Suggested restructuring of Gear Degradation
After some discussion with players, it seems like we can improve playability and player enjoyment of the Gear Degradation mechanic by tweaking two areas: 1) the rate at which Gears degrade, and 2) taking into account different Gear levels.
Gear should not neccessarily degrade after each Battle. How about losing 1 durability point after every 5th or 10th win. Penalty for losing a Battle: always 1 point lost.
Different Tier items should not have the same rate or level of degradation, e.g., a Level 6, 7, 8, etc. item should not have the same durability as a Tier 1 item.
It is odd to have several higher Tier items and to see them degrade at the same rate as the lower Tier ones. A possible solution is to make higher Tier items last longer than lower Tier ones, e.g., Tier 1 has 10 durability bars, T2 15 , T3 20, etc. Or maybe some incremental ratio, where when a Tier 1 item degrades 1 bar after each battle, a higher Tier item only degrades 1 bar after x number of battles.