Yeah.

That about sums it up. Especially the part about lockdown.

I actually liked that article. You covered PvP to a T.

One thing I didn't agree with. The Dark Retribution is incredibly useful for a bomber in PvE- it's an effective turret-killer (though not against Howlitzers) if you can get close enough and an excellent Jelly and Construct blender. The trick is to overlap the bombs' ranges so that, if an enemy enters the center of one bomb, it's on the edge of the second. You can even keep Greavers at bay if you've prepared the Dark Retribution beforehand; the minor damage caused by the orbs will interrupt the Greavers' attacks while your party's gunner charges that Blitz Needle.

Plus, it tears apart the Royal Jelly- and by extension, the Ice Queen.

Also, you say the Rocket Hammer unbalances Tier 1 Lockdown, but I've heard that the Hammer's actually countered by bombs in Tier 1. Cold Snap, Firecracker, and even the lowly Proto Bomb all have nice status effects, and they sport better ranges than they used to have. I haven't had the opportunity to test it yet, so I can't say for sure, but it makes sense that a Cold Snap would be an excellent choice for fighting a swordsman in T1.

Yes, LD is somewhat unbalanced. Of course, team-based strategies in Lockdown (Guardian and Bomber, or Gunner and Bomber, or more weapon-specific, Vortex and Heavy Sword) probably work very well as counters. But there's still a need for a REAL player-killing bomb after the Radiant Sun Shards were changed.

And yes, more new level designs would be great. I wish the Devs would read the Suggestions more often- that IS how they got Howlitzers and Polyps, after all.

I haven't played very much T1 LD to be honest, and when I did I wasn't a bomber. Using any rival swords or guns in T1 is suicide against a hammer, at least in my experience. I believe there's only 1 set of armor you can use in T1 that has Elemental defense. Also, the hammer works really well with auto-aim, in all tiers, because of its silly movement that would normally be avoidable. Makes it even more useful.

And as someone who does play T1 Lockdown, I can tell you why you're wrong:

1) The only T1 armors without elemental defense are proto armor, Vitasuit, Cyclops Cap, Fencing Jacket, and the Spiral Scale set. Proto armor obviously shouldn't be used outside of agreed-upon proto matches, and a Vitasuit has no advantages over a 1-star piece of equipment. Spiral Scale is clearly useless because it defends against piercing, a damage type that doesn't appear in T1. That leaves the Cyclops Cap and Fencing Jacket, which trade defensive power for offensive punch.

2) The hammer is slow, which means it's fairly easy for a competent Guardian or Striker to get in your face and cancel the first swing with a faster weapon due to their innate sword speed bonuses. Recons can stay cloaked outside swing range and lazily float around those telegraphed dashes. I haven't seen someone with ASI on their hammer in a long time, because the potential cost is enormous and the people who would be willing to spend that much to improve their PVP gear typically don't play T1 or T2.

3) Players in PVP retain temporary hit invulnerability, which means an autotargeted dash is useless for damage. There was a weekend where this invulnerability was disabled due to a bug, and hammer dashes became pretty ridiculous, but so did a bunch of other weapons.

The rocket hamer is a good weapon, but its strength in PVP tends to be vastly overestimated by people who don't have one.

Sure, it's not bad. Nobody is perfect.

Good luck in your future endeavors.

~Sev