the time you need to go get a gank. Fun hero imo, has gotten me a lot better at last hitting and denying since kills actually depend on it.

[jnjo]

uh baba bird bird bird...

[desRow1]

My $.02 - Zephyr probably has the highest learning curve out of all the HoN heroes at the moment. It's not that he's hard to play - although he is harder than many heroes - he just requires a slightly different approach than most other heroes.

I dont think hes hard if u know how to last hit properly but i still have no clue what items to get on him i farmed a 17 min radiance (dunno the name in hon lol) then went bloodstone heart of tarassk n phase boots with 300 cs and i soloed mid but the build wasnt workin well i like that u took time to do this guide but a crysalis to start is the wrong way to go next time i play him im gonna try to do bloodstone first see how it goes

[summ1else]

In my opinion one of two things should happen. Either the tornadoes should patrol in a predictable pattern, or they should stay closer to zephyr (higher ms for tornadoes) so when he leaps he isn't without his main asset. Pathing for tornadoes should maybe be turned off? Not sure if that exploits things, but those are my ideas. Right now, farming is really easy with him, but it's difficult to be a presence in a team fight still.

[Aiden]

if you were one of the rare dark seer players in dota... then you'll love the owl.

possibly one of my favorite new heroes.

like dark seer, if you know what you're doing, he's crazy easy to farm with. farm = last hit = cyclones = free hp/mp pots every creep wave.

the hero has a lot of survivability and boomerang baiting for quick turnarounds in fights. farm a quick mock of brilliance then just move speed/survivablity items

[Pr0phecy]

Question. Does wind shield return projectiles such as the Scout's sniper shot?

[Fielding]

No, only attack-based projectiles

[Hooby]

I played a few games with zephyr trying different item builds out.
Here's what I did and how it worked.

Game one was easy I was laned against 2 melee heros so I could freefarm right from the getgo. I went:

+Stat newb items (crowns etc, i don't know the HON equivalents)
Marchers
Mock Brilliance
Heart
Heart

I went supertank comedy option just to see how well plain ol' HP worked on him and let my cyclones/mock do the work and it did pretty well.

Game two was a bit more tricky I was laned against puppet master and pestilence with a newbie teammate. Up until level 6 it was pretty slim pickings until someone came and ganked. I couldn't go straight to mock brilliance due to a couple earlygame deaths so I opted out for:

Marchers
Helm of the Black Legion
Mock Brilliance
Heart
Wingbow

By the time I got the mock brilliance up I was roaming around the map destroying people despite lackluster support. Once the game was said and done I could stand in the fountain for ~15 seconds with 3 of their team swinging at me including their fed earlygame arachna with a shieldbreaker on. I may skip heart completely in the future and go straight for wingbow as the stacking dodge between his buff and wingbow is quite absurd. Given that he has leap I may end up dropping Marchers, though I always loves me some marchers.

Skill Build I've been taking is

Cyclones
Leap
Cyclones
Evasion Buff
Cyclones
Evasion Buff
Cyclones
Ultimate
Evasion Buff
Evasion Buff
Leap
Leap
Leap
Ultimate
Stats
Ultimate
Stats ad infinum


Hi LS. We have been using the same skill build xD

I'm completely new to dota, but played wc3 ladder a lot back in the day.

This hero is by far my favorite.

[Inconmon]

if you were one of the rare dark seer players in dota... then you'll love the owl.

I was a big fan of dark seer when he was just added to the game (I think I quit dota shortly after), but I dont think he has alot in common with zephyr.
Biggest problem is that the tornados dont last long enough.

[M4rko]

I think the ult is fine. While it's radius isn't huge, it essentially gives your carries a free kill zone. When pushing/defending towers/bases it's a massive boon for the team fight.

40% attack speed, wow big deal, are you aware how pathetic is that? And the area is so easy to escape from, no1 is gonna stay inside anyway. One of the worst ultis in game tbh.

[M4rko]

No, only attack-based projectiles

I dont know whos in balance team but i wonder i they tried zephyr vs zeus 1v1?

Ok y Zeus cant farm like zephyr, barely can tho as he is decent farmer to but if this is jus related to attack projectiles then he is patheticly weak.

40% attack speed, wow big deal, are you aware how pathetic is that? And the area is so easy to escape from, no1 is gonna stay inside anyway. One of the worst ultis in game tbh.

