Zephyr Guide

[[NatA]RequiemXXX]

Written for Forests of Caldavar normal mode. Patch 2.0.17.

Zephyr

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
   
   • Story
   • Hero Role
   • Stats
   • Pros & Cons
2. Skills
   
   • Description
   • Builds
3. Item Builds
   • Starting
   • Early Game
   • Mid Game
   • Late Game/Luxury
4. Strategy
   • Start
   • Early Game
   • Mid Game
   • Late Game
5. Friends/Enemies
6. Replays

Introduction

Story

A riddler, a sage, and a lover of sweets, Zephyr sadly is known in these times simply as a warrior of the winds. Though he chose not to participate in the Beast Horde’s war with the humans, he has joined battle against the Hellbourne, and the powerful winds and aerial attacks he calls down upon the daemons are a welcome addition to the new Legion.

Hero Role

Zephyrs role varies from game to game depending on who's on your team. Generally Zephyrs role is to either tank or to carry, usually these 2 go hand in hand. Don't be fooled, Zephyr can also be a powerful ganker and if needed should be played as support(especially in lower tier games were no one wants to buy wards).

Stats

Attack Type: Melee
Damage: 48-58
Movement Speed: 295
Armor: 2.5
Magic Armor: 5.5
Strength: 17 (+2.5)
Agility: 18 (+2.7)
Intelligence: 15 (+1.8)

Pros & Cons

+ Virtually unkillable end game
+ His abilities have multiply uses making him useful in a variety of situations
+ If played well can change the direction of any game
+Very good at pushing towers, his gust and cyclones along with a mock will destroy a creep wave before your creeps even get close to it
- Requires large amounts of farm to be usefull
- Agility gain slightly lower than most carries
-Low starting health makes it difficult to lane against nukers early on
- Requires team cooperation for ult to be useful (Will explain later)

Skills

Description

Gust

Zephyr summons a gust of wind in the direction
of his choosing, pushing , stunning and dealing damage
to enemies it hits.
All units caught in the wind cone are pushed in the direction of the wind,dealt 75/150/250/300 Magic damage and stunned for 0.1 seconds.
Mana cost: 120
Cooldown: 18/14/16/12 seconds
Range: 700
Radius: 250

Description:

This skill is one of the reasons why Zephyr is a beast. It has several uses including: last hitting enemies that are too far away for your cyclones and auto-attacks, pulling enemies closer into either your ultimate or very eager allies, and pulling enemies away saving your allies from very sticky situations (ramp charge anyone?). As awesome as this skill is it does take some practice to land perfectly, it is not something you want to miss.

Cyclones

Zephyr spawns a small cyclone on every
kill he makes. Spawned cyclones automatically
patrol around Zephyr and damage enemies
they touch. Zephyr can then call all active
cyclones to heal himself.
On kill spawns cyclone which lasts 50 seconds and deals 15/20/25/30 damage per second to enemies it touches. Max 2/4/6/8 cyclones. Deals 75% damage to creeps. When the cyclones expire they heal Zephyr for 30 health

Description:

Like Gust this skill has a variety of uses. They make Zephyr capable of jungling. In sticky situations you can consume them for the extra health in order to survive ganks. And of course the magic damage that your enemies take in team fights is no laughing matter. Think about it 8 cyclones each doing 30 magic damage a second, thats 240 magic damage a second on top of everything else going on. As you see from the picture below the range of Zephyrs
cyclones is pretty big and enough to kill low health enemies on the run.

Wind Shield

Zephyr uses his control of the wind to
create a protective barrier around himself,
increasing his evasion. The barrier also has
a chance to redirect incoming projectile
based attacks back at the attacker.
On attack applies Wind Shield to self for 3 seconds when Zephyr lands an attack.
Wind Shield Effect:
+10% Movement speed
6/9/12/15% Melee evasion
6/9/12/15% Chance to redirect projectile based attacks back at the attacker

Description:

This adds to Zephyrs crazy abilities. Increases movement speed allows you to chase down enemies more effectively, Melee evasion makes you even harder to kill, and imagine Flint getting hit by his own crit on top of all the damage your doing him. Dead Flint .

