Regardless of whether or not the new obstacles are indeed as rumored, Ion clouds, it will be interesting to see if Ion weapons become more viable given how badly they punish droids, depriving them of essential all action and reposition after executing an Ion maneuver. This is especially true for Trajectory Simulator throwing Ion Bombs, which could be quite disruptive on CIS swarms.

Granted, up until this point in the early stages of 2.0, ions for the most part have been ignored or dismissed... But also seeing how much ions could also impact reposition dependent pilots like Republic Jedi and Poe, it will be intriguing to see if squads will bring some sort of Ion component to their future builds. Guri and 4-LOM are making waves currently, the IGs will eventually get their day again too, so there is already some potential benefit to using them. Aside from the aforementioned Trajectory Simulator Ion combo, it could be neat to see a largely dismissed pilot like Dace Bonearm (who I picture being played by Macho Man Randy Savage for some reason, making the "oh yeah" sound when he uses his ability) become a possibility. Rebels as a faction overall might actually have the best tools and build options to counter the CIS.

For the longest time ions have been an afterthought... But they are an element that all factions could implement to really neutralize an entire Faction collectively.

Just thinking aloud...

I know that Ion cannons may not be all that bad on an Upsilon, as they may actually finally ionize something.

Sorry, what’s different with Ion and Droids?

2 minutes ago, KiloFiX9 said:

Sorry, what’s different with Ion and Droids?

Ionization doesn't let you perform any actions except for focus during your perform action step. So far, all droid pilots shown have only the Calculate action. Therefore, they can't take any actions at all when ionized (at least during their perform action step).

1 minute ago, CaptainIxidor said:

Ionization doesn't let you perform any actions except for focus during your perform action step. So far, all droid pilots shown have only the Calculate action. Therefore, they can't take any actions at all when ionized (at least during their perform action step).

Ahh got it - thanks.

6 minutes ago, KiloFiX9 said:

Sorry, what’s different with Ion and Droids?

Can only take a focus after having been Ionized. Droids have calculate, not focus.

Unless they add a way to hit multiple droids with ions at once, you're probably better off just killing them rather than trying to control them? Vulture Droids only have 3 hull behind 2 agility.

When did the rules for ion change?

My expectation is that while ionization is a nice flavorful weakness for the CIS their real pain point to begin with is going to be a dearth of high initiative pilots.

33 minutes ago, Cloaker said:

Regardless of whether or not the new obstacles are indeed as rumored, Ion clouds, it will be interesting to see if Ion weapons become more viable given how badly they punish droids, depriving them of essential all action and reposition after executing an Ion maneuver. This is especially true for Trajectory Simulator throwing Ion Bombs, which could be quite disruptive on CIS swarms.

Granted, up until this point in the early stages of 2.0, ions for the most part have been ignored or dismissed... But also seeing how much ions could also impact reposition dependent pilots like Republic Jedi and Poe, it will be intriguing to see if squads will bring some sort of Ion component to their future builds. Guri and 4-LOM are making waves currently, the IGs will eventually get their day again too, so there is already some potential benefit to using them. Aside from the aforementioned Trajectory Simulator Ion combo, it could be neat to see a largely dismissed pilot like Dace Bonearm (who I picture being played by Macho Man Randy Savage for some reason, making the "oh yeah" sound when he uses his ability) become a possibility. Rebels as a faction overall might actually have the best tools and build options to counter the CIS.

For the longest time ions have been an afterthought... But they are an element that all factions could implement to really neutralize an entire Faction collectively.

Just thinking aloud...

ion bombs aren't a thing now... Conner net yes but not ion bomb. You could argue that Damaged Sensor Array becomes a more threatening crit and therefore a soft buff to non droid pilots.

I think you are right that ion will have more importance, but with things like discharge veins, passed calculate tokens, and other tools to counter an ion meta

22 minutes ago, Blail Blerg said:

When did the rules for ion change?

With the release of 2.0, but they previewed the Ion changes even before that.

1 hour ago, Cloaker said:

Aside from the aforementioned Trajectory Simulator Ion combo, it could be neat to see a largely dismissed pilot like Dace Bonearm (who I picture being played by Macho Man Randy Savage for some reason, making the "oh yeah" sound when he uses his ability) become a possibility.

BONEARM IS READYYYYYYY

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i8I43bF840s

Are Ion Bombs confirmed to be coming back?

Also, nothing will make Dace Bonearm into a possibility. They somehow made him worse in 2.0 than he was in first edition, which I did not think could be done.

Guri already super hates ion, and sometimes she gets a focus anyways.

Disposable Vulture droids won't care (damage would be worse), but droid pilots in the Infiltrator or B-22 super will.

My guess would be that ion bombs do NOT come back. A new ion bomb would potentially used dice so that it isn't an auto-take ion token. The change to ion weapons was actually a major nerf. Probably good because ionization really is powerful. I've been looking at ion torps cause they are the best way to throw 4-dice ion shots, which is what you need to have decent chances to actually ionize things.

In another post I brought up an idea of "Blue Actions". Actions that can reduce stress but are disabled if ionized.

As we can see that is not what FFG had in mind. Maybe these "ion clouds" could have an interference with calculate tokens.

Ion isn't coming back.

The only ships that maybe don't mind taking an ion option are the Y-Wing, Gunboat and Scyk and that's only because the ion option gains them a red die.

The nerf is too much. No matter how you look at it, you are now always sacrificing damage to deal an ion token, and that just isn't worth it.

