So maybe you enjoy Lockdown. Maybe you want to take it up a notch, into the realm of real competition? I understand that your preferences are what matter to you most, thus disregarding my Strategy Guide entirely. My job isn't to make you play the way I do. My job is to make you see things that, perhaps, you've overseen or things that would improve your play-style.

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Roles

First thing's first, this first part of my guide will focus on your roles and strategies. Yes, you're given three classes, but too often do I see the misuse of them. Follow these 'roles,' and rest assured, you will find an increase in your performance. My goal is to show you how these classes can excel, what to do and things that I don't see too often that should. Remember that these are the MAIN things that each class can provide for their team. They aren't in-solid-stone, but merely urges for you to use your class and excel with it.

Allow me to list said Roles, in order of importance:

Main Pile > Sniper >> Backdoor-er > Defender

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• ___Main Piler___
  • Classes: Guardian >> Recon > Striker
  • Job: To group up with all other Main Pilers and to be the 'main' force behind the team; strength in numbers
  • Description: This is the essential Role in a Lockdown team. This is the role that the majority of the team must play, because without this role, your team's progress will dwindle. Your job is to capture as many zones in at least time possible with your fellow Main Pilers. And remember: KEEP YOUR ASS ON A ZONE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Example: when your pile is assaulting an enemy-captured zone, try to eat away at its occupation as much as possible WHILE staying alive.
    ***Remember, you don`t initiate fights. You avoid them; in fact, your Main Pile should avoid the enemy Main Pile. Encountering the enemy Main Pile will put your team`s progress at a halt while you try to fight them off! Capture the points where you won`t find much resistance. And ALWAYS. STAY. TOGETHER. AWAYS. I can`t stress that enough. If I could attach a hand to jump out of your screen to slap you in the face, I would so you would always remember this.

    Let me break down this Role further by listing each class' role-within-the-role:

    Guardian: As shown above, Guardian is the most important class for the Main Pile. Without a guardian, the main pile would be EASY for Snipers to pick off and disintegrate. With a guardian, your Main Pile's survivability increases exponentially. A Main Piler-Guardian guarantees your team a good steady progress. TIP: If your equipment isn't up-to-par with everyone else on your team, BE A MAIN-PILER-GUARDIAN! Your armour or weapon may not do good, but the least you could do for your team is to shield your allies.
    ***Also, also, ALSO: while a Guardian protects their teammates, it is JUST AS IMPORTANT for the teammates to protect the Guardian. Their shields aren't invincible, and can only take so much damage. It's everyone else's jobs to make sure it doesn't break, otherwise your Guardian is a sitting duck.

    Recon: A Main-Piler-Recon is the 'foot soldier' of your Main Pile. They have enough health to take some discipline, and more importantly, work great with Guardians. If you have enough Guardians for your Main Pile, go Recon. A good Recon in your Main Pile can do good to repel those pesky Snipers.
    ***If you're going to go bomber, GO RECON! Bomber-Guardians don't work so well, believe it or not. If you're going to be a guardian, be a guardian. The team needs your shield, rather than for you to take it down to plant a bomb. If you're a Recon, you can charge up your bomb within your Guardian's shield!

    Striker: Yeah yeah, the annoying guys who skate across the ground and can get away easily. Straight forward, but I would prefer the main pile to have Recon-damagers rather than Striker-damagers. The low health is a big downside, and considering that Main-Pile-Strikers stay with the main group most of the time, their speedboost isn't much help. The best a Main Pile Striker can do is to go ahead of the group to begin capturing the next zone.
    ***Striker should only be picked up by those who have the best-of-the-best gear! Yes you have full Vog and a DA, but it will still only take 2 flourish swipes to kill you. In fact, the Vog/DA combo works best with Recon. As a Striker, you're paper thin and would probably die more than actually helping your team out. Like a Striker Sniper, you're going to need good Defense and HP boost to be a good Striker.