Typhoon

Zephyr creates a mighty Typhoon, slowing movement speed
and dealing damage to any units near it. The closer the Enemy is to the center of the Typhoon, the higher the damage and speed reduction becomes.
Spawns one cyclone per second and applies Harsh winds to enemies in 550 radius for 6/8/10 seconds.
Mana Cost 100/150/200
Cooldown 100 seconds
Harsh winds Effect:
1% Movement slow per charge
Deals up to 60/80/100 Magic damage per second
Charges are based on the distance the enemy is from the center of the Typhoon, the closer they are the more charges.

Description:

This HAS to be landed properly. The trick with Zephyrs Ultimate is to get as many people into it as possible then have your teammates stun everyone in it to provide max damage. Since the snare on Zephyrs Ultimate has been nerfed in a previous patch you must use Gust in order to pull enemies back into the Typhoon for maximum effectiveness. Always remember unless they are dead in the middle of the Typhoon the snare is not that strong so be prepared to Gust them back in, predict what direction they will run in!

Here is a good example of how to land your ulti, I was still at the rune when Lego initiated so it took me some time to get there:





Builds
There are generally 3 ways that I have seen this hero being built. I consider all of them viable but I ordered them from most to least viable.
Build A:Early Wind shield

1. Gust
2. Cyclones
3. Cyclones
4. Wind Shield
5. Cyclones
6. Typhoon
7. Cyclones
8. Gust
9. Gust
10. Gust
11. Typhoon
12. Wind shield
13. Wind shield
14. Wind shield
15. Stats
16. Typhoon

Build B

1. Gust
2. Cyclones
3. Gust
4. Cyclones
5. Cyclones
6. Typoon
7. Cyclones
8. Gust
9. Gust
10. Wind shield
11. Typhoon
12. Wind shield
13. Wind Shield
14. Wind shield
15. Stats
16. Typhoon

Build C

1. Cyclones
2. Gust
3. Cyclones
4. Gust
5. Cyclones
6. Typhoon
7. Cyclones
8. Gust
9. Gust
10. Wind shield
11. Typhoon
12. Wind shield
13. Wind shield
14. Wind shield
15. Stats
16. Typhoon

Whether or not you want to grab WindShield is up to you, I suggest it because the extra movement speed will help you from moving from creep spawn to creep spawn. The small amount of evasion and redirection of projectiles also can help if you are being targeting in a team fight early on.

Item Builds

Starting
:HealthPotion::IronBuckler::LoggersHatchet:WardOfSight
If you plan on being able to farm effectively and your team doesn't buy wards do it yourself or you will suffer in the long run.
Early
:FortifiedBracelet:x2:HelmOfTheBlackLegio :EnhancedMarchers:
Start off your Early game with 2 Fortified Bracers to make you a little tanky.
Then proceed in finishing your HotBL by getting Lifetube and then Beastheart. Finish off your early game with a pair of Ghost Marchers and your good to go.

Mid
:Mock: :BarrierIdol:
This is what your entire Mid game farm should go into, an early MoB can mean the quick finish of a game. The damage on this item is nice but it is the aura that makes it such a good item on Zephyr. Your Cyclones offer 240 Magic damage per second along with this and your Ultimate that's 380 Magic damager per second. Shamans Headdress offers Magic Resistance that will eliminate any magic threat the other team may have.

Late
:BehemothsHeart: aemonicBreastplate :BarbedArmor: :FrostwolfsSkull: :HackNSlash: :NullfireBlade: :FrostfieldPlate: :Wingbow:
Your late game is up to you, however I do suggest that you grab a Behemoths Heart and either Frostburn, Frostwolf Skull, or Nullfire blade. The reason you want to get one of these three is because the slow on the item enables you to keep enemies in your ultimate longer.
Frostfield Plate offers an effective slow as well as some extra armor, it gives the same amount of armor as Demonic Breastplate so unless your dealing with a pesky Lego or Arma a Frostfield would be fine.
Wingbow is a very situational item, I've read that it is a good item to get when you are dealing with a fed ranged carry but I also see potential in this item when you have a melee carry to deal with because since Evasion is taken from the item with the highest evasion Wingbows 30% will be taken over Wind shields 15% evasion. Not to mention the damage that it gives along with attack speed.

