Aaaaand it's gone.

LD without an elitist... without striker clones... without people worrying only about killing their friends. How I'll miss you.
Now, it's all about "Damage ftw", "[insert good player]'s on your team", "Unbalanced" and killing those who've given a "peace agreement".
It's also about shield-canceling on asi low+ toothpicks and spamming that polaris when you don't know exactly where to find the enemy. Don't forget to have a friend to help you gang on any "stragglers" and stagger your attacks.
Goodbye the LD that brought a smile to my face, bid adieu to the actual 1v1 competition. Goodbye to pros actually pulling back when they realize they're just too strong for the balance of the game.
How I will miss you... both fun games of t1 and t2. I dare not touch t3 for I know it only contains elitists. Thanks for the times you brought. I suppose it's back to BN for me.

Nevertheless, Lockdown has always been an awful p2w garbage, specially with the introduction of the heart pendants. Nothing of value is lost.

Heart Pendants level out the playing field, without them you'd die in 2-3 hits, in any tier (not so much T1... but oh well, T1 ftw!). They allow you to stand a chance and have a fight containing 'skill' and not just mash this GF at you.
I'm not here to argue but Pendants are a good thing. Plus they're not going to be taken out so get on with it and get some yourself.
I'll stress this again though TIER ONE FOR THE WIN. Come join us, it's a great time and you actually, contrary to popular belief, get some decent fights. With WHATEVER gear you wish to use.
~The Mighty Cheese Knight; WeeGee

:s
"striker clones", "shield cancelling", "staggering attacks"
I fail to see how these are necessarily a bad thing. Any game worth playing will have *some* measure of imbalance, and players will gravitate towards the stronger strategies.
"peace agreement", "pros pulling back when they realize they're too strong"
I don't even know where to start. I've said it before, no such thing as a pro in LD (unless someone is somehow making money off this). Also, saying "agreement" presumes two parties *agreeing* on something, not a single party declaring neutrality and expecting all others to agree. Disregarding those, I just don't see where peace agreements or "pros" playing any less than their best is conducive to the growth of the game. Is it fun to have "infinite LD" games? Sure. Should every LD game be an "infinite LD" game? No. If you're not interested in fighting, why join PvP? Beyond this, how could "pros" being too strong bring imbalance to LD? Is a philosophy of playing to win not desirable?
Skold-The-Drac, I hold a lot of respect for you as a friend, and as a player in LD. But I feel like one of us is missing the point :s

The point has not been missed, I said "goodbye" for a good reason. I recognize that the focus that players have put their attention on has changed. I did not miss a point.
I recall a different feeling from players on a whole when I started, it has changed to something I do not care to be a part of. That's all the more I intended to communicate for my forum-going-guildies and friends.

Actually, heart trinkets being widely available was a good thing. Previously they'd been sort of available, but only in extremely rare circumstances (rare drop from Love Puppies).
Before they were available, I remember seeing forum posts offering 10kCE for a pair of 1* heart trinkets (for use in t1ld) and even more than that for pentas or TLLs. Making them craftable hugely levels the playing field.
You also have to include whoever has the best latency wins

@Nottheanswer: Except that being a clone, using auto target, and staggering attacks with a Polaris and Final Flourish/Barbarous Thorn Blade aren't strategies.
Next!

Skold, you better not vanish off the face of Cradle. I still expect your hail driver to be around to help me beat up fluffy.
Also, how can you quit LD now? I still need practice against those deadly hammer skills of yours! (And you're the only one who'll actually let me practice on you, elitists or no elitists.)
I understand what you're saying though. It is awfully frustrating at times. Still, the LD you long for is not dead. Just have to pick the right battles and avoid the wrong people.

Don't forget to have a friend to help you gang on any "stragglers" and stagger your attacks.
N-not teamwork and coordination!! Anything but that! D:

@Skold-The-Drac: I agree that at least T2 is a different game than it was months ago, in no small part due to a different group of people playing. But why not stay, if for nothing else than for the sake of what it used to be? Things can always change, they just might change for the better. If you are set to leave, we'll miss you; know that you're always welcome in T2.
@Michaelb: Judging by your smug, dismissive tone, I probably shouldn't be responding here, but I'll bite. They aren't strategies? My point still holds. They're still stronger than known alternatives (with [in my mind] the exceptions of auto target and polaris); calling them "strategies" or something else comes down to semantics, but doesn't ultimately change the fact that they are what is strong, and intentionally using what is weaker is no reason to call foul. (I'd like to know where either Skold or myself mentioned auto target, kinda wondering where you pulled that from.)

AA is an admitted crutch, but occasionally it is a required one.
Problems of AA:
Automatic redirection due to a small difference of distance in your mouse (in PvE with a WRH, this issue is a very common one)
Makes aiming a matter of just pointing in the general direction of your enemy (with polaris this acts as a defensive crutch)
Issues regarding Recon cloak... (also known as the 2 second delay-or-so that auto aim is on a cloaked recon (or so it would appear))
Counter arguments:
With guns that actually require aim (read also: non-pulsar lines) makes sharp-shooting a particular target difficult
Cuts through lag, allows for forwarding that doesn't get screwed
You basically could stop aiming
Said the guy with hammer ._____________________________________________________________________.

Said hammer never has asi UVs or AA behind it. The above was simply some test runs.
And imho hammer's only as bad as toothpick. Those that know how to use them are by far most deadly, those that spam just seem threatening and get owned, and those that don't know how to use them are incapable of playing with them.
I pack a shockburst brandish loadout... but I find that far too many of my teams require my hammer/voltech load to survive.
Also, Ent... I wouldn't be calling a kettle black.

The phrase you chose for your title isn't relevant in this situation. Your title signifies an abrupt change, as if something was there not too long ago. What you refer to in your post has been going on for some time now, and is in no way something that just suddenly happened.
Choose a better title next time, as for the post itself, not going to take the time to explain my thoughts.
General Discussion really is just full of attention whores isn't it?