Learning process

You can never know everything about RuneScape because it's constantly updating and evolving. Last year, I learned something that made my opinion of Barrows armor do a 180.

Since I became a member in 2006 and learned about the Barrows brothers and their armor, I'd been under a misinterpretation of their degradation. The RS Wiki says this about Barrows degradation:

"Each piece of Barrows equipment degrades when it is used. After 15 hours of combat, an item becomes fully degraded, at which point it is unusable (cannot be worn or wielded) until it is repaired. The equipment only degrades during combat and can be worn indefinitely without degrading as long as a player does not enter combat."

Theoretically, Barrows armor should degrade like the other degradable items in RuneScape (runecrafting pouches and crystal equipment). Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

Not really.

What's left out of the explanation is Barrows armor doesn't lose any bonuses as it degrades. That's right; Torag's platebody gives as much protection undamaged as it does when knocked down to 25%.

It took me 3 years to even get to the point of asking myself (and Merch) whether this uber armor really degrades (as in loses protection bonuses). I ended up secretly testing it out in the Legends' guild basement. 

To sum up, other degrading equipment gradual decreases in ability until it's destroyed (the usual definition of "degrade"). Barrows, on the other hand, has full ability until it breaks (moreso a demotion or binary definition; either it works or it doesn't).