The only way that changes is if the Seps get a ship with decent health, a decent dial and a droid pilot that's good enough to see heavy meta rotation. Doesn't matter how slippery they are, if you get a shot on a low health ship you want it to die then and there if it possibly can - ion won't do that. It's only worth it when you know mathematically you couldn't kill it in that shot anyway, and sacrificing a damage will help all your other ship shoot it next turn. But if they can all catch it in arc next turn anyway because it's got a Lambda's dial, it isn't worth it then either.

I don't know if such a ship exists, other than Guri. And funnily enough there's still no one running ion to deal with her.

ions are only taken because its all we got turret/cannon wise thats worth mentioning.

The moment we get something else ions will be as rare as before. I still expect TLTs to return, just not in the same form as before (R1-2, 2nd shot only if you missed)

5 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

I don't know if such a ship exists, other than Guri. And funnily enough there's still no one running ion to deal with her

Tractor beams are more fun for messing with Guri. Now on topic for me. IF there ends up being a consistent way to apply the Ionization effect droids will become as rare as, if not more so than, they are now. I think FFG had a good reason for making it a pain in the butt to get a single (much less multiple) Ion Token through (slightly annoyed me last night when I was trying to get a token on L3-37 with my Scyks). There is no point playing a faction if its core ships can't be used to any effect.

6 hours ago, GuacCousteau said:

Ion isn't coming back.

The only ships that maybe don't mind taking an ion option are the Y-Wing, Gunboat and Scyk and that's only because the ion option gains them a red die.

The nerf is too much. No matter how you look at it, you are now always sacrificing damage to deal an ion token, and that just isn't worth it.

The only way that changes is if the Seps get a ship with decent health, a decent dial and a droid pilot that's good enough to see heavy meta rotation. Doesn't matter how slippery they are, if you get a shot on a low health ship you want it to die then and there if it possibly can - ion won't do that. It's only worth it when you know mathematically you couldn't kill it in that shot anyway, and sacrificing a damage will help all your other ship shoot it next turn. But if they can all catch it in arc next turn anyway because it's got a Lambda's dial, it isn't worth it then either.

I don't know if such a ship exists, other than Guri. And funnily enough there's still no one running ion to deal with her.

Ion has always been about sacrificing damage for control. The problem is that the control is not guaranteed on a hit .

Ion has always been a difficult thing to get right. In some case it can be fun to walk a ship off the table, but if Ion becomes too much of the meta it is the first to Ion wins. Personally I thin Ion cannons should always do ion damage even on the first dice as well as additional ion damage. Not 1 damage then ion damage.

3 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Personally I thin Ion cannons should always do ion damage even on the first dice as well as additional ion damage. Not 1 damage then ion damage.

Not planning on flying Vulture Droids, Tri-Fighters, L3-37 Escape Pod or Guri I take it? 1 token is enough to lock down any small based droid ship that has no coordinate backing it, and even that coordinate isn't going to help much.

4 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Not planning on flying Vulture Droids, Tri-Fighters, L3-37 Escape Pod or Guri I take it? 1 token is enough to lock down any small based droid ship that has no coordinate backing it, and even that coordinate isn't going to help much.

Of course 1 token is enough, the problem is it takes 2 hits to get 1 token. Now on Vulture Droids it might be easy enough with only 2 agility but Guri, you are depending on Green Dice to be asleep too much assuming your own dice gives you hits for 2 out of your 3.

3 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Of course 1 token is enough, the problem is it takes 2 hits to get 1 token. Now on Vulture Droids it might be easy enough with only 2 agility but Guri, you are depending on Green Dice to be asleep too much assuming your own dice gives you hits for 2 out of your 3.

In my experience 3 greens fail more often than they succeed to fully block damage (why I have so much fun using tractor beams, I'm going to be tossing my target around most turns) and 3 reds succeed almost as often as they fail to get more than 1 hit going against 3 greens (so after nullification, usually 1 damage/token gets through). Having the 1 hit/crit that chips through the 3 green on Guri or other 3 green droid apply a hit + an Ion would make the small base droids a no go for even casual play (outside of mutual agreement by the players that Ion weapons won't be used) and be nasty as **** against any other small base.

Just now, Hiemfire said:

In my experience 3 greens fail more often than they succeed to fully block damage (why I have so much fun using tractor beams, I'm going to be tossing my target around most turns) and 3 reds succeed almost as often as they fail to get more than 1 hit going against 3 greens (so after nullification, usually 1 damage/token gets through). Having the 1 hit/crit that chips through the 3 green on Guri or other 3 green droid apply a hit + an Ion would make the small base droids a no go for even casual play (outside of mutual agreement by the players that Ion weapons won't be used) and be nasty as **** against any other small base.

Fully block damage sure, but greens don't need to fully block damage to block the ion. And that is what Ion turrets is mostly used for, just dealing 1 damage (because 3 dice > 2 dice) and that is it. It is better at giving damage then giving ion tokens and that is the flaw with this design. It breaks theme and not very good to begin with.

The simple problem with ion weapons is it takes 2 hits for 1 token. If you only get 1 hit, might as well be from another weapon.

1 minute ago, Marinealver said:

Fully block damage sure, but greens don't need to fully block damage to block the ion. And that is what Ion turrets is mostly used for, just dealing 1 damage (because 3 dice > 2 dice) and that is it. It is better at giving damage then giving ion tokens and that is the flaw with this design. It breaks theme and not very good to begin with.

The simple problem with ion weapons is it takes 2 hits for 1 token. If you only get 1 hit, might as well be from another weapon.

In the current setup you're correct, they don't. In the adjusted rendition that you suggest they wouldn't prevent Ionization allot of the time on small bases, which is what I was focusing on. Ion weapons are balancing on a razor's edge. Tilt them a little 1 way and they become too powerful, tilt them a little the other way (as they sit now) and they're meh. Getting that middle where they are both useful and not overpowered is looking like pain.