Yes, we all know lockdown needs balancing, but I'm going to try to suggest a few ideas, since Grey Havens is putting in a bit of effort into it(Hardcore Mode, Guardian Shield buff).
First, let's talk classes.
I noticed that a few people(including myself in the past) suggested having a different type of pvp without the classes. This, obviously doesn't work. All pvp needs is for these classes to work is changes to lockdown's fundamental classes, because they just don't feel balanced or fun.
s.) The Striker Class
The Striker class is at the heart(or should I say core) of this class issue. Let's break down whats wrong with it.
1.) The damage bonus is too high. Combined with armor and trinkets, it can make it easy to get it to maximum, which tears down health like nothing else. The only solutions here are to either bring this bonus to low, or to redesign the entire bonus system for a bonus tier between low and medium.
2.) The strike boost is fundamentally unbalanced, with nothing from the other classes to counter it effectively.
r.) The Recon class
This is basically an extension of #2 of the striker class. What the striker class has over the recon class is that it can dodge attacks instantly just by boosting. The recon class needs something more to it's cloak, like more defense when cloaked or even invulnerability to damage the first second cloaked, or a dash forward. This would help in close quarters, where it is very easy to track down a cloaking recon.
g.) The Guardian Class
The guardian shield has so many missed oppurtunities. Maybe add shield bashing like the tortodrone shield. Why let the strikers and recons have all the fun? It's also missing out on a fundamantal mechanical of the shield: shield bumping. On a normal shield, the moment the shield is up, any enemies touching the shield would be pushed back. This also happens when the shield takes damage. Applying this to the guardian shield would help guardians, who always get rushed and ravaged by the strikers(They can also get their attacks interrupted by faster strikers, leaving them as easy prey).
But theres also another problem: an inbalance of health and damage between players. This is obvious, but this needs to be addressed.
When damage goes all the way up to "Maximum!"(or close to maximum) it has the ability to easily kill players and break shields, which buffing the shield cannot stop. They should probably redisign thedamage bonus system(like I said before).
And there's also health trnkets, which can get rid of the strikers low health penalty while putting trinket-less strikers(and trinket-less players in general) at a disadvantage.
But, the topics of trinkets and damage/asi bonuses should be saved for a discussion thread, preferably in the colliseum, so I'm not going in depth about them yet. In short, this game's mechanics weren't designed for lockdown, so a lot needs revising.
EDIT: I basically just rewrote the entire post. Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing until I look over it again.
Weapon penalties are very low (outside of striker) on purpose. You can overcome them usually.
However the striker didn't used to have that bomb penalty until people discovered super fast area denial was OP so it was added. Gear penalties are only -1 on recon and guardian so unless you're using the slowest thing ever it's not too big of a deal.
Recon footsteps have been hidden for a long time now. If you're getting slapped by folks while cloaked it's because they predicted where you went, not because they saw your footsteps.
Guardian shieldbump is a big maybe, but guardian shield bash sounds pretty fun. Lets you support your team in the offensive like a guardian really ought to be capable of.
Adding more depth to the classes would be neat (situational boosts), but heck, I'd love to see lockdown balanced with a few more interesting tidbits, like players dropping consumables on death rather than hearts. That'd change up a lot without doing much!