Zeph got twisted by recent updates

[Adanacian]

Is it just me?
After some of the recent movement and mana changes, I find that Zeph can't escape like he use too. Almost all characters can out dash him, leaving him for slaughter during a retreat or even just traversing the map. I also noticed his win rate has recently dropped, could this be why? I love playing healers and Zeph is my personal favourite. I tried out many builds now to try to remedy this lack with no avail. On the positive side I did notice how much more damage output and knock potential he has now. This aspect has been awesome, on the flip side, it isn't worth the trade off, especially if he can't escape in the first place to bring the team back. If someone has a solution I'm all ear. I really hope something changes soon, until then I think I'll avoid ranked when playing Zeph.

Cheers, happy gaming all.

[Manny The Cynical]

I agree, i noticed that wind dashing now often gets me stunned as if i was gliding, while before i was immune to it. This has forced me to play more defensibly and worry more about my positioning but on the flip side i take less risks to try and get knocked wisps or bad position/fight teammates away with the dash. Personally i ain't a fan of this.

[Adanacian]

Well after giving it some time I am not impressed.

I am curious as to what people think about the subtle yet massively influential changes to Zeph in recent updates and beyond. I know I aint the best at this game and likely lack some understanding of certain things thus I would love to hear other opinions on the matter.

I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster ride when playing Zeph. Everytime I play it seems to be something different. For example the weird week… or however long it was that Zeph’s Cyclone Dash left Wind Gust things behind him. Something that was more of a hindrance than a benefit, thank goodness they changed that rather quickly. I know for sometime now (About Late March) Zeph’s movement and Dash has simply not been up to par. Almost all other champs still can out run him whether disengaging or traversing. He just doesn’t cut it, barely being able to keep up with teammates. In times you need to run to survive, Zeph is rather doomed unless you can pull some kind of trickery. In current betta, I still find it lacking. Friends that I play with too have noticed having similar remarks. Now I am not here to rain on the creators parade, I simply wish to help improve this wonderful character. It’s obvious that there have been some subtle yet influential changes to him recently and it’s posing some troubles, making him far less desirable to play. I really do believe he needs some kind of change to his ability to traverse the field, specifically when disengaging.
Some ideas that come to mind immediately are;
#1 - Allow his [Shift] Cyclone Dash to scale, gaining more distance as it's chosen through leveling.
#2 - Allow his [Shift] Cyclone Dash to scale in a way that gives him double dash or triple dash just at less distance or greater cool down.
I know these probably aren't the greatest suggestions, and I’m sure there's other people who have better ideas than I, none the less… I really hope something changes with him soon, specifically regarding his survivability via movement. Something that made me initially fall in love with this character was that if your entire team got wiped, being on the back line, Zeph could typically get out to bring back the team, I’d really love to see this brought back to the character.
How about all you other Zeph players, what’s your experience been like? What do you think about the changes to Zeph? and what changes do you think could make him more fun and viable to play?

Happy Gaming All,