So, after finding myself lately discussing Heart Trinkies repeatedly, especially in this thread, I figured it was about time I got a thread started to dedicate my feelings towards these game-breakers, rather than just posting the same big rant over and over again.
Basically, the tl;dr version is that they're not inherently OP, but they start off a chain reaction in stats and player attitudes that completely breaks the dynamic of lockdown, by shifting the balance of class roles primarily onto strikers since they completely negate a fundamental drawback that they were designed to have. Support classes get ignored/forgotten while strikers try to do everything themselves. Because they can do everything themselves; which is counter-intuitive for a game designed for class mixing and co-operation between class roles.
So, the "too long" version, for those who want to see the specifics of my thought train, and understand fully the argument behind this. I warn you, it is a lengthy blether, but I won't be happy if someone posts a big ranting debate based entirely on the tl;dr version without reading why I think that.
Strikers vs Strikers
Ever been up against a Striker as a "legit Striker" without heart trinkies? Even if you're rolling your sword trinkies and have max:max and they have no UVs (only damage and class asi) you'll find yourself hurting a lot. You can hit them fast and hard, but you need to hit them 3/4+ times to bring them down. They only need to hit you twice. This means that you need to focus your attention on dodging and surviving, rather than causing damage, while they (despite having lower stats) can just chill and swing around until you die. This demotes using strikers as intended, knowing that all other strikers you face will be equipped with hearts; it's just not worth it to run without them as a striker. If everyone did, then it'd be equal grounds and come down to skill/fun/[the usual stuff] but since they have double your hp, and since they all have double your hp, you'll find yourself overwhelmed completely. It can be done, but it's hard. Very hard. And if you had heart trinkies, you'd simply do a lot better. No two ways about it.
Strikers vs Recons
Complete domination here. With recon cloaks being flawed (foot prints, one-hit-break, reduced speed) against the strikers unbreakable boost power, they can swarm all over you and have you dropped before you even know what happened. Recons' power comes from the element of surprise, and hitting them before they get a chance to react. A no-heart striker will be half-dead by the time he's aware you're there, which balances off his booster against you. A heart striker gets hit, laughs it off, and floods you, knowing that even if you hit him 2/3 more times, he can still survive. A striker with as much hp as a recon with a booster totally breaks this dynamic. Gunner recons have a chance because they never really need to be that close, but even then the booster lets them catch up quickly, and the heart trinkies give them enough health for a massive margin of error in chasing you. A no-heart striker would need to be a lot more cautious and couldn't just headrush a recon gunner.
Strikers vs Guardians
Guardians' shields break pretty easily against strikers. This is to balance the fact that Guards have double the hp of your "typical" striker. This means that a no-hp striker would need to be cautious when trying to break the shield, as a Guard can simply swing between shielding and hit their hp hard. Even 2/3 of these low damage swings would kill a striker before he ever managed to break that shield, or certainly before he managed to kill the Guardian. This would mean that Strikers wouldn't want to mess with a Guard without backup.
However, thanks to Hearts giving Strikers as much hp as your average Guardian, they can simply zerg rush in and break that shield without caring about the guardians attacks, knowing that they can not only outdamage and outspeed the guardian, but also out-tank them. This puts guardians in a very weak position and almost guarantees they need to work with a team to get anywhere, unless they happen to also be using your skolver+hearts clone loadout.
Guardians & Recons with Hearts
Endless. Not much more need be said; by utilising the same combo of UVs and heart trinkies that strikers do, these classes can have ridiculously high hp and just survive forever. An Ancient Plate set and some Heart trinkies and they can sit back behind their shields, hazes, guns etc and just tank on and on, tanking caps against large groups. It's not the most OP thing in the game, and certainly not the primary reason why they need to be removed, but if anyone ever complains about "We want fights to last longer, OHKOs are boring etc" I'd just like to point out these classes using Hearts; as they are what makes the game long and arduous. Ofc, this doesn't happen often as those classes don't get the quite so direct bonuses that strikers do, and as such would be left as a completely defensive class, but it can occur.
Team Dynamic
This is the big one. This is the main reason; this is why Heart Trinkies break Lockdown. The team dynamic gets completely skewed.