They should make it give some evasion to your team imo

[SMACKD0WN]

I'd rather go skadi on him instead of runed axe which is worthless most of the time since you dont have anyslow/stun to keep your enemies nearby

[Genose]

I think if his ultimate followed him around, it would be much better. Currently, everytime it is cast, the enemy team just runs out of it. Perhaps lower the duration, but if it followed you, it would allow him to get kills better, by leaping on someone, casting ult, and then have Whirlwinds kill them.

[M4rko]

I think if his ultimate followed him around, it would be much better. Currently, everytime it is cast, the enemy team just runs out of it. Perhaps lower the duration, but if it followed you, it would allow him to get kills better, by leaping on someone, casting ult, and then have Whirlwinds kill them.

Such a win, ultimate that follows him, come on as attack speed is such a big deal, 40% , its as from treads for gods sake, pathetic. at least make it follow him.

[Wappo]

Love zephyr. Best anti-physical hero and jungler in my opinion.

Item build (sorry for Dota terms):

Vanguard > Phase Boots > Radiance > Shivas > Battlefury > Cuirass > Kill Everything

[kiramon]

Love zephyr. Best anti-physical hero and jungler in my opinion.

Item build (sorry for Dota terms):

Vanguard > Phase Boots > Radiance > Shivas > Battlefury > Cuirass > Kill Everything

Em so convenient...

Anyways, Shivas is fun with him. Leap in, Shivas, yay full cyclones

[faille]

can you guys add O Rly? to one of this guy's voice emotes?
or even Ya Wai

[Hooby]

40% attack speed, wow big deal, are you aware how pathetic is that? And the area is so easy to escape from, no1 is gonna stay inside anyway. One of the worst ultis in game tbh.


Sounds like you need to be more creative with your play style. Quit trying to use it in places where an enemy will escape from it. His ulti is much better for either saving a team mate's ass from getting ganked, or pushing lanes/destroying buildings.

Cast your ulti on an enemy towers/production buildings when your team is pushing, then the enemy won't be able to defend while your team tears through them at ultra speed.

I'd much rather have an ultimate that can change the pace of the game like that than a generic hero killer.

Edit: What Faille said.

[Steakmancer]

Such a win, ultimate that follows him, come on as attack speed is such a big deal, 40% , its as from treads for gods sake, pathetic. at least make it follow him.
God you are a horrible poster.

It's for team battles, it debuffs the other guys too, and will turn the tides in a team battle.

Go back to playing Sniper/Traxex and cover your ears whenever someone mentions teamwork in this game.

[kosta1]

Love zephyr. Best anti-physical hero and jungler in my opinion.

Item build (sorry for Dota terms):

Vanguard > Phase Boots > Radiance > Shivas > Battlefury > Cuirass > Kill Everything
Hm, I go for helm of black legion (or vanguard)>Steam Boots>either runed axe or the +AS item (2100g)>cuirass. Jungling is so easy after you get helm.
Also <3 windshield.

[kiramon]

I still think his ult needs a longer duration... it wears off so fast :(

[kosta1]

Also the item that throws people in the air is a nice choice after boots/helm if your team lacks disables (which happens often in pubs).

[StealthFire]

Try jungling with zephyr, I haven't personally done it because everyone is taking him away from me, but from his skills it looks like a really good idea.

This is honestly my favourite HoN-original hero. My only complaint is very meh ultimate. I don't think the slow even works properly.

[Inconmon]

Love zephyr. Best [...]

lawl

Owl is by far the worst hero in the game. As long as you dont have twice the gold and +5 levels than anyone else you are going to get ****ed badly.

Your build basicly means that before you get 450 CK to finish Cuirass after the other items that any half-decent hero will destroy you. I mean.. after you build vanguard (2275), phase boots (1550), radiance, (5325), shiva (4700) and battlefury (4350) for 18200 gold a single madman with power treads (1850) and dominator (1850) for a total of 3700 gold is going to destroy you big time.
If he gets another 4400 gold for deso hes prolly going to 2-3 hit you.

[Syllab1]

I play him completely different and had low farm early game. We had 2 leavers in my team, I got a vanguard off them + I think phase boots of my own and I just got linkens and heart, then a radiance and a bloodstone near the end. His lategame is so rigged just because you can constantly have 7 tornado's around you. Add the radiance for monster damage.

