I know people are probably tired of hearing complaints about tone but I wanted to really stress [b]why[/b] tone is a problem. Because it's not one thing. It's actually a combination of things that leads to her being good everywhere but not poor anywhere. She's versatile compared to most titans being niche. But unlike Ion tone's versatility doesn't have a balancing check. But i'll elaborate that in a minute. Tone has good damage, good movement, and good defense. Allow me to break it down: [u]Damage:[/u] Tone out puts the same if not more damage than some of the stronger titans in the game at an easier use. Ion has 2 charged laser shots. Both of which require crit hits to do good damage and they are on a resource. Scorch has disgusting damage. but he's got to expend all of his abilities AND make sure the opponent he's attacking will sit in the damage. Northstar can rip people apart in a few shots. But this is neutered by breaking line of sight and having to both charge and lead your shots. you also have zero splash damage. Ronin has excellent burst damage but he needs to get in close and control the entire engagement from start to finish. and legion can dump scary damage. But is slowed to a crawl when doing so and blocked by LoS. Now tone? Tone has a pin point accurate gun. Which in theory means you'd need to be accurate. Nope. You get generous splash damage. and you could put out even more damage if you landed crit hits sure. But her rockets don't have a cooldown. meaning any poor damage she "would" be doing is completely negated by rocket spam. Her damage is respectable regardless of skill level. Here is the other kicker. all other cores are more or less blocked/severely hampered by breaking LoS or using cover. But nope. not tone. [u]Movement:[/u] Speed is important in Titanfall 2. And often it's used to balance power. Legion is a very oppressive titan that dominates 1v1. However he's an ogre chassis. And spinning up his gun slows him even further. Scorch is also an ogre. he has the easiest time doing damage up close. it's getting there that's hard. Not to mention his own damage can fudge him up BADLY. Ion has good movement. but all of her damage is behind a resource. meaning if she's expended most of it and you chase her down she's got nothing but pitiful damage. Northstar has good movement. but she absolutely struggles in cqc. and her tether isn't nearly powerful enough or consistent enough to help her in cqc. And ronin here has probably the best movement in the game. But it's on 2 cool downs. his damage is limited to cqc and HAS to be crits. His arc wave is also on CD. But we get to tone again. Movement speed is decent. consistent. none of her tools hamper her escapability. and her damage doesn't suffer regardless of range. [u]Defense:[/u] Every titan has a defensive ability. However tones is the best. Ion's vortex is limited to a resource. and you can't throw back non ballistic damage. Scorches flame shield is good. and it screws up anyone who gets close. But being an ogre titan makes you slow. meaning you can't really block and then dash in to engage. Really your better off only using it to punish an agressive player. either way you can't do much when blocking. Northstars tether doesn't make it harder for the titan effected to shoot back at her. it doesn't last long. and can be dashed out of by ronin. Legion's gun shield prevents him from meleeing and keeps him stuck in either close or long range view. it also makes him slower. Ronin still retains full movement and his block doesn't have a cooldown and it's the best damage midigater in the game. But it forces him to drop all damage and stay completely defensive. But nope. Not tone. The wall is big enough to block choke points. It can soak enough damage to even block a legion. And she's not penalized in anyway from dropping it. she keeps full damage and full movement. and even if tone places a bad wall the cooldown is short enough that you can pretty easily bail on the engagement and have it back by the time most titans will realistically be able to engage you again. We only have one other titan that I would consider on par with Tone when it comes to versatility. That would be Ion. Ion's damage over range with her laser shot is disgusting and frankly puts northstar to shame in most match ups. her splitter rifle (even more so with the new kit) really can nuke titans who choose to get close. She's got trip mines that WILL screw you up. and her defensive shield is also a decent damager if you choose to run the kit that buffs it. Like tone all of Ion's kits are good picks. But unlike tone Ion has a balancing factor. a weakness. Ion has to manage a resource. if done properly you can basically destroy literally any titan. Even in bad match ups. And due to this resource management Tone will continue to reign supreme. You can argue that ronin is a counter. since he stands the best chance of getting in and doing optimal damage. and more so the fact that his phase dash (and the free one from doomed state if you run that kit) removes lock ons. But the thing here is that ronin has such a high skill floor when it comes to his maximum damage output on top of his manuvering that it's not going to go well for most players unless the tone is particularly awful. And him dropping locks doesn't really help. If you dash too early you're out of an escape and tone can just continue to pound you. if you wait till the full lock and then dash you might break lock on before the rockets are fired. But even then you didn't need that ability as phase dash already removes you from the field. so the rockets don't pose a threat at that point. The only time it's actually helpful is when ronin is on the retreat. if you break LoS by phase dashing behind a building this removes the information tone could give to her team. But that's really it. Respawn as devs have 2 ways they can fix this situation. They can either buff other titans to her level. Or they can nerf tone. I'd argue the other titans don't need to be brought up. some might need some minor tweaks perhaps but none need to be more powerful. So nerfing tone seems fair. I think they should pick one category to bring tone down in. Either damage or defense. Since imo I don't think messing with her mobility would make sense for the kit. I feel doing something about the damage is the best way to handle tone. Since while her defense is strong nothing prevents a player from dashing through it. Perhaps they could maybe let northstars over penatration kit shoot through the shield at the cost of some damage loss. -shrug- I think nerfing her core was a good start. But it needs another slight damage nerf. not enough to remove it's killing power. but enough that a good player seeing it coming can midigate well enough. As for the rest of tone i'd make it so smoke nades cut off tracking. This means all titans would have the ability to counter her some what. Then i'd do one of 2 things: 1) Make it so rocket damage was dependent on how she locked on to her target. meaning if I landed 3 crit shots (or 2 with that kit) i'd be doing as much damage as I do now. and the combo would feel stronger for sure because you were landing consistent crits. if you locked on using splash damage at all your rocket damage would be poor. and if you were landing a mix of shots or just body shots you'd be doing slightly less damage rockets wise than you are now. the pulse would act as the same kind of mark as the others. Meaning if I splash you twice and then pulse i'd still get the weak rockets. or conversly if I landed 2 crits and then pulsed you i'd be getting the strong rockets. 2) Nerf splash radius and the ability to mark with it. reduce lock on timers so you can't be locked on nearly as long. only allow lock ons from crits. Method one seems the better path but more complex (I imagine) to implement. The second method would severely reduce her ease of use and mean it would be even more unfavorable for her to deal with people in cqc. But a good player would be just as deadly as she is now. I chose to focus on her rocksts in the first one because all of her damage comes from her combo sort of like scorch. but she's not punished nearly as hard as scorch for sloppy play. and her primary fire on it's own is strong enough and forgiving enough to not be a let down. Where as I focused on tone's marking in the second one because it's really a major part of why she's so flexible. and it has virtually no counter play since her damage doesn't care about LoS. I know this was long but I appreciate anyone who reads it. thanks~