Since last patch, the HA build I used that broke even over time has started draining my bank. What gives? I have exactly 1 mid tier item, and that is the Arabian.
I use a ragged outfit (low end item), eastern lamellar greaves (low end item), nomad bow (very low end item), arrows x 2 (bottom tier item), and a sword (low to mid-tier at best) + the aforementioned Arabian.
This is a bad game decision to have such a loss with this build. I can see a couple of ways to get around it, and they are all bad for the game. You will be encouraging the very behavior that you should be discouraging.
1: Drop the sword. I don't use it much, but I do use it in close quarters occasionally and quite often when dismounted. But I would rather do without it than lose money and have to switch to a low tier horse in addition to every other low tier piece of gear I use.
2: I can stop charging melee and bumping them, which allows them a chance to attack me when rolling a multiplier. It is fun for both of us and gives us both a chance at getting the other. But with upkeep and losing money, and therefore the ability to play my low end build, well, I'll just have to circle as far away as I can get and snipe at them from range to keep getting ticks at a greater multiplier and try to recoup my gold.
Not so fun for melee, and not as fun for me, but hey, apparently this is what the balance team wants to encourage. Or is it? If you don't want to encourage this type of playstyle (and you better not, if you do you need to step down from the position), then fix the upkeep so that a build with 85% low and bottom tier items and 15% mid-tier does not lose money.