• ___Sniper___
  • Classes: Striker > Recon > Guardian
  • Job: To harass, slow and possibly cease the enemy's progress
  • Description: I don't see Snipers as much as I should. Personally, I play this Role 90% of the time. And people wonder why I'm never with the main pile, yet attain most defenses as well as very high damage.
    *****BIG NOTE: DO NOT play this Role unless you are a skilled fighter and WELL EQUIPPED! ESPECIALLY IF YOU GO STRIKER! Too many people who pick up the Striker class for the first time assume this role and fail miserably. Remember that as a Striker, you are paper-thin. Unless you have HP boost and good defense (with a good weapon), it's not wise to pick Striker at all.

    Nonetheless, the job of a Sniper is to harass the enemy's progress. What do I mean by that? A Sniper is an opportunist. You take ANY, and I mean ANY, opportunity to halt the enemy's occupation of a zone. You have to be ahead of the enemy's movements; you have to be at a zone whilst it is being captured or a zone that will be captured, and your job is to harass the enemies who seek to take it. And remember, you don't capture points. You DEFEND them. By defending zones (neutral or team-occupied), you're "slowing-enemy-progress."

    It is the Snipers who can make, or more importantly to the Sniper, break the game for the enemy. A good Sniper(s) can dissolve the enemy's Main Pile and allow your team to capture ALL zones at once. You may risk your life a lot, but remember: you have to be good, and you have to take the opportunities. If there is a zone occupied by 3 skilled enemy Guardians, that's not an opportunity and you will most likely die. Just go somewhere else where you're needed.
    ***Your team doesn't need more than 2 Snipers! For smaller games, 1 is more than enough. Main Pile is more important! If you have more than 2 Snipers, you might as well as have a Sniper-Main-Pile-Striker team, which does work sometimes but isn't a wise choice.

• ___Backdoor-er___
  • Classes: Recon = Striker >> Guardian
  • Job: To capture enemy un-defended zones
  • Description: While your team's Snipers/Main Piles are in heated combat, your job as a Backdoor-er is to simply go to enemy-occupied/neutral zones where the heat isn't and to capture those zones. This is a straight forward Role, and if you really are a Ninja, then a safe Role at that. Don't try to take part in combat unless you really HAVE to, to survive. If you get discovered, pop up your defensive mechanism and get out of there.
    ***Regardless of the fact that I separated this as its own Role, a Sniper could do good to take the job of a Backdoor-er as well.

    I would rename this Role to Ninja, but I don't really want to re-edit everything.

• ___Defender___
  • Classes: Guardian >> Recon
  • Job: To defend vital zones that, if fallen to the enemy, would cause a hard time for the rest of the team.
  • Description: This Role, despite its above job description, isn't entirely important. Basically, it's the Guardian's version of the Sniper, yet not at the same time. Your job as a Defender is to prevent those smaller units such as a Sniper or a Backdoor-er from capturing that zone closest to your spawn-point or the zone at the center of the map. You serve as a wall, basically.
    ***As said before, this Role isn't entirely needed. Only assume the role of a Defender when you're having a Sniper/Backdoor-er infestation problem. Thus, no more than 1 is needed if any at all.

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Equipment

Equipment is about as important as what class you take. And don't mind the fact that 50% of the people in Lockdown use Vog/DA, a GOOD PvPer is much more well-prepared. Not to say that Vog or the DA are a bad choice, it just really boils down to your playstyle. What weapons do your opponents use? What other bonuses does your armour provide (ASI, CTR, etc)? All these things and more, you have to consider. I could go on forever from here, but allow me to simply point out SOME significant pieces of equipment, and state their pro's and con's:

-----Weapons-----

• Piercing Swords (Flourish, Snarbly Barb, Rigadoon, Flamberge)
  I will be honest, these are godlike if you can utilize them properly. They're faster than most swords, have longer reach than most swords and are very hard to counter. The only way you can counter them is with pierce armour, or to really keep your distance. Also, these swords works better with auto-aim, but that's just me.
  Pros:
  • fast, not heavily reliant on ASI
  • first swing is like a DA/GF: wide swing that knocks back, only faster
  • does high damage against non-pierce armour
  • has longer-ranged combo than most other swords
    Cons:
  • damaged reduced significantly against pierce armour
  • terrible at breaking shields
  • second swipe tends to not hit

