Harmonic seeded operation of a neon-like titanium plasma-based soft x-ray laser is described. The plasma amplifier is pumped with a variation of the grazing incidence technique involving a fast and localized ionization step. We discuss its effect on gain dynamics by measuring the amplifying factor as a function of the delay between pump pulse and harmonic seed. Two different regimes are pointed out, following the pumping scheme used. For one of them, a delay in the gain generation compared with the pumping laser pulse is observed.