Tank zephyr best zephyr imo.

[Sindaga]

Leap is a fantastic skill for making sure that hero does not get away with one hit left, or for getting you away with one hit left.

A great item for Zephr is the radiance (forgive my dota names). Combine that constant AoE with his tornadoes and you have some serious AoE damage. Next after a radiance should be the frost plate (shiva's guard) and don't forget to get some early strength/HP in the form of bracers or a Vanguard (helm of black legion I think).

[RandomHero]

Jungled owl today and it went quite well.

Pull the 1st wave and get 2-3 tornados up.

Go to one of the smaller camps, kill them and heal.

Then rinse and repeat

[StealthFire]

^ dont forget to stack camps while waiting for respawn

[faille]

Few times I've been playing I noticed the tool tip for Wind Shield is 0% melee evasion after I purchase the skill, instead of the 30% (at level4). This seems to happen at all levels of the skill. I'm not sure if this is just a tool tip error and the skill is still working, or if the skill itself is broken as well.

Anyone else noticed this at all and what might be causing it? I thought it might be an item, but couldn't discover any conflicts.

[kosta1]

Yes the tool tip for windshield says 0% but it does work.

[Dragongem]

I've been trying to play Zephyr a lot (I like owls :3). He's a fun hero but frustrating at times. He has a ton of mana and really nothing to spend it on. I haven't played that many games (3 with Zeph, 4 total, just got it yesterday), but I've been doing fairly decently with him (usually around a .75-1:1 K to D ratio). I've been trying to see if having codex on him works in midgame, so that I can dump that mana and get some cheap kills until I go for runed axe. Unfortunately both games I tried it was over by midgame because one person in another lane got superfed superfast :[.

I think for his ultimate, you just don't get enough out of it. It lasts..7-10 seconds, maybe? (tooltip doesn't say, which it should). I would suggest either making it last longer, or having it actually apply a lasting buff/debuff to everyone hit by it, so that you get a full effect out of it (but you still have to cast it cleverly).

I'll post more when I play more!

[SyKot]

Played Zephyr today for the first time, lotsa fun. Got fast Post-Haste, then Shiva (dunno the name in HoN), Behe Heart, and then Kudra. Not the best item choice but heh, was fun :P

[Tr1cKSt3R]

Anyone else think he should have a short ranged attack? like maybe 300 range or something? i was really frustrated when i played him... he was just way to fragile to cs with. i was getting destroyed in every lane lol. i ended up neuting with him... that worked out fine once i was like lvl 8 and had leap and cyclones max. i went mek and shivas and he was pretty good. leap in, shivas and wind control. use the other evasion thing to turn tides if i got targeted. i feel like he has the potential to be a better carry than a support but idk i think he's maybe just too fragile. i think maybe the tornados should slow or something also.. like just barely like a 5% slow for 2 seconds.

edit- oh yeah and his ulty is like pretty weak. the area is rather small for the effects... either up the effects or increase the area...
OR - this, imo, would be a much better ult - Units in the area get a BUFF/DEBUFF with the effects. yeah idk i feel like i'm doing a horrible job explaining what i mean. but like dazzles ult... so when you move out of the area you're still losing armor, but in this case still have the move/attack speed effect.

[HyBReD]

The voice over for "Oh, really?" is really needed. Haha.

That and the Ultimate should follow him. I think it would be best if maybe he got bigger and started flapping like crazy ala Blood Hunter to make it fit the scenario.

[BLUEPOWERVAN]

he was just way to[sic] fragile

I bought 3 gauntlets of str to start with (gradually put on bracers as needed), and it was not bad for me. If you are any good at last hitting, consuming the tornados makes you more durable than most heroes, instead of less. Once you get radiance the income is crazy fast, and once you get heart he is super tanky vs ranged and towers.

[faille]

I like to start with the 2hp trinket and some runes, which covers most of the early health regen. I then work towards abyss skull and enhanced marchers. That sets me up nicely for farming like crazy to be able to afford behe heart, helm of black legion and maybe shaman headress. wispering helm in there somewhere also is nice, and makes you somewhat unkillable.

[Epic_Wizard]

Couple of fun things I've noticed. First of all not a lot of people know how to deal with this guy because he has no DotA counterpart. This has worked to my advantage several time because people underestimate the damage the cyclones can do even late game. I caught a cocky level 25 Moon Queen and his buddy with a friend in tow and managed to squish him and almost escape at level 17.

