Getting hit by power attacks can significantly degrade armor. Continuously blocking with a weapon will significantly increase the rate at which the weapon degrades.
For a level 1 NPC, enchanted items will be very rare and untempered items will be most common followed by 'Fine', 'Superior', 'Exquisite', 'Flawless', 'Epic' then 'Legendary'. All features can be adjusted using 's MCM. Tempered items no longer retain their tempered state forever. NPCs now have access to tempered/enchanted items that were previously only available to you.
