Add a trinket, with materials obtained via krogmo coins, that enhances or adds another tidbit to your lockdown class. Two paths can be taken - having the trinket be dynamic and change per class, or have each trinket be specialized per class. I'm leaning towards dynamic, but class specialization can also make more money to Three Rings, so I'm not throwing it out.
I'm going to start this suggestion with dynamic trinkets in mind, but will explain how specialized ones will work too.
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Simplest(?) Solution
Strategic Solution
What about the Clockworks?
Conclusion
Simplest solution: Class Trinket
A class trinket would have a different effect on all lockdown classes, each making the playstyle more fun or specialized.
- Striker
- Increased movement speed
- Increased boost movement speed
- Increased boost meter
- Reduced dash recharge time
- Attack orbs have a 50% chance to drop from enemies
- When close to two friendly strikers, buffs the attack of all friendly strikers and self within a 5-tile radius. Buff lasts for 1 second
- When boosting close to two friendly strikers who are also boosting, buffs the attack of all friendly strikers and self within a 5-tile radius. Buff lasts for 5 seconds
Possible effects include:
Potential unlocked abilities include:
Other ideas can be taken into account. If you have an idea for an ability or effect that can be added, mention it below. If it's reasonable, I'll add it to the list.
NOTE: Not all of these have to be included. Some may be added instead of others, or not at all.
- Recon
- Increased movement speed while cloaked
- Increased cloak meter
- Immediate deathmark
- View enemy health within 5 tiles
- View enemy health when target is deathmarked
- After deathmarking an enemy, attack and movement speed is slightly increased
- Removing footsteps
- Feign death; when killed while cloaked, have a chance to silently revive and heal to 1 pip (so you're at 1 pip of health total) and become cloaked like a shadow cloak. Attacking will drop the cloak, but using your recon shield will not. Cloak lasts for 7 seconds
- Upon killing a deathmarked enemy, the player will gain MSI max for 4 seconds that will only apply while cloaked for greater than 1 second
Possible effects include:
Potential unlocked abilities include:
Other ideas can be taken into account. If you have an idea for an ability or effect that can be added, mention it below. If it's reasonable, I'll add it to the list.
NOTE: Not all of these have to be included. Some may be added instead of others, or not at all.
- Guardian
- Flinch immunity
- Increased shield bar
- Increased healing effect
- Increased healing effect for teammates
- Increased shield regeneration
- Increase shield regeneration for teammates shielded
- Revival; when a teammate dies, a guardian can revive the player on the spot they died at. This requires the guardian to not drop their shield until the player either uses a spark of life, or the timer revives them. While reviving, the teammate will spectate the guardian. If the shield is dropped the teammate's body will disappear and respawn at the locker room. Revived players start with 50% health. If a player wishes to respawn at the locker room, they can simply stop spectating the guardian reviving them
- Shield drain; an enemy that enters a guardian's shield will have their shield slowly drained. During this time, recovery on that shield is nullified. This effect does not work against enemy guardian shields
Possible effects include:
Potential unlocked abilities include:
Other ideas can be taken into account. If you have an idea for an ability or effect that can be added, mention it below. If it's reasonable, I'll add it to the list.
NOTE: Not all of these have to be included. Some may be added instead of others, or not at all.
Strategic Solution: Ability Trinkets
Similar to the effects and abilities listed previously, except these are binded to certain classes and trinkets only. As such, using a recon trinket as a guardian will have no effect, or it could have the PvE effect instead.
- Striker
- Alpha Strike Trinket; when close to two teammates, buffs the attack of all teammates within a 5-tile radius. Buff lasts for 1 second
- Alpha Rush Trinket; your boosts last 10% longer and you move 10% faster while boosting. Your attack speed is increased by "low" when close to another teammate
- Alpha Warp Trinket; your dash recovery is reduced by 1 second while alone, and 2 seconds while close to two teammates. Your striker boost will recover 1/2 of a second faster while close to 2 teammates
- Alpha Hardhead Trinket; your defenses are increased by 10% while alone, and 20% while close to two teammates. You heal 20% faster from guardian shields and heart pads
Possible trinkets include:
Other ideas can be taken into account. If you have an idea for trinket that can be added, mention it below. If it's reasonable, I'll add it to the list.
NOTE: Not all of these have to be included. Some may be added instead of others, or not at all.