Granted that's a low HP hero and I had 8 Cyclones but that shows how crazy the damage on this hero can be.

I've been playing a lot of 5v5 where gold is harder to get and keep so by the time I save up for a Mock the game is won or lost and I'm left just off screen.

I generally start out going for the Enhanced Marchers(Phase Boots) for the extra damage and the speed boost for running like hell should the need arise. Then I'll go for vamp items. Generally the Abyssal Skull(Vladmir's Offering) followed by Whispering Helm(Helm of the Dominator). At this point I can farm the forest creeps as much as I like without losing HP and I'll more towards a Symbol of Rage(Satanic) and basically gain myself a fourth more life as long as I'm attacking something (given average kill times and all).

At this point I'm still experimenting with what to do. I can sometimes pull off a Hellflower(Orchid Malevolence) but I get the feeling that the individual pieces help a LOT on the way there and that I wouldn't be able to get a Mock) the ASPD boosts help a lot also and if I get past this point then my team is generally ready to deliver the killing blow.

I'm a fairly new player but I'm just saying what's served me well using what has got to be one of the best Heroes among the Original HoN creations.

[Invoker1]

zephyr is a pusher, support, and tank. idk why people get +damage items on him =\

[Mugenrider]

Yeah. The guide goes straight for pusher/damager. I think he's the best at tanking. I go straight for vanguard *forgot name here* and then heart. I usually farm faster then anyone else with the tornadoes. Doing this, you can literally tank anything. This build however, is very team dependent. I did this just now with a pub, it was worthless. I go in and tank, they do nothing. They don't support me, even if they do, they are useless. Slither with Hack and slash, *I had more dps then her without my tornados and with just a heart*, they constantly attacking Accursed when his ult is up, they run when I tank, etc. You won't believe how bad it was. I'll try for the dps build but you have to get some sort of health.

[StealthFire]

if by +damage you mean mock of brilliance, obvious synergy between large aoe burn and getting tornadoes for killz

[Epic_Wizard]

Symbol of Rage is what I generally use for heath, that and the Abyssal Skull for it's many benefits give you a good vamp stream. The +damage items are good for vamping and fast killing creeps and even heroes. Best I've ever gone with this guy was something like 350 attack speed and 300 damage a hit. The ability to last hit something from half health is not to be underestimated.

I need to experiment with stat items for him though. His low stats seem to be a major downfall and boosting these would help a lot.

[Garonga]

I have to say Zephyr is a really good hero. Everytime I've played him I have went 8-2 12-0 and 14-0. I build him as a straight chaser hero. I start out making a Helm of Black Legion, than I make my marchers. After that I continue to farm and maybe get a kill or two. If you can, TRY and get a Mock of Brilliance. But After that I go for Hack and Slash (int hero with this WHAT?!). Its actually really good for chasing someone, you get more speed and you have a chance to maim him.

If you can still keep farming I would go for cyclone staff (dont know the name for HoN) and a heart. But I personally consider Hack and Slash mandatory on him. That or Skadi

[Epic_Wizard]

I think I just had THE best game I've ever had with this guy. It would have come down VERY close but we had two people Disconnect. I got shutdown early game by Swiftblade and Soulstealer combo. I could get exp but no gold (except when they went elsewhere which was infrequent) and I kept getting followed to new lanes by Swiftblade. I finally got to the point of farming Neutral Creeps and started building my items. Very close game by level 17 with both sides having downed a lot of towers. I kept gold farming and stopping large creep rushes.

Anyways to make a long story short I kept farming and killed a few people to the point that when we had the two people Disconnect I had some Enhanced Marchers, an Abyssal Skull, a Symbol of Rage, and a Hellflower at which point I started in on a Hack and Slash which was rather quickly completed after me and the two remaining people took down their ENTIRE team. Between the attack power the vamping and the items I had all of them running from me at one point.

