Why do players have to understand the mechanics? Especially with something rare and special, why can't you simply take it for what it is instead of having to figure out the micro details?
Someone offers you an item that gives you a bonus. Decide what it's worth for you and buy it or don't. Stop worrying about every technical detail and enjoy the game.
Sorry Tom, my point was if they are going to argue that a certain mechanic is broken or no good, they need to have more then a passing familiarity with what they are referring to. So much of this conversation has been started with people saying, I hear this, or I was told this.
Yes, which she then let decay because it was too much hassle keeping it repaired.
I kept an item once for five or six months. I RPed about it, kept it regularly repaired, spent quite a bit of gold making sure it didn't decay. Fought a battle, took a light wound, lost the item. It was picked up by a realm mate and given back to me. Next battle, took another light wound, lost the item again and another item I'd had for about four months. Never saw either again. Fact is I'm just not going to bother putting much effort into unique items when I can lose them just by getting a bad result on the Random Number Generator.
Yes that is always going to happen, items by design are not meant to last forever. It should be evident from the weird things needed to repair them that they are something unusual, not quite of this world and rather fragile.
