Quote Originally Posted by RogueAgent View Post
Few additions;

Another idea I had back in the day was to allow "upgrading" of gear. Giving us more gear in the long run. Maybe being able to desynth 2 armors into one new one? upgrading your weapon to have elemental properties like the wands for conj. changing colors for gear and/or making sets by using the same mats for different pieces. Would be nice to see more "Set" items and more diversity.
This quote inspired an idea in my own little head, bringing together the idea of item breakage, problems with HQ, and generally cool idea of item upgrading.

What if items could be upgraded, but that the upgrading would decay over time, thus requiring periodic recharging?

For example, an enhancement recipe could upgrade a piece of gear to +2 or +3 (likely still bowing to the vagaries of the HQ gods), but every time such a piece of gear is repaired, there is a chance for the enhancement to decay by one. This provides for a level of item decay, without the gear actually breaking, but provides a mechanism for crafters and gathers to remain useful. Essentially this makes gear enhancement a "consumable item".

Further, in addition to the existing enhancements which only affect defensive stats, thus leading to the situation where HQ gear is useless for crafters and gatherers (with the exception of tools), further enhancement recipes to add to crafting / gathering stats could be introduced.

The above does not really address the imbalance between item supply / demand, and so an item sink is still required, but I think it could still be a workable idea to prevent the ever-increasing number of HQ items in the game.