Perhaps CCP Rattati can draw inspiration from Eve Online to address hardeners.

In Eve Online, a specific class of ships known as Marauders are the only ships in Eve capable of going into what we call Bastion mode. What is Bastion mode and what does it do?

It is a mode that needs to be manually activated and goes into a set cycle of about 10 minutes if I remember the timer correctly. During this time, the ship morphs into a reinforced state where various bays are opened exposing what look like reactors to the vacuum of space. At the same time, the ship's damage resistance to any type of damage is increased by a large magnitude where it can take on almost any damage and survive until the timer runs out. Meanwhile, the ship is still able to fire back.

But there are downsides to using Bastion mode.

Once the mode is activated you can't move, you can't take in any remote repairs from another player, the mode does nothing to your damage output, and you can't manually deactivate until the timer runs its course. So if anything happens to your fleet like if they are forced to retreat, you get left behind and the opposing fleet can have their way with you. Which brings me to the next downside.

Bastion mode, is not full proof. Given enough damage in a short time, the seemingly-unbreakable tank on your ship will break. This is especially true if the ships that fire their powerful weapon happen to be Drifters which can one-hit kill even a Marauder in Bastion Mode.

How can this be applied to Dust?

The concept of Bastion mode can be adapted for use in Dust by making the following changes to the hardeners:

• Extend the time active significantly.
• Vehicles such as LAVs and HAVs that have this module become immobilized when it's active.
• Dropships are forced to hover in a stationary position but can change which way to look during the hover. They can't increase or decrease altitude.

The idea here is that hardeners are taking up so much power to increase the damage resistance of the vehicles that they are unable to furnish enough power to keep the vehicles moving. So the vehicles become sitting ducks until the hardeners finish their cycle. This also means that they won't be able to help their team in other places if they are needed elsewhere in a battle that changes rapidly.

And that is something that needs to change, and I don't think the problem is the suit. Not entirely.

HAVs are out of balance with themselves, which needs to be addressed. Too fragile while unhardened, too resilient while hardened. Gunnlogis need something to make them a viable alternative. Both need more options in terms of modules. Buffing raw HP and/or add passive resist (hardeners would need toning down for balance with the latter) and moving Heavy Reps to active would be a start for sorting the HAVs, then shield HAVs can be looked at more and adjusted further.

Sentinels need more AV options, hell, more Heavy weapon options in general. They need a shield AV option and a shield AI weapon. Preferably bring them up to two weapons, one AV and one AI, for each race.

Hardeners may not be the problem by themselves, but the combination of Hardeners and Passive Reps is. Separately neither is that big an issue, and in fact are likely working as intended, but when combined the result is invinsi-tank. As you said, damage just doesn't stick.

Tankers have said, and I can agree, that without Hardeners a HAV is too fragile. So buff the HP for the hulls. If that's not enough, a small passive resistance can be added and Active Hardeners reduced to balance. Make it attractive, or at least viable, to run HP over resistance.

Active Reps definitely need to a thing again. Fuel Injector needs a rework when combined with Hardeners to stop instant acceleration the moment things go south. Perhaps activating a Hardener reduces acceleration and top speed, much like fitting a plate, due the Hardeners making the armour much denser and heavier. Or it can be a result of high power drain.