- Recon
- Shadow Strike Trinket; when cloaked for more than 3 seconds, you gain an attack boost and a speed boost. Boosts last for 3 seconds. When your shield is depleted, enemies within 5 tiles will become deathmarked
- Shadow Rush Trinket; while cloaked, you move 20% faster. When a target is deathmarked, your attack speed is increased by "low"
- Shadow Recovery Trinket; your dash counter is reduced by 1 second, and instantly recovers if you are cloaked for 4 seconds. Guardian shields and heart pads heal you for 50% more health
- Shadow Trickster Trinket; when cloaking, a second ghost player is sent walking in a random direction. You no longer leave footsteps. When attacked while cloaked, you have a chance to drop a ghost of yourself who plays dead, and you will become cloaked like a shadow cloak. Attacking will break the cloak. Shadow cloak effect will last for 7 seconds
Possible trinkets include:
Other ideas can be taken into account. If you have an idea for trinket that can be added, mention it below. If it's reasonable, I'll add it to the list.
NOTE: Not all of these have to be included. Some may be added instead of others, or not at all.
- Guardian
- Heavy Strike Trinket; when shielding a teammate, you gain an attack and attack speed boost. Boost lasts for 3 seconds. You gain a charge time reduction of "low"
- Heavy Rush Trinket; while shielding a teammate, both you and teammates under your shield move 25% faster. When your shield is depleted, your attack speed is increased by "medium"
- Heavy Healing Trinket; your dash counter is reduced by 1 second, and the counter is reduced by 1 second for each teammate under your shield. Your shield heals you 25% better, and heals teammates 50% better.
- Heavy Avenger Trinket; you can now revive downed teammates by shielding over their downed bodies for 6 seconds. Their body must not have disappeared yet and the revival will be canceled if your shield breaks or you move the shield out of range of the player. Teammates are revived with 50% health, and have a 25% movement penalty for 5 seconds.* When you revive a teammate, you gain an attack, movement speed, and attack speed increased of "medium" each. Boosts last for 10 seconds
Possible trinkets include:
* If wearing two Avenger trinkets, revived teammates start with 90% health and a 10% movement penalty. Shields only need to be over a body for 3 seconds. Multiple guardian can work towards the same revive, but the bonuses only stack up to 2.
Other ideas can be taken into account. If you have an idea for trinket that can be added, mention it below. If it's reasonable, I'll add it to the list.
NOTE: Not all of these have to be included. Some may be added instead of others, or not at all.
What about the Clockworks?
I know I know, trinkets should have some effect on PvE. A simple solution would be that all striker trinkets would give sword ASI, sword DMG, and DTR (dash time reduction) low each. Perhaps different combinations for if we go the individual class trinkets route, with 2 bonuses attached to the item. Heck, we could drop the DTR to make it fair.
Recon trinkets could give gun ASI, gun DMG, and MSI low. Again, add two of each to various trinkets if we go the multiple trinket route. Possible to remove the MSI for fairness and no extreme speed.
Guardian trinkets could give +1 to all statuses, bomb CTR low and +3 health. Two of each for more than one trinket, and drop the status idea if it seems like too much.
If we were to have just one "class" trinket, then in PvE it could have the following effects: +2HP, DTR: low (dash time reduction), and increased shield regeneration. I don't want to outclass the other PvP-gained trinkets. If the other trinkets I listed seem to do exactly that, then they would all have this effect on PvE instead of the ones I listed above.
All trinkets listed are assumed to be 5*.
Conclusion:
Adding a new sort of trinket that affects lockdown would be a great way to change up how knights play the game. With new abilities, new tactics are created, especially if the trinkets do more than just "stat upgrades". Stat upgrades are okay, but they don't change how we play the game, just how fast we can play the same game. These trinkets also promote teamplay, and might be able to make heart trinkets becomes less of a standard item you "need" to succeed at lockdown. This would make strikers have to choose between health and abilities. In fact, all these trinkets can be stacked to increase the effectiveness of the items!
A new game with the old rules still in place would emerge. Players who are just getting into the lockdown scene won't be obliterated by tank strikers always, granted there will still be plenty of people who continue to do that. Instead of removing heart trinkets to balance lockdown, we should give a better alternative that makes the game still fun for everyone.
Would be interesting indeed but so much of a boost for just one slot would be a bit much. Perhaps have 2 trinkets that if used at the same time would give the full boost, if not the user gets a much more nerfed boost.