Learn well people: If you let Zephyr get away from you he will come back and turn you into a metaphorical three lick tootsie pop =D

[yostuffstank]

i absolutely love this hero. i have played him about 12 times and i have dominated in most games. i feel that this hero is best used as a tank (cyclones do all the dmg while you survive). however, i find myself have a hard time getting hero kills with zephyr because he really doesn't have anything to kill with other than leap. most kills i have gotten r because people do not realize that eating the cyclones heal, so they mis-calculate/judge the situation when fighting me. in theory, the cyclones can do 240 damage per second, which is a lot for just standing near zephyr, but that is usually not the case because the cyclones stray too far a lot of times and are always trailing him when moving.

a common tactic that i use with zephyr is after i get a good number of cyclones up from last hitting, i move ahead of the tower and kill the enemy creeps with the cyclones without my creeps there. btw, this is a viable tactic for me because i always get vanguard first with zephyr, followed by other tanking gears such as blademail, phase boots, heart, etc.

complaints about zephyr:

i agree that his ultimate is subpar, and i always end up leveling it up last. i am liking the suggestions of the aoe following zephyr around, or making it more like dazzle's ult where the effects stay on them for a duration after cast. i also think his cyclones should port with him whenever he ports. i find a hard time doing anything without cyclones around me, so if my base is under attack and i port, i end up being useless because i lose my cyclones. a bit more of a hero killing or ganking ability would be great too, like making his leap slow maybe?

[Firedrop]

anyone try lifesteal + guinsoos on him?

[Epic_Wizard]

Zephyr really does need more damage in his abilities whether by making the recharge on his leap go down or changing his third ability since the ranged return isn't that great (he kills the face off on Int heroes) and he can easily farm the Bow for the evasion. Also a small increase to base speed wouldn't go amiss as the general theme of the hero is very mobile and the speed is currently only about par.

[Frog100]

Zephyr is confusing >.>

[Epic_Wizard]

Yup. He's an Int hero with quite good Str progression that plays like an Agi hero but has absolutely lousy Agi progression. Oh and he has amazing Int progression. He also has very little in the way of mana-syncs for the massive mana-pool you are going to amass by late game besides his near permanent shield buff and his only useable direct damage spell is his escape/get in the middle of things ability.

Yes overall he is VERY confusing but he's also very effective and shutting down a mid-game forest farming hero that comes at you late game with a small arsenal of items is tough to do. I've found that Zephyr is ironically at his best against a team heavy with normal Int heroes because his long distance Leap combined with his whirlwinds DoT effect and the heavy damage he does with good gear mean he can swoop in and kill or finish off several low HP targets before the enemy can do much. Then he just absorbs his Whirlwinds and disappears into the forest to get more.

[Dulahey]

Why Mock Brilliance?

I see everyone talk about how he needs to be built like a tank, but I also see people saying get MB as soon as possible. Does MB aura really boost your damage, on top of cyclones, that much?

I could see it if people were saying Black Legion -> Enhanced Marchers -> THEN Mock Brilliance. Seems like a really expensive item to go for first or second.

But then again so is Helm of the Black Legion kind of =\

[BLUEPOWERVAN]

MB allows you to build cyclones cheaply and easily after using them to heal, shopping, etc., rather than being forced to burn mana/hp on dash to slowly build them back up.

Other than that, it's a completely complementary item to zephyr's role and playstyle (kiting melee, dealing as much aoe in group fights as possible).

... HoN/Dota newbies like me have no freaking idea what u guys are talking about... All these
dota terms... I guess that's why S2 Said to use Hon terms and not dota...

Signed,
GRIEVEZ

[Drasha]

Ported your guide over to HoN wiki will take it down if you don't want it up feel free to edit it you can make your own guide as well if its different from this one by a lot.

http://honwiki.net/wiki/Zephyr:Get_your_Bird_on#Wrap_Up

[Rawful]

I disagree with the spell build. Leap should come at level 1 or maybe 2, in order to avoid first blood attempts.

[Drasha]

you are free to make your own guide there is a template for it here. http://honwiki.net/wiki/Template:Guide

Just name the guide with the Heros name:Title of your guide then paste the template into the blank and fill it in.

you can ask me for help here or here.
http://honwiki.net/wiki/User_talk:Drasha

[Mingle1]

I find mock as a first or second item (hood of defiance or whatever the HoN counterpart is works very well against caster heavy teams) is generally best. Farming becomes extremely easy at around level 7 since your tornadoes destroy entire creep waves, making a 20-25 minute mock of brilliance very realistic.

Post haste is the *only* item that you should turn boots into, as leap makes phase pretty much useless and the extra health granted by treads is far outweighed by the increased farming ability granted by teleport. Games usually last long enough to farm at least a frostfield plate (you need the armor), followed by a heart and maybe a skadi if the game really drags on.

