Well I don't know I've done pretty well as a Jelly/Hammer Bro/Striker. Although people say I spam and AA.... I don't, well I don't use AA at least. I don't know different people's definition of spamming xP

I also had fun being a Jelly/Bomber/Recon. My sun shards were fun to troll people with xD I am more into my hammer now in T2 though.

In T1 I'm a Guardian/Bomber but I doubt you'll be wanting to know about that so I won't go into details :)

Dusker is good. But not the only way to survive if you work on your play style and become decent. Oh and Artist is correct about the heart pendants. GET THEM. And the shield suggestions are good. But shields have no effect in LD, they are replaced by the class pod... thingy mabob.

~The Mighty Cheese Knight; WeeGee

as a former member of the Lockdown Aces, i am very familiar with the T2 LD, and how it is played. most players you will face will be cut-and-paste strike duskers with toothpicks. (flourishes or snarble barbs). if you are not a striker yourself, they will be much faster than you. fear not. just be smarter than them. come into battle with a freezing vaporizer mk 2 charged and ready to go, freeze em, then lay the smack down. it is crucial to break a strikers momentum before attacking youself, or they will dance around you and tear you to peices.
if you are a striker, then try to attack first. again, momentum is key to being a striker, so never stop moving. a helpfull tip: never finish a sword combo. they break momentum and leaves you open for counterattack. follow this pattern: attack once, dash around to your enemies back, attack once, and repeat until they are dead.

if you wish to be a gaurdian, i have tips for that as well. you want to be by allies as much as possible. it is not reccomended that gaurdians venture out alone. yours is a mainly support role, so follow the pack and go where fighting is thickist to support your team. throw up your sheild while moving from place to place, this turns you into a mobile healing station so your teammates dont have to waste time going back to the base. it also protects you from surprise attacks from recons and strikers. try to stay at and defend one base at a time until you die, then switch bases. this makes it easier for your team to hold at least one base, because it always has a teammate on it. a great gaurdian can make a team unstoppable.

personally, recon is my favorite class. so naturally, i have loads of insight where this class is concerned. surprise is your best friend when playing recon. have your cloaking on as much as possible. choose your battles wisely, pay attention to the flow of battle, and try not to get pulled into melees. recon is great for one on one fights, but lacks the firepower for larger scale battles. try to keep your immediate enemies down to a max of three people.
when attacking always be cloaked, and attack from behind. the no combo rule for stikers applies here as well. after you hit, dissapear. back off for a moment then attack from behind again. rinse wash and repeat. also: try to attack before you mark your opponent. this gives YOU the upper hand.

lets refresh.
striker: momentum is key, never stop moving
gaurdian: you want to stick with the team, and keep bases locked down. the shield is your lifeline. use it well.
recon: surprise is golden. pick your battles wisely. outsmart and baffle your opponents. retreat if outnumbered. momentum is big here too.

recommended equips (for T2)
dusker set
gunslinger set
jelly set
swift flourish
twisted snarble barb
freezing vaporizer mk 2
heart pendants, heart pendants, heart pendants. without these, you are at a serious dissadvantage.

my favorite LD equips:
freezing vaporizer mk 2
kamarin
twisted snarble barb
dusker cap/coat

now let me tell you some of my favorite moves. =)
1. charge a freezing vaporizer mk 2, head into a battle, freeze everybody, pull out my kam, charge it, and smash my enemies while they are still frozen.
2. with recon cloak on, ambush a pack of enemies close together, smash them all in one hit with a heavy sword, an dissapear, only to reappear and pick them off one by one.

hope i helped, and i wish you luck and lots of fun in LD.
-insanejesterking

And then, there is the sealed sword/troika line.

They break guardian shields in 2-3 hits O.o

They can kill someone in 2-5 hits. 5 to kill anyone in T2.
However, its uncomfirmed against plate armor users as... well, its too uncommon.