Strikers, as glass cannons like intended, are supposed to chill with their guardian buddies and use their gunner and bomber friends as backup to ensure that they remain victorious. They push slightly forward, under a shield with bullets flying past and that low hp doesn't matter; the target is too distracted and swarmed to focus on killing the low hp striker with full attention. This is a good team dynamic, as it encourages everyone to work together. Even in small pairs; a striker protecting a bomber, a gunner backing up a striker/guardian, a recon hiding alongside a striker etc. It encourages teamwork.
Currently, strikers have the ability to tank better than all other classes, since their boost can't be broken by others, they can reach max:max stats, they have the same hp as everyone else, and dat dodge makes them hard as nails to hit. They don't need a guardian; they'd only slow them down. They don't need a recon waiting for the hit; they can kill them faster on their own. They don't need a bomber; they can't get hit anyways. It encourages strikers that they are the godmode, that they can rush ahead and do everything and anything they want. Because they can. Nothing's stopping them, and their team doesn't really help them that much. They'd much rather three other strikers next to them.
On the offset, that doesn't sound too bad, allowing strikers to tank better. But it gives them a bad attitude; it lets them think they can do everything alone, without their team. Now, where does this leave our support classes? Bombers, recons, guardians? In the dust. The classes that rely on supporting strikers suddenly have no strikers to support (because they can't keep up with that dash) and are left alone. An enemy striker walks up and what can they do? Not much.
Bombers are left to cap points alone, at the constant risk of hairy death; guardians have no one to shield except the few "bad players" who can't solo the entire enemy team. Recons are left to assassinate targets that have more hp and damage and speed and powers than them, without any backup. Basically, with the strikers rushing around doing their thing, the support classes are left as fodder for the enemy teams' strikers without any backup or dps support. There is no teamwork involved anymore.
So! Where does this leave us? With guardians that make dps builds to survive on their own. Bombers need to equip polaris' to counter the barrage of enemy polaris' and striker masses. Recons that don't even bother assassinating any more and just gun/bomb instead. Bombers that never try to dps because the only class that they could kill has the same hp as everyone else. Gunners that feel recon gunning is pointless, so just roll striker as well to counter that boost. We have a "team dynamic" where everyone is trying to go solo. A race for damage, no need to others, no co-operation. Even the people that scream "Capcapcap" down the party channel are rarely seen protecting the support classes.
Won't strikers just rush ahead anyways?
Some will. The pro, awesome players who can kill everyone without being hit will anyways, and fine; if they're skilled enough (or have low enough ping) then sure, we could use a front-liner helping out. But they can't be lazy. They can't face whole teams and just not care about being hit. Assassinations will be a perpetual threat. There's not much margin for error, so they would have to be on the top of their game or they'd just be counterproductive. The majority of strikers would stick with a teammate and work as groups; backup the supporter etc. Right now, that doesn't happen much, if ever. Support classes get ignored and left for dead by all the strikers, not just one particularly skilled one.
All because of one trinket?
As crazy as it seems, yes. It's a massive chain reaction; a catalyst that just explodes everything out of shape. It's a game where we are all meant to be working together as a unit, a team. As soon as someone has the ability to do everything themselves without any support, it leaves the other classes in the wind, forcing them to try and find ways to survive solo as well, often resulting in them just giving up and resorting to "becoming a clone" as well, since it seems to work the best. It's a balance, making everyone work together. We need to bring back that balance instead of just further encouraging players to work solo. With the advent of Punch/UV locking, strikers can now ignore bombers half the time which has pushed them further into uselessness; but if the striker had no hearts, then that bomber may still be able to actually fight back with a sidearm, since he can out-tank them. But as long as they have more hp/damage/speed/boost, that's simply not likely to happen.
So they need to go. Of all the people that cry and whinge about AA, UVs, ping, lag, hacking, cheating, OPness, etc, no one ever seems to comment that heart trinkies are the worst of the lot. Possibly because the majority of these QQrs are clones who also wear them and don't like calling others "noob" for something they're doing, but the fact of the matter is that AA or no AA, UVs or no UVs, removing them won't make much of a difference in gameplay ultimately. Removing heart trinkies will force all players to work as a team, and play the game normally.
Looks like you have a very well thought out post here. Would this apply to all trinkets which can turn the tide of the battle, or just heart trinkets?