Ion

• Ion
  • Arsenal
    • Energy
    • Primary Weapon
    • Ordnance Ability
    • Tactical Ability
    • Defensive Ability
    • Core
  • Ion Kits
    • Entangled Energy
    • Zero Point Tripwire
    • Vortex Amplifier
    • Grand Cannon
    • Refraction Lens
  • How to play efficiently and effectively
  • Ion Builds
    • Core Focused
    • Aggressive roamer
    • Defensive
    • Niche
  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses
  • Team Composition
  • Aegis
    • Level 2
    • Level 5
    • Level 8
    • Level 11
    • Level 14
    • Level 17
    • Level 20
  • How to play with all aegis
    • Aegis 2 Split Shot Power
    • Aegis 5 Chassis Upgrade
    • Aegis 8 Energey Storage
    • Aegis 11 Laser Shot Power
    • Aegis 17 Energy Regen
    • Aegis 20 Reflex Cannon
  • Summary

Titan Name: Ion

Health: 4 bars

Chassis type: Atlas-Based Chassis

Ion is an energy based titan that possesses abilities for all situations.

Arsenal

Energy

What is unique to Ion is her energy mechanic. All of her abilities share an energy resource that regenerates if not consumed. The only abilities that don’t drain energy are the splitter rifle, melee, electric smoke, and core. The energy level is shown on the screen near the left side.

Primary Weapon

Splitter Rifle

Automatic energy rifle that shoots energy projectiles, primary fire doesn’t consume energy. Primary fire has a slight weapon bloom. Splitter rifle has 40 ammo until needing to reload. Activating alt fire will zoom in and shoot 3 energy projectiles for the cost of 1 ammo per fire. Alt fire’s aim is always accurate. Alt fire will consume energy per round fired. Dash can be used while using alt fire.

Ordnance Ability

Laser Shot

Precision laser attack that deals burst damage and does much more damage to weak point vulnerabilities, does even more damage on the cockpit itself. Laser shot is very accurate but can miss very distant targets, and has a limited range. A laser shot can be stalled for a short time before it forces itself to fire. Dash can be used while charging a laser shot. Laser shot consumes a lot of energy. Energy does not regenerate while charging laser shots. Melee cancels laser shots therefore saving energy. Laser shot has a slight delay from the point of activating to shooting.

Tactical Ability

Laser Tripwire

Deploys 3 explosive mines connected by laser tripwires. Will do aoe burst damage when touched or destroyed. Tripwires deploy where Ion is looking. Tripwires do not damage the caster. Depending on where tripwires are deployed they might not connect, this is purely cosmetic and does not inhibit its function. When one tripwire is destroyed or activated all 3 detonate at once. The only ability that has a cooldown so it can’t be spammed. Costs a humble amount of energy to cast.

Defensive Ability

Vortex Sheild

Upon activation Ion deploys a shield that traps projectiles and stops thermite progression, once captured they are shot back when turning off the vortex shield. Vortex shield moves wherever the Titan is looking. Vortex shield cannot block already lit thermite, melee attacks, flame core, sword core, and other cores making it overload very fast) and explosions like nuclear ejections. The vortex shield does not toggle. Vortex shield drains energy slowly on activation but will speed up if a lot of projectiles are caught. Dash can be used while a vortex shield is in use.

Core

Laser Core

Ion unleashes a big laser from her chest for a short time. The laser core has unlimited range with no damage falloff, laser core is pixel accurate. Laser core does not penetrate titans or reapers but will penetrate small enemies. Laser core will deplete all defensive abilities very fast. Laser core does the same damage regardless if it grazes or directly hits enemies. All abilities including dash and running cannot be used while the laser core is active.

Ion Kits

Entangled Energy

Splitter rifle and alt fire weak point vulnerability hits will generate energy. Energy gains will exceed consumption if all 3 projectiles hit WPV.

Zero Point Tripwire

Laser tripwire no longer costs energy to cast. Cooldown is still applied.

Vortex Amplifier

Projectiles that the vortex shield deflects back have increased damage. Damage increased by 35 percent.

Grand Cannon

Laser core last longer.

Refraction Lens

Splitter rifle alt fire shoots 5 projectiles instead of 3. Shoots in a line, each projectile from alt fire has reduced damage and costs more energy.

