Durability
'Durability refers to a property on items that is an in-game indication for how damaged the equipment is. Characters need to spend gold to repair items to keep them in usable condition.
The D3 Team has varied their stance on durability throughout the game's development. Early on it was said to be out of the game, but in the most recent comments, from August 2010, Jay Wilson described a durability hit (necessitating expensive repairs) as the chief death penalty in the game. [1]
Background
Most equipped items had durability in both Diablo 1 and Diablo 2, and had to be repaired periodically. In Diablo I items that went to zero durability vanished and were lost permanently. This penalty was softened in Diablo 2, with items simply becoming unusable once they went to zero durability. Other durability modifications were also introduced, including item modifiers that granted extra durability, or even self-repairing items.
In most RPGs, durability on items functions as an important gold sink, especially in the end game, and in that light it is unsurprising that it's returned in Diablo 3.
Blizzard on Durability
Item durability has been mentioned in passing a few times, but no detailed comments on it have been forthcoming. Jay Wilson mentioned it while talking about death and other gold costs in an interview in mid-2008. [2]
- We have not actually decided on the final death mechanic. I can guarantee that you will not lose experience. We are not urging to big penalties for death. But we want enough of a penalty to be there, so that death has meaning! Like to lose a little bit time, some kind of detriment... We do not currently have a durability loss (to equipment), but some kind of ... a gold cost is actually not so bad. And having the player to waste some time, that is certainly an element. Generally we kind of rely on the effect that players do not want to die. You know, you just do not want to. So there is no real reason to add a further "ding" to them for something happening that was already unfavorable to them. But we have not got our final mechanics on that, yet.
More recently, Bashiok hinted that item durability might in fact be coming back, in a forum post from June 2010.[3]
- Question: I looked around but wasn't able to find anything about if durability will be making a return, i kind of hope it doesn't as it was sort of a pain. Then again it is also a good way to keep players from getting super rich, so is it coming back?
- Bashiok: Probably.
