Anytime someone asks me "is spiral knights any good?" I say "It's not TERRIBLE, but you can double your HP in PVP with cash." Now, 'll usually explain you can get said cash currency by trading with people who pay real money, but it's still a huge turnoff for any casual or hardcore gamer.

Now, for reference, I play striker in T2 LD, with a quicksilver helm and a dusker coat.

Onto the rant. Heart pendants double your HP as a striker. As a striker who doesn't use pendants, a hammer deals exactly half my health. If your HP is above 3, and you get hit to a health below 3, your health will stop decreasing until it hits 3. The second hit is stopped by the 3 hp rule, so it takes a 3rd hit to kill me.

3 hits without trinkets.

Now, say I've got trinkets. My HP is doubled, so each hit deals a quarter of my health. The 4th hit is stopped by the 3 hp thingy, so that totals to 5 hits.

5 hits with trinkets.

So lets say person A and person B have the same amount of defense and each have a hammer, but person B has trinkets. A is smart, and can sneak up on B and get the first hit in. They trade off hits, B hits A, A hits B, and in the end B would have 2 "hits" left, and A is dead even though they landed the first hit. Now I know LD isn't turn based or anything, it's not like each person always hits the other equally, but even if A was quick enough to land another hit, B still wins.

Not to mention that these help the already-overpowered strikers the most. First off; why strikers are overpowered. Now, theoreticaly they're "balanced" at normal level without UV's or trinkets. Though they are able to be equally powerful as other shields with less bonuses. This means more room for UV's. If a striker gets VH ASI on his sword, it helps him. If a recon gets VH CTR on his bomb, it won't increase his power at all. Now, look at the HP. Strikers have lower base HP, so the constant value added by trinkets doubles it. A substantial increase. If a guardian adds them though, it's less noticeable. Adding 1 to 1 adds another whole 100%, adding 1 to 3 only adds another third.

The only fair part is that everyone can technically get them. Of course, if EVERYONE tried to make 5* pendants, we would most likely drive the CE price up into the next digit. It's an obvious money grab, sink CE, or have half the health of everyone else.