How to play efficiently and effectively

Ion is a very powerful Titan in the right hands. Due to her wide arsenal of abilities, she can deal with many different types of threats equally. Since all of her abilities share energy it is required that you quickly decide on what to consume it on. Consider Ion a jack-of-all-trades Titan that sacrifices damage output for a more diverse set of abilities. For close and medium-range combat situations her splitter rifle alt-fire is uncontested, in addition you can combo electric smoke with laser tripwire to punish any enemies that push while shooting them. When you are dealing with distant threats use your normal splitter rifle fire with laser shot for accurate hits. Whenever you don’t have enough energy always try to use the normal splitter rifle fire to maximize any damage potential. When you want to do terminations you should activate your vortex shield to block any damage when engaging your victim. You can always gain ground with a vortex shield but you lose out on potential damage, if you decide to push with a vortex shield use any electric smoke on nearby enemies to spread chaos. Try to time vortex shield with hostile abilities if you can predict them such as Tone rockets, Legion power shot, Ronin arc waves, Monarch energy siphon, and more, the more you play Titanfall the more you can predict enemy attacks. With all Titans try to get WPV shots as they do add up over time making fights much easier. Do not hold onto laser cores, treat it as free damage since you need to keep stacking electric smokes. More on laser shots, laser shot is only good if the pilot using it is accurate, since it has high energy cost it should only be used on distant battles or to doom targets for swift executions. Always try to aim for cockpits as that will deal the most damage. Laser tripwire is a good burst damage tool, the only aoe ability that ion has other than electric smoke, it can instantly kill small targets, don’t rely on this ability for attacking. A final note on vortex shield, vortex shield deflects flame traps and flame wall progression. Vortex shield can assist with achieving nuclear ejections.

Ion Builds

Core Focused

Ion has many kits that have different uses. For those who want to focus on a laser core build it is recommended that you do Overcore and Grand Cannon to maximize laser core usage. If you decide to do a core style build try to stay back and not die. Poke with laser shots often and use splitter rifle alt fire when enemies are close enough. When you do use laser core make sure to graze lined-up titans and reapers to get the most damage out of your cores, don’t directly aim at one Titan unless it’s a 1 v 1.

Aggressive roamer

For those who wish to do a more aggressive roamer type Ion build that is very consistent, they should equip the turbo engine for more mobility, combine that with entangled energy and you get a very powerful Ion build. With this build you seek out targets and unload all of your splitter rifle alt-fire into the enemy’s face while moving around, because you get two dashes you can perform terminations much easier. A word of warning though, this build makes the chance of Titan death much higher.

Defensive

That being said you can also go with a more defensive Ion with counter-ready and entangled energy, Or even possibly use zero point tripwire. This build focuses on staying near cover while shooting. If you use zero point tripwire try to have the enemy run into tripwires and electric smokes while running back.

Niche

The least preferred Ion kits are zero point tripwire, refraction lens, and vortex amplifier. These kits are considered niche due to the lack of damage. To start, the Vortex amplifier is only good on multiplayer but pretty weak on frontier defense since most enemies won’t shoot at your vortex shield. Entangled energy makes the other kits pretty obsolete since more energy means more of any other ability you want such as laser shot. Zero point tripwire is good but only benefits you if enemies run into your tripwire, tripwire has a decently long cooldown. Last but not least is the refraction lens, due to its wider spread it is only accurate at very short ranges, and on top of that it reduces the damage and increases the energy cost for the splitter rifle alt-fire making it obsolete. If you decide to pick the niche kits then understand that you might not perform as well, still some advantages remain with these kits.

Strengths

Ion is a good drone and small enemy killer, due to her cheap cost of splitter rifle alt-fire she can efficiently kill small enemies accurately giving Ion the pest cleanup job. For the cloak drones, she can snipe them with laser shots making them much less of a threat. Ion can deal with single opponents very well with her high burst damage from splitter rifle. With her laser core, she can clean up entire waves of reapers, drones, and other small enemies all by herself. Ion does well on all maps with the necessary support of the team, she can engage well in even-level fights or fights where she is elevated. Ion is strongest at the beginning of fights.

Weaknesses

Due to Ion’s limited energy supply, she can be overwhelmed easily if out of position. Ion has no good area of effect abilities making her less optimal on maps with a huge number of titans like Rise. Ion’s offensive abilities do get blocked by shields like particle wall or gun shield making arc traps a must. Since Ion’s vortex shield is tied to energy you will find yourself not being able to use it often making Ion more prone to die. Ion gets weaker as the battle goes on until she is allowed to regenerate energy making her unable to sustain herself in long battles. Arc Titans can prove to be a great challenge to Ion since they will use sword blocks on her abilities. To best counter arc titans you should combine laser tripwire with electric smoke while shooting them with splitter alt-fire for best results.

Team Composition

Ion pairs well with any Titan, as long as Ion is in the front or has an obstruction-less view of the enemies she does very well. Your teammates should be able to cover you while you regenerate energy to help with battlefield tempo. Due to your laser shot, you can help ally Ronins or other titans kill enemies. Ion can fight well on elevated or even terrain against enemies.

