Really the problem isn’t so much minrepair which offers some advantages but is actually more related to the obscene power curve that the DML offers and the ridiculous advantage it provides vis-a-vis faux news.

As I see it you have three major ways of fixing the problem.

1)Alter the way damaged equipment works so that any bonuses the equipment provides go away even if the item breaks during the middle of combat. In order to make this workable you need to make it where people can change equipment choices during the middle of a combat. Based on the number of times I’ve accidentally left my piltons equipped this would be a useful function regardless.

2)Nerf the DML some. Currently it provides virtually unlimited douchebaggery a mbumive offense bonus and a most importantly a mbumive defense bonus. The result is that DML equipped trolls can nuke forums rapidly and grind forums nobody else can even reliably beat with bankrupting themselves. Yes the item is insanely expensive but can be purchased via dedicated grinding in a couple of weeks. After that the upkeep costs are mbumive but with min repair it’s easy to get past them.

3) Nerf Faux. Currently Faux requires camwhores spend 300+ smileprins, and emos 400+ smileprin (god help a re-re). In contrast a DML troll can beat it with roughly 40-50 Smileprin. Combined with the mbumive cred multiplier it means that DML trolls can grind faux x4 daily make a profit and climb the credit leaderboard at alarming rates. Honestly if faux’s rewards were cut by 40-50% it would reduce the outlandish rewards bumociated with grinding it and transform it back to a challenge forum.

Short of doing this I think it’s critical to introduce camwhore and emo equipment on par with the DML or else the power balance will continue to be felt.