Hello all. I hope you are doing well.
I've been playing Spiral Knights on and off for about 6-7 years (started when Crystal Energy and Mist Energy still existed) and I just recently have been in a spur where I've come back to the game. In order to get my guild out of default I was running FSC for some crowns and I found myself getting annoyed at getting constantly set on fire and losing oh-so-many bars, and I finally realized why I hate the status effects so much: there isn't much you can do to combat status effects besides not getting hit.
Personally, I dislike such a feeling of helplessness because I got hit by something that just so happened to set me on fire. For this reason my favorite status effect is poison. I think it's a brilliant status effect. Not being able to heal forces you to play defensively because you can't regain any lost health, and the reduction of damage dealt only reinforces that notion. Freeze as well is a well done effect as long as you are playing with a group because you can work together to end the effect. While playing solo freeze is a bit more annoying as you cannot end it early and being stuck in place never feels good. Stun as well is an effect that I like due to the fact that it leaves you vulnerable to follow-up attacks, and that's what I believe status effects should do: leave you vulnerable to follow-up attacks. The fact that it isn't an effect family but is instead dealt by certain large enemies is interesting as well.
I understand that equipping items with resistances is a major part of planning any excursion, but it never feels fair when I get scraped by one Slag Walker and take an extra 9 bars because it so happened to deal fire as well. I just believe that putting the danger into the player's control serves to make the game more fun.
Now, if I was coming without a solution I shouldn't be complaining at all. I have a few ideas as for how to change status effects to keep them somewhat in line with their original ideas but also put the extra danger into the player's control.
Shock: Spasm when hit instead of randomly, and take a small amount of additive damage when hit.
If there is a large enough group you could get perma-stunned, so I recommend adding a cooldown between the shocks.
Fire: Take extra damage when hit.
How much extra damage would likely be a multiplier as I would imagine shock would be additive.
Sleep: Instead of instantly falling asleep, take 2-3 seconds to doze off, during which you slow down to a stop. Any damage wakes you and adds alert.
I find sleep to be the worst status condition to combat because you can't do anything while everything swarms you, and suddenly you're surrounded and have no shield to bump with. By turning sleep into an impending effect, you have time to position yourself for the immobile time and can actually act once damaged if you wake with any damage.
Side note: it may be any and all damage wakes you and I've just been lagging, but I have had times where I get whaled on and don't wake up, leading me to believe it is only on damage above an amount.
Stun: Fine as it is, but add a diminishing effect over time. My suggestion is to turn stun into three stages of effectiveness that wind down as the effect wears off.
Freeze: Fine as is. While it may be more difficult for solo players, I can't come up with a way to create the same idea while making it equally fair for solo players.
Poison and curse are also fine in my opinion. (Who even gets cursed?)
Now, if you waded through this monstrosity of a post that I whipped together from the inner machinations of my mind, I applaud you. Thank you for sticking with my writing, even if it wasn't particularly relevant.
TL:DR Change status effects to make them not deal explicit damage and put the power to succeed in the player's hands.
Lockdown also needs this... shock, freeze, and sleep are cheap and annoying.
I have an idea for freeze:
A frozen target should be completely immune to freeze status (atleast for PVP, because unlike on PVE, your allies cannot break you free). Also, thawing/breaking the freeze with hits should also do dmg, same when a frozen monster got freed from freeze after the duration ends.