Strategy

Start

Usually you will be in one of the side lanes simply because there is a better mid hero on the team and of course because you will most likely get a better farm in the jungle anyway. I suggest to go Top for Helbourne and Bot for Legion with a strong solo lane hero.

Early

Here is where most people disagree, some people say that Zephyr should jungle while others say he shouldn't. The decision on whether or not to jungle depends on who's in your lane. If your laning with someone that can solo well then you should go and jungle, both of you will get better farm in doing so. On the other hand if your laning with a strong babysitter or just someone that can guarantee you easy early game kills then you should just stay in lane and farm off the opposing team as much as possible.

Mid

Whether or not you decided to jungle you should be coming close to your Sword of the High by now. Your ulti has ganking potential and combined with its short cooldown you should be using it often to score easy kills.

Late

At this point you are a monster, nothing should be able to stop you. You should be stomping the enemy in team fights and only jungling if you are not pushing a lane or defending. Zephyr is a tank as well as a carry meaning you are supposed to initiate unless there is someone else (like behe for example) that is better suited to initiate. The problem with a Zephyr initiating is it is the hardest situation in which to land your ulti, if someone else initiates and a huge clusterf*ck forms it is the perfect opportunity to use your ulti and devour the enemy team.

Friends & Enemies

Friends
Anyone that can stun is your best friend. These are a few heros that are perfect for destroying your enemies:
:fors::chro:
These are a few that I could think of, if you have any other suggestions please tell me.
Enemies
From the research that I have done I must say it is hard to find a good counter for Zephyr, especially when he's farmed but here are a few that I have had problems with before:
:jera::chro:
Anyone with stuns and nukes is bad news especially early to mid game. If they can blink then it makes it hard to kill them thus making you hate them with a passion. The reason why scout is on this list is because I have seen many people talking about him being an effective counter to Zephyr, feedback on scouts effectiveness against Zephyr would be very appreciated. Pred, Jera and Chipper all counter Zephyr to some extent because of their Magic Immunity, which is an excellent reason to grab a Nullfire blade sometime during the game. Chronos can be a very annoying opponent if he catches you without any cyclones and ultis before you can get yours off, now if your really pro then you can Gust him while he's using his ulti to null it.

Replays

http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/m...p?mid=32749828
http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/m...p?mid=32760051
As you see from both these replays and probably will in further ones after farming up Mock of Brilliance you can pretty much do and make whatever the hell you want(within reason)
More coming soon.
Edit Log:
4/10/11-Edited the size of most images.
Indented some body text.

[Larceny]

This isn't finished, right?

[Anakha]

Clearly not.

[Jezu]

Re-size the pictures so we don't have to side-scroll :/

[[NatA]RequiemXXX]

Yes it is still a work in progress. The reason why I put it up on this forum already is to get feedback on what is already written. There really are no current Zephyr guides written (other than one that I am aware of) which is a real shame because he is a very powerful and many times underestimated hero.

[[PDNO]frtzarn]

DONT JUNGLE AT LVL3. it kinda screws your lane partner and hopefully you would be doing well in lane...HB is amazing with zephyr, as his ult, slow and life void over your ult and cyclones is pretty awesome

[[NatA]RequiemXXX]

Well that depends, if you are laning with a strong solo hero then it is to your and his/her advantage for you to jungle coming out every once in a whole to tear them apart. I'll provide a little more detail in the mid game section to clear things up.

[[V3P]pellorockas]

what happens if you screw up mid game and you cant farm your mock fast enough? Skip and go to luxuries or continue farming it until you get it?
Also what about frostfield plate? It can snare so you keep heroes in your ult and also gives armor.

[[NatA]RequiemXXX]

I've had some rough mid games and I'd say if you can't get Mock by 32min(on avg I start farming Sword of the High at 17min and finish Mock at 25) then skip it go for a shamans headdress and then make your choice of wolf, frostburn, or nullfire. Ideally if your team is being retard feeders you should realize this before that ~17 min mark, ward your jungle and safely farm so you can come out a raping machine, sadly we all know this can sometimes be impossible. I will add Frostfield Plate to the Luxury list as a possible pick.

