Haven't posted here in a bit, but whenever I check back I see a few threads talking about Lockdown. Namely how there are various flaws holding it back from being a great side game that everyone can approach and enjoy.

As it stands now, the games are usually dominated by Trinket toting Strikers wielding powerful UV rapiers and Polaris. From what I've experienced of Tier 2 and 3 Lockdown, this set-up holds a vast advantage over the other classes and weaponry due to the Striker+rapiers' speed and Polaris' vast area denial ability (with an annoying status effect to boot).

In Tier 2, other players and myself, who didn't have such a loadout, could make ourselves useful by playing as the other classes and playing our respective roles in them. There'd be the occasional Striker Wolver Needle combo, but it was possible to deal with them. When you could get a good game going, it was a lot of fun.
When I progressed further in the game itself, crafting a few pieces of 4 star equipment and inadvertently putting myself into Tier 3 Lockdown, I just couldn't play it any more. My set-up would be shut down in any game that I played, no matter the class I played and how well I played it. Playing as a Guardian, the shield can't handle the brutal and swift beatings the Strikers dish out leaving me no means in which to heal my allies or defend them as I was so used to doing in Tier 2. If I went Recon, I could grab one of the Points, but then be torn apart by a striker that boosted across the field. Should I cloak and try and get away, he'd just reverse any progress I made on the Point while bombarding my general area with Polaris. It was kind of horrible to say the least, especially when the rest of my team of Striker-Skolver-rapiers would demean me for being so useless.

So, how do we make this game more approachable for people who don't have the preferred loadout and/or have just gotten to a new Tier? We can't change the weapons themselves, lest they become useless in normal gameplay (though some may say they already are useless for that and the Polaris just needs some work done, period). So why not work within the game of Lockdown itself?

The idea I came up with is Tier specific weapon variants.
When you'd join a game of Lockdown, the same way it swaps out your shield for one of the character classes, the game would swap out your weapon for its Tier equivalent. Everyone would receive one, whether they trade in a 0/2/4 star or 1/3/5 star, to keep things equal. Ideally, there would be one Tier-weapon for each branch/variant of weapon. They would keep aspects of the name of the weapon traded in, just with a Tier-1/2/3 slapped in front of it. These weapons would be between the high and low end of the specific Tier that the player is on.

Example:
- Player A came into a Tier 3 Lockdown game with a 3 UV Barbarous Thorn Blade and 3 UV Polaris. They would be given a Tier-3 Thorn and Tier-3 Polaris/Pulsar.
- Player B came into the same game with a plain Dark Thorn Blade and Gigawatt Pulsar. They would be given the same weapons as Player A, since B's are just the 4 star versions.
- They would be on equal standing should they run into each other in the game.

This introduces the benefits of balancing Lockdown via the Tier equipment and not the same equipment people use for the main game. This way weapons and armors that are seen as worthless in Lockdown can be buffed and see some use, leading to more players actually playing it. It would also invite players who can't afford to make a set for Lockdown and a set for the Clockworks to come into Lockdown, especially if they're out of energy for the elevator and still want to play. Plus, it makes Krogmo coins more easily gainable to those same players, since now they won't always be on the losing side or kicked out entirely and gain more. Then maybe they'll buy some coin boosters and such.

Whether or not this would extend to armor as well is worth debating. As is whether or not UVs should be transferred to the Tier weapon. If they did, it would introduce an advantage to those who had them instead of keeping things equal. If they didn't, a lot of Lockdown players who crafted and UVed their weapons for that specifically would be understandably ticked off. Though, they could make a variation of Lockdown where player's equipment is unaltered, leaving a place for the hardcore Lockdown players to still.

There comes a problem with players who have a mix of Tier 1+2 and Tier 2+3, however. They could still get the Tier equipment, but if it doesn't extend to armor as well, they'll be at a serious disadvantage. There's also the problem of equipment that starts branching in the middle of the Tier levels, making it kind of confusing as to what variant to give to the player.
I'm sure there's more problems with this system, and I'm sure the forum vets can point them out with ease, but overall, I think that implementing something like this into Lockdown would make it a better game than it is currently.