Swordmaster:
Dusker set.
Twisted Snarble Barb/Swift Flourish
Stable Rocket Hammer
Sealed Sword/Kamarin... or Grintovec, although personally I havent seen any of those strangely.
Brandish line (I do get killed by the charge spammers O.o) NOT the Cautery Sword Though... it just sucks.
Tempered Calibur (Preferably with Attack speed increase at least Med though)
Rigadoon/Flamberge Can be used to replace the twisted snarble or swift flourish, although their damage is less, but if you think you can use the fire/stun
to your advantage, go ahead!

MUST NOT USE:
Cutter line
Spur line
Cautery Sword.

Gunmaster:

Gunslinger set

3* Alchemers
Super blaster (I found the knockback buff to be quite useful, it also interrupts the opponent from his attack combo.)
Kilowatt Pulsar (Must have. No questions.)
And the Magnus can be good in some situations.

Dont use:
Autogun line(Your opponents, when they see you shoot they will go around you while you are shooting and attack you.
Antigua

Bomber
Fused Demo set

Super Blast bomb
Fiery vaporizer Mk2/freezing vaporizer Mk2/Static capacitor
Electron/graviton charge
Dark Reprisal Mk 2
rock salt bomb/Sun shards
Twisted Spine Cone

DO NOT USE:
Toxic vaporizer
Deconstructor... the construct bonus is useless in PVP, so blast bomb does more damage.

And for the haze bomb, you can use it, but preferably when you have another weapon to kill those stunned opponents or when you follow someone around.

When i preview this, it is a very loong post and i realise its boring -_-

the brandish itself is the worse 2* Sword to use- Even the cutter and Spur outmatch it.

but all of its 3* lines are good. a charge can inflict me with a status and kill me with a few more hits. The sword with ASI med can be good too, being elemental/shadow

the Iceburge Brandish and Shockburst is the best for LD. Ice will let you freeze your opponent for another charge/hit and shock will get them to spaz interrupting their movement,attacks, shield every so often. Both will give you a better edge against an opponent then a fireburst which just does damage.

It is also advisable to not use the charge attack as your main damage as charging in battle isn't the best strategy especially if your alone because it allows plenty of free hits as well as interrupting your charge half way through. The best strategy for a brandish is to charge off screen and then come in and release and then follow up with another weapon. You can try to charge again if the opponent but if your alone chances are they'll be aiming for you and you'll be a sitting duck while charging.

I would recommend getting use to a flourish and shield cancelling which will help with no matter what class you play. When use effectively you can counter as a guardian even before someone can attack you first. You can also shield cancel as a striker allowing for 1 hit pokes making you faster and harder to hit. Lastly as a recon you can shield cancel with a flourish in order to attack faster if people know your position already. I usually recommend sneaking up on someone with a heavy sword and attacking them either once and shield cancel and hide or attack twice and hope you kill them or they'll return damage on your quick.

I don't play T2, but FWIW, Dusker clones lack elemental, shadow, fire and shock defense of any sort. I've definitely been able to exploit this in T3 with Skolver clones that have no defense against my Umbra/Storm Driver combo, albeit the equipment is more varied there. This means a good recon gunner (full Gunslinger gives you good pierce protection against toothpicks while boosting your gun ASI to vhigh) who has the alchemer switch-fire trick down pat should be able to decimate a clone in a one-on-one ambush using any combination of the alchemers (Voltech and Cryotech probably recommended). I would avoid pinging them, as the average player usually forgets to move around when they think they are alone; this lets you take aim and get in that critical first strike which could readily shock/freeze your target. Take this advice with a grain of salt, because T2 mechanics might differ slightly since damage bonuses are scarce there.

Another piece of advice, never play with Auto-Aim permanently on. It can be useful, but many tactics rely on being able to graze a target's hitbox rather than hitting full-on. If you find it assists you in certain situations, map it to a button you can easily reach and hold down during combat (some people use spacebar).

Yes, you can tap the shield button quickly to stay invisible and preserve a minute amount of shield. It doesn't normally result in a mark, since the shield doesn't sweep far enough in that time.