[Jezu]

From my experience in 1800+ while playing Zephyr, the best skill build is
Cyclone
Wind Shield
Cyclone
Gust
Cyclone
Ulti
Cyclone
Max gust, ulti, max wind shield. (I have never lost with this skill build)

There is absolutely no reason to buy Hatchet on Zephyr, rather get a HP pot and 2 minor totems, way better, as the enemies will outharass u very fast if u start off with 3 runes of blight and nothing else.
Buying Bracelets over Power Supply is retarded, and you can't have slots for bracelets if you build the items correctly (basically, not having mystic vestment before 15 min is fail in 95% the games and you should always carry a TP)
Zephyr is pretty strong mid hero, wins most of the public mid heroes.
You should never go jungle at lvl 3, especially not as Zephyr.
Zephyr is similiar to Swiftblade. Strong early and midgame, but gets outcarried late by most of the heroes. Focus on raping the early and the midgame, dont farm jungle nonstop.
And i repeat, re-size your pictures and indent all body text, or most of the people and even bother reading this.
There is absolutely no way to play Zephyr as a support anymore, as the Gust doesn't stun (real stun, not mini) and he is melee hero with fairly low lane presence (good for a carry, very bad for a support)
There is no tanks in hon.
Mock is overrated. Providing no survivability, and having hard buildup, you lose midgame presence, and it becomes very useless lategame.
Having Daemonic and Frostburn, both with fairly easy buildup, makes you dominate the midgame, and makes you stronger lategame than mock would.
You can farm well enough without Mock

EDIT: Really, the only resolution in which we could see whats happening? How about, open Paint (or something better, but Paint does it well enough) and take the unnecessary crap which provides us nothing out of the pictures?! Also, yes, we could easily see whats happening even with lower size.
If you are willing to actually teach someone the hero, backup your opinions with justification, and tell why to do what. Guides aren't supposed to say "Get this and then that" they are supposed to explain why are 'this' and 'that' so important and why they are the best choices.

[Larceny]

It's sad how little you know about Zephyr, Jezu.

[Theburned]

ye kinda stopped reading after "jungle lvl 3"

[Theburned]

also the mock is a nice way to get the enemy to target you mid game, you are a tank and the mock is a perfect way to taunting them. (yes there are actually tanks to some extent in HoN, but they do mostly deal small amount of damage if not targetted, deals high damage if focused, also soaks up a small amount of damage. though the need for tanks = 0 in case you are not getting targetted as then you will be dealing way less damage than anyone else.)

[Anakha]

An item that provides a potential 200dps aura with +60 damage reduces your midgame presence? lolk

[Jezu]

An item that provides a potential 200dps aura with +60 damage reduces your midgame presence? lolk

40 DPS aura*
Also, yes. The hard buildup of Mock leaves you fairly vulnerable while farming for it, and does not provide that much on Zephyr.
Obviously, if you can farm it fast and with no problem, then it is cool. But if your team isn't winning the game during your afk farm, you should help the team and win the game fast, because Zephyr rapes most of the other carries midgame, if built with the 'correct' items (frostburn + daemonic)
When midgame is won, the enemy carry won't have too much, and it is far by easier to outcarry him.

A Dark Lady/Madman/Chronos/etc... with 6 items usually beats a Zephyr with 6 items lategame, don't make the game go like that.

[iToggle]

Not jungling till level 3.
Suggesting a nullfire blade.
Suggest to get slows because you don't have teammates with CC, when your ult puts then to minimum movement speed.
Suggesting getting more than 1 point into gust before cyclones, windshield, and ult are maxed, even though it blows in damage and you can't even get remotely closed to spamming it. No great jungling suggestions.

Tbh:

Typhoon -> Cyclones -> Wind Shield -> Stats or Gust on preference/amount of disables on your team.

Shield -> HotBL -> EMarchers -> Shaman's -> Mock of Brilliance -> Barrier (if against heavy aoe magic -> Behemoths heard -> anything.

Adapt accordingly as always. Don't get any downie items.

[[NatA]RequiemXXX]

Re-sized all the pictures in order to please Jezu.