This is along the same lines as the new lowbie gear echos. Or at least the goal is the same.

One of the most frustrating things I remember about being a new player was never knowing what gear "did". I was playing a warrior and so didn't have the identify spell, and couldn't use scrolls. Until I got high enough to see my stats, the only thing I could do is look at other people and try to wear whatever they were wearing. If I'd had some method of telling what properties gear had then I might have been able to make more informed choices. Compare doesn't help much.

Now, health, mana and movement are easy to tell regardless of rank, so they're non-factors. Hit/dam are hard to figure out pre-15. Same with stats, before whatever rank they show up at. Yet, these are the things a low-ranking character is probably most interested in. So my idea: extend the compare command.

Say I'm wearing a soft leather belt from the academy:

compare bronze
A wide bronze belt makes you stronger than a soft leather belt.
A wide bronze belt makes you heartier than a soft leather belt.

Or maybe I'm wearing a shaman's robe:

compare wyvern
A wyvern cloak allows you to hit harder than a shaman's robe.
A wyvern cloak makes you stronger than a shaman's robe.
A wyvern cloak makes you less intelligent than a shaman's robe.

This may not be giving away too much information since:

1. You can only compare items of the same armor type.
2. You don't get exact numbers, just greater/less than.
3. You're aren't given traits like saves and monetary value, so if you really want to know what a piece of gear does you still have to go back and identify it later.

You could have a shoppie that would id things for you (doesn't necessarily always have to be completely accurate) for a certain price (maybe based on character lever, or the level of the item you want id'ed). This would also solve the frustration of identify/lore-less orcs.

Or makes lore seriously underpowered. Lore doesn't give you exact numbers either until it is at 91%. It doesn't even give the information that you are talking about until it is at 86%.

Throw in the problem that there are enough "baseline" items (jewelled broad swords, wide bronze belts, charred bracers, etc.) the stats for which are widely known and with a little effort you can essentially identify an item.

You can do that anyway when you're high enough level. The "problem" I was trying to solve is that lowbies oftne have a difficult time divining any of this stuff.

Lore, imho, is useless until it's in the high percentages anyway. If you want to figure out what something does and you're high enough to have the lore skill, you're better off just wearing it and seeing what changes. I suppose the one thing it's good for is determing weapon averages and item values. Weapon average you can get from the current version of compare, and the new version wouldn't divulge an item's worth.

Lore also doesn't require you to collect comparison fodder in order to determine an item's properties.