Much like the developers had in the beta of Spiral Knights for PvP, why not add separate buttons to join a Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 match for Lockdown? Obviously if you were Tier 3, you can't join a Tier 1 or 2 game. If you're tier 2, you can't join a Tier 1 game, that kind of stuff.

It'd make trying to search or make parties, which are at your tier, a lot easier. Not to mention, code wise, you could do more with that little Tier 3 bar you have. I also feel it would provide players with a sense of what tier they were strictly in. I say this because I'm sure you'd have players who would not know what tier they were in EVEN IF they looked at a preview of what their Knight looked like.

Oh, did I forget to mention that joining Tier parties is a little broken? Yeah, I constantly found myself joining Tier 3 games while I was in Proto Gear (Just for fun), or any one star gear. Then again, I don't know if I was doing something wrong or what, but I felt this was kind of odd how this occurred.