All armors and weapons should be completely static. It is YOU who should increase it's effectiveness. The higher level you are, the better you should swing the sword, or the better you should understand how to move in armor. I understand the need for the smiths, that actually makes sense. But to have two identical pieces of equipment, of the exact same "quality", have different requirements and have differt degrees of functionality, that's just infantile mmorpg nonsense.