Suggestion ? item boosts / durabilty sliders

Just an idea on how to keep the non-consumable crafting skills more attractive:

Imagine each item had two counters, one time-based, one wear-based. Let?s say an armour by default lasts 180 days (rust) and can take X amount of damage (wear-and tear) before falling apart. As a crafter, you?d get two sliders when crafting ? you could shorten the duration to say, 30 days or (percentage of normal wear level) in exchange for a small protection bonus, or lengthen the duration for slightly less protection.

Same for weapons. More brittle, but sharper. Less punch, more durable.

Additionally (to not make people return to naked characters after long breaks) items could decay to 80% of their base stats and then become counter-less.

Pros: Would drain items from the economy, would keep blacksmithing etc. more attractive, would give more choice to players.

Cons? Thoughts? (And yes, those are not news ideas, variations of each have been done before).