Aegis

Level 2

Split Shot Power

Splitter rifle shots deal more damage. The damage will have a multiplier with WPV.

Level 5

Chassis Upgrade

ION gets 1 more block of health giving her 5 blocks instead of 4.

Level 8

Energy Storage

Ions energy storage is increased. Allows for 2 successive laser shots after the other following by a quick third one after a short time. Ions energy bar ascends off screen because of the increased storage.

Level 11

Laser Shot Power

Laser shot deals even more damage to weak point vulnerabilities. This allows laser shots to instantly kill doomed Titans with a cockpit shot. If reapers are headshot they will lose 95 percent of their health.

Level 14

Shield Upgrade

Ions max chassis shield is increased. Chassis shield gains will not affect battery shield gains but will require more healing from the monarch’s healing abilities.

Level 17

Energy Regen

Ions energy regeneration is increased by 25 percent.

Level 20

Reflex Cannon

Laser core duration extends with kills. All enemies in the game will increase laser core duration with different time bounties, small enemies give little while reapers give a good amount, and Titan deaths give the most time. The laser core drain bar does not accurately represent reaper or small enemy death time gains. If the laser core lasts long enough Ion can run and move around faster. Laser core deaths don’t count when dooming nuke titans, once the nuke Titan explodes it will count the death.

How to play with all aegis

Aegis 2 Split Shot Power

Ion’s aegis makes her incredibly powerful, and her level 2 upgrade split shot power makes Ion’s aggressive plays much better, since her splitter rifle is what you always use this upgrade improves her in all battles.

Aegis 5 Chassis Upgrade

For the level 5 aegis ion becomes more tanky, not a significant upgrade but a welcome one nonetheless. This will help out in all future battles.

Aegis 8 Energey Storage

Her level 8 Energy storage is a direct upgrade for all of her energy abilities, this allows her to use two laser shots in succession. Another benefit this adds is that 40 alt splitter rifle rounds won’t deplete your energy like before. Aegis 8 upgrades everything about her, you will find that your damage output is increased by a lot. Once you get aegis 8 you will find yourself having energy for longer battles.

Aegis 11 Laser Shot Power

On her level 11 Aegis laser shot power her long-range combat gets much better, WPV hits to produce a massive damage increase that rivals North Star’s bullets, after achieving this upgrade laser shot should prove to be very rewarding helping long-range battles more. Reapers when headshotted will die very fast to a follow-up of a few splitter rifle shots making reaper cleanup very easy. Doomed titans can be cleaned up with style now if the Ion is accurate.

Aegis 17 Energy Regen

Her level 17 aegis energy Regen is a game changer, now her energy abilities can be used sooner and more often. With aegis 8 this gives Ion a much needed battlefield advantage, Ion at this point is much more efficient and deadly.

Aegis 20 Reflex Cannon

Finally, her Aegis 20 is the reflex cannon, any Ion player who likes a core-focused build just got the holy grail of a core upgrade, now her cores will be extended by enemy deaths meaning more damage will be dealt making it possible to kill entire portions of waves with a single core. Since all enemy deaths extend the duration of laser core Ion should clear groups of stalkers and other small enemies for the team. For the best core time gains enemy reapers give a lot of core time for the little amount of health they have making them the most efficient way to extend your core, if you can focus core on groups of small enemies, kill reapers and graze enemy titans while at it, you will therefore dominate the match. Always finish off doomed Titans while using laser core. A good team can help feed you by weakening titans and reapers. The most inefficient enemies to feed core with are nuke titans as they have a very long death animation. Even without the grand cannon build you can still enjoy the benefits of reflex cannon. With all Aegis installed Ion becomes a monster with burst damage, Ion can engage into fights expend energy then leave immediately to regenerate fast. You won’t be invincible and will possibly die so always take the necessary precautions of using terrain for cover.

Summary

To finalize the Ion guide, two main kits are better for frontier defense, entangled energy and grand cannon, if you don’t know what to decide then just do entangled energy so you can sustain much longer in battles, entangled energy keeps ion in the fight much longer. With her core-focused grand cannon build she will have higher highs and lower lows. Counter-ready is always a good pick with Ion since electric smoke is very useful. Turbo engine for better mobility and Overcore to push out those laser cores much more often. As always being accurate is a must, time your laser shots since there is a slight delay from activating to firing. For those arcs titans and most battles try to poke with laser shots to weaken enemies before engaging them closer. Make sure to use a vortex shield when trying to get terminations. Combine electric smoke with laser tripwire for maximum damage. Ion auto titans aren’t that good for those wondering. If you decide to go nuke eject Ion make sure to use that vortex shield.

That will conclude the Ion guide, if any information you were trying to find was not on this guide it is suggested you look over to the other guides for specific information.