Lifesteal/hack and slash are both pretty poor item choices, as zephyr's AS isn't really high enough to take advantage of them. The health and regeneration granted by heart are much more useful than lifesteal, and shivas should be more than enough to chase down fleeing heroes, especially coupled with leap. Runed axe and thunder claw are also fairly bad for zephyr, as his farming ability is already *incredible* with tornadoes alone, and his attacked speed isn't high enough to take full advantage of them.

If your team is low on disable guinsoos (totem) is a decent item, but you do NOT need the mana regen provided by hellflower; best to let a legitimate caster make one.

[Epic_Wizard]

I've found that going for Vamp can be quite nice as it lets you actually regen health in the forest and the Str from the Symbol of Rage can push you over the 2k health mark in the late game. Follow that up with a Wingbow and/or Hack and Slash and you're looking at an uber tank expecially if the enemy is fielding ranged units. I've yet to check but I bet the evasion from Wingbow is counted seperately from the reflection chance in Windshield.

Also get a Winged Courier as soon as you can stay in the forest without having to go back to base. This saves you time and lets you build your items in the field instead of getting a huge power boost every time you go back to base for a completed item.

I've also found that Enhanced Marchers are good if only for the early game damage boost and the increased move speed. If nessesary you could easily break them down later and make a Post Haste.

[Mingle1]

I've found that going for Vamp can be quite nice as it lets you actually regen health in the forest and the Str from the Symbol of Rage can push you over the 2k health mark in the late game. Follow that up with a Wingbow and/or Hack and Slash and you're looking at an uber tank expecially if the enemy is fielding ranged units. I've yet to check but I bet the evasion from Wingbow is counted seperately from the reflection chance in Windshield.

Also get a Winged Courier as soon as you can stay in the forest without having to go back to base. This saves you time and lets you build your items in the field instead of getting a huge power boost every time you go back to base for a completed item.

I've also found that Enhanced Marchers are good if only for the early game damage boost and the increased move speed. If nessesary you could easily break them down later and make a Post Haste.

Zephyr doesn't need regen at all. All regen you need should be covered by tornadoes; when you use them, just go back to a lane for a second and get a few back. As I said, your AS isn't high enough for lifesteal or hack and slash to be effective, and if you're gearing up to become a tank there are MUCH more effective items. The additional evasion provided by wingbow is nice but unnecessary, especially considering you're not getting full use of the item. Heart, skadi, and shivas are all more effective choices.

I'm not sure you can break down items in HoN; even if you can, Enhanced Marchers are worthless, as your base damage is already high enough to last hit well and you should be having NO problems escaping if you're playing zephyr correctly.

[Nattfodd]

well since he is an entirely new hero that doesnt exist in dota.. yes he does have more of a learning curve.. but ultimately hes not hard to figure.. any ****ing idiot could realize that you must last hit..

[Nattfodd]

even healers can use regen.. it depends on the situation .. theres a lot of factors in volved... plus there is a limit on how many tornadoes you can consume... so regen really isnt that bad of an idea.

[Nattfodd]

well.. when it comes to the rare heroes that are melee intell, you can get melee attk/tank regen items... personally i dont care what hero i am.. i get bracers or something that gives hp or armor.. call it a waste of money but.. i do fine. i mean.. its not unheard of to get lots of attk damage on someone like furion.... but heres something to consider about zepher.. he is melee.. and he requires being in peoples faces.. thats what his leap is for.. so he can get in peoples faces.. and as soon as he targets an enemy hero.. enemy creeps will attack him.. so if he doesnt have any sort of tank/regen items.. he wont live long for his tornadoes to do very much dmg... so what i am saying is.. tank/hp/regen items arent akward for him.. they are obligitory.

[RaistX]

I loved the dark seer in DOTA, one of my favorite heroes. Somehow I didn't play with Zephyr untill today though.

Man, I missed alot! He's a great hero, if you get that early game farming. I got 2 bracelets, steamboots (int), helm (vanguard) and mock of brilliance. When the game was finished I had about 7k gold, but I could just keep pushing so I didn't have to go back to the base.

This is going to be one of my new favorites! Go underdog hero's! :p

[felixmcpuch]

His ultimate should follow him as he moves. It makes it difficult in group fights to hunt people down when they move out of its range. It also doesn't last long enough to make it stationary. I think if it moved with him it would be a change for the good.

