Rusted items will not be upgrade-able or repairable. Broken items will be the only type (currently) that will support this idea. Since Rusted items are essentially free and usable right away, they are deliberately less powerful than the standard version.
Lord Nub -> RE: Rusted assault Bot (3/2/2012 12:58:23)
Problem with rusted assault bot is that the only weaker thing about it is its damage. How many players does that affect? ALL varium players use other bots for 5 focus builds and everyone else uses assault bot for the debuff. Means the only ones this affects is non-varium.
Non-variums don't generally use focus builds because they have many openings then, meaning they use it for the 80% debuff which the varium version also offers. I don't understand why it was decided to weaken the rusted versions damage instead of debuff or perhaps a combination of both?