Hate to burst your bubble but maybe you could show evidence of a change by doing an experiment and finding if they truly are breaking more often than they should. Maybe test 20 of them and see how many tries it takes for each to break. Then maybe you may have a valid point. And no that wasn't meant to sound harsh, just need more than your say so for evidence. Other clothing items that have durability have always worn faster than other pieces of attire such as leather. Hat of the Magi wears down way faster than other pieces of armor if you notice.
This is how armor loses durability explained in a FoF 2 years ago
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Armor:
You get hit (by any source - weapon, spell, whatever) and you roll to see which bit of armor is affected, out of the following armor slots:
head
neck
chest
back (cape, quiver)
dress (sash, etc - the over-chest slot)
arms
hands
skirt (kilt, apron, etc - the over-legs slot)
legs
If there's no item in that slot, or the item isn't one that has durability points, nothing happens.
If there is a damagable item in the slot, there's a second roll to see if it takes damage.
Normally, it's a 20% chance
If you got hit with a mace weapon, it's a 75% chance.
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However from my live shard testing when I get hit I do sometimes lose durability on MULTIPLE pieces of armor.
The FoF suggested only ONE location of armor should have 20% chance (75% if hit my mace) to lose 1 point of durability.
Ok according to the FoF there are 9 locations for armor/clothing. In the case of Lut. Guards Sash there's 11% chance for the sash location to "win" the roll and then a 20% chance for it to lose durability. Combined together for every hit, there's 2.22% chance for sash to lose 1 durability (8.33% if hit by a mace weapon). So for your sash to lose 5 points you are hit 225 times (60 times by a macing weapon). If the 5 minutes you stated is true... I highly doubt that you are hit 225 times within 5 minutes maybe you were fighting a macer?
Either way the FoF is inaccurate. As you DO lose durability on MULTIPLE pieces of armor.
I too, aquired a sash last night, I Explosion Flame Struck comboed myself twice and I lost 2 points on sash and 1 on my shroud (I didnt pay attention to other pieces of armor). The rate for the clothing item goes down amazingly fast, and I think when you get hit it damages ALL locations of armor. Means each location of the armor gets a roll of 20% (75% for mace) to lose a point of durability. Basically IMO there's no "location roll" all areas is damaged with equal chance. And if my guess holds true then our armor pieces are taking damage at a rate thats 9 times faster than the FoF suggested.
This issue really makes a great FoF question.
Is it bugged? or intended? And any detail on how it worked would be greatly appriciated.