As of right now, no one in their right mind would use a defensive status trinket. Their boosts are negligible/nonexistent, and due to the way Spiral Knights emphasizes a good offense and dodging as the best defense, the Weapon Modules completely overpower the defensive trinkets- many people are even giving up their Tetra-Heart pendants in favor of Elite Weapon Modules.

I propose that the 4 strengths of trinket correspond to the 4 strengths of UVs: 2* = low, 3* = medium, 4* = high, and 5* = very high/maximum. Thus, a 2* pierce trinket gives as much as a low UV on a 2* item, and a 5* shadow trinket gives as much as a Maximum! UV on a 5* item.

Under such a system, I believe we may actually find people using these trinkets. The goal is to use trinkets to free knights from the tyranny of UVs, and thus allow for more variety and versatility in equipment. The Weapon Modules were a step in the right direction, now let's bring the other foot forward and fix defensive trinkets.