[Damage]

This guide needs:

Hero stats (I had to look up primary attribute)
Durations (Ultimate)
Colors
Pictures


Otherwise, the data is good. I've yet to try this one out.

[FnC_dArK]

**** is this retard build.

[RaistX]

Played a game yesterday where a Jester and Jeriziah harresed me like crazy. I missed the farming at the start, and that really affected my game. Had an awfull k/d ratio at the end... T_T Ah well, practice makes perfect.

But one of my teammates, omg, never saw anyone talk that much trash. He kept shouting I should have bought a pair of boots at the start instead of stat+ items, for over half an our. =_=

[Chunky_Zaf]

when ppl say heart do you mean behemoths heart? (+35 Strength, +300 Hit Points, +1% HP Regeneration)


I am enjoiyng the following build (early items are because i am new to Dota / HoN and need the blight to help me heal if / when i mess up)

Blight
Marchers
Iron Bucklker (Hobl)

Complete Helm of Black Legion
Mock of brilliance


Frostified plate
Beheamoths heart.


That is what i do for now. I am totally new to this so any major holes in this build let me know. Seems to work ok for me.

[Frog100]

How come S2 don't know how to play their own heroes? >.>
Terrible item build, terrible skill build

[Spooh]

Imo

#1: Vanguard / Helm of the Black Legion
#2: Mock of Brilliance
#3: Enhanced Marchers
#4: Behemoths Heart

These 4 items are Zypher's core items. Either way they are all really good

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting items:

Stout shield x2
Runes of the blight x1

This would definately make you able to "tank" the creeps, and would make it alot easier to jump into the jungle if you push too much in the start (It's really good to jungle while having loads of cyclones up)

I usually go like this:

#1 Cyclone
#2 Leap
#3 Cyclone
#4 Leap
#5 Cyclone
#6 Cyclone
#7 Wind Shield
#8 Leap
#9 Wind Controle
#10 Leap
#11 Wind Controle
#12 Wind shield
#13 Wind shield
#14 Wind shield
#15 Stats
#16 Wind Controle
#17-25 stats.

This is just my opinion, but it also seems like what many average + zephyrs are playing.

[RogerDodger]

Always start with Buckler and Head for Helm

Once you have the lifetube for the helm (lv4 / lv5 if you lasthit bad) you can instantly take neuts whenever.

^You can't upgrade Cyclones to lv4 at lv6, but basically I do exactly what you said (except I prefer Post haste)

[Obi2k4]

This hero is by far underplayed and underestimated. Also a lot of people don't use him to his full farming capabilities. I think a lot needs to be explained about strategy of controlling a situation to maximize the amount of damage your cyclones do to people instead of giving a makeshift build order that doesn't maximize his farming capabilities.

This hero thrives better in a lane with a baby sitter / stunner, leaving lane between waves pushed to enemy tower to creep in jungle. you can abuse the direction of cyclones to maximize dps when farming and block pathing to get hero kills on low mana enemies.

Everyone saying his ulti sucksis retarded, it's amazing for survivability with leap, at the same time it's a very good ganking tool. You do not place it on top of yourself / enemies you place it behind their escape path so they have to run into it to get away.

Because this hero's entire make up is based around additional magic damage in an aoe radius around him getting caught by a chaser with magic immunity almost always counts as a death. I have pestilence in mind here as the worst late game carry to go up against as zephyr.

I could go on for a long time as I love this hero a lot and play it regularly. Perhaps I will compile a few videos and create my own guide for him.

-------------------

ps my build order is as follows

1 leap
2 cyclone
3 cyclone
4 leap
5 cyclone
6 ult
7 cyclone
8 leap
9 leap
10 shield
11 ult
12 shield
13 shield
14 shield
15 stats
16 ult
17+ stats

I go leap level 1 for the option of a quick escape for early gank. You get level 2/3 so quickly it's worth having an escape strategy over bad dps cyclones when at this stage of the game you're more last hitting than standing there letting your cyclones do damage. Shield isn't needed til end game imo.

as said earlier start with buckler / 2 and a pot/ tangos. go straight for lifetube unless you're farming really well without leaving lane then save it for later in favor of a fast mock. (90% of games i get a life tube and then mock instead of upgrading to vanguard then upgrade to vanguard after boots and mock)