• Divine Avenger/Gran Faust
  Generally, I would have to say the Gran faust exceeds the Divine Avenger simply because Shadow Defence is quite rare, and if you can manage to curse someone, their game is over unless they make it back to their base. Nonetheless, both are good swords. Their movesets can keep most other sword users at bay, because if they get close, they're in for massive damage.
  Pros:
  • very high damage
  • able to knock back opponents easily
  • have a very wide and lengthly range
    Cons:
  • very slow, reliant on on ASI
  • while they have good damage per hit, DPS isn't entirely the best as compared to the Brandishes or Flourishes

• Brandishes (Acheron, Glacius, etc)
  These aren't the best choices to roll with. Don't get me wrong; get someone in a combo from one of these, and they most likely won't survive. The problem is actually getting that combo in; they don't have great range.
  Pros:
  • extremely high DPS
  • great substitute for Flourish against pierce-armoured opponents
  • charge attack can usually kill somebody, and don't require much movement
    Cons:
  • very short range - difficult to get someone in a combo
  • a bit reliant on ASI to acquire needed DPS

• Leviathan/Cold Iron Carver
  I see these more often than I should. They are (to put it bluntly) terrible in Lockdown. If you're going to go with this moveset, go for a Brandish. Unless you come across an opponent who has armour with no normal defense, these shouldn't be your weapon of choice. That was sarcasm by the way; hardly anyone at all uses armour without normal defense.
  Pros:
  • decent charge attack
    Cons:
  • all the cons from the Brandishes, plus very low DPS

• Sentenza/Argent Peacemaker
  These are more for harassing, rather than damage. To prevent that bomber from charging up, to finish off that opponent or to just generally chip away at shields or health, these guns are ideal choices for players who want to mainly use swords.
  Pros:
  • six shots per clip
  • good speed and mobility, allowing for flexibility in combat
  • great for countering bombers
    Cons:
  • very low damage

• Supernova/Polaris
  These are superb guns. They have great crowd control and great damage, plus shock from the Polaris. However, despite their capabilities, the projectiles do travel a little slow.
  Pros:
  • high damage
  • good range/explosion radius
  • great crowd control
  • good for defense
    Cons:
  • slow bullets allow for easy counter

• Chemical Bombs (Shivermist Buster, Stagger Storm, Voltaic Temptest)
  These three bombs bring crowd control into Lockdown. Simple and straight-forward; these can make fights much easier and one-sided.
  Pros:
  • can easily immobilize/stunlock enemies
  • has a great radius
    Cons:
  • not much, unless you come across an enemy who has maximum status resistance of your bomb (max-resist in Lockdown = immunity to status)

-----Armour-----

• Vog
  This is actually a good set of armour; there's a reason why it is very popular. The ASI you gain from the set really helps, and it allows you to not have to have a, ASI UV on your swords. However, the big downside to this is the fact that the defense would only defend against DA's and elemental Brandishes.
  Pros:
  • good elemental/normal defense
  • great ASI boost
  • fire resistance
    Cons:
  • pierce swords rip through Vog easily

• Skolver
  This is what I roll with usually; the pierce defense allows me to shrug off most Flourish hits and also give a good damage boost to my swords. Of course with Skolver, you'd have to rely on another source for ASI.
  Pros:
  • pierce defense allows for an edge against the deadly Flourishes
  • great damage boost
  • frost resistance
  • difficult to counter
    Cons:
  • weak to elemental, though it's hard to come across a good elemental weapon to match the Flourishes

    Again, I could continue to do this with every single piece of equipment. There are tons out there, and each have their own pros and cons. These pieces above are among the most used, so I simply adressed them.

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So which role do you usually play? Did this guide help you see anything you could perhaps use to improve your performance? Do you have any criticisms and/or suggestions? Want to add anything to the Equipment list? Go ahead and comment!