A Case for Removing Armor Durability and Breaking in ESO

GrumpyDuckling

For as fun as ESO is, there are some game mechanics that don't enhance playing experience but rather appear to only annoy and inconvenience players. One mechanic, in particular, that doesn't appear to have a justifiable purpose in the game is armor durability and breaking.

I know that realists will say that armor takes damage and should therefore lose durability and eventually break. I hear you, and I would generally agree. However this argument doesn't hold weight in ESO because 1) weapons, especially those of the melee sort, don't lose durability or break (which violates the realistic immersion argument), and 2) armor in ESO deteriorates without even taking damage (see: Nightblades who stealth through quests, untouched, only to see their armor durability drop, or Sorcerers who never see their magical damage shield breached by enemies, yet still receive a penalty to their armor durability). As weapon and armor deterioration is concerned, realism doesn't come into play in this game, which means that it is not reasonable to assume that the goal of armor durability and breaking is for the purpose of realism.

Therefore, to punish players by chipping away at the effectiveness of their earned and crafted armor serves to...what? We've established that it cannot be to provide realism in the game - nor is there reasonable cause to assume that it is meant to keep players' gold counts respectable by forcing them to purchase armor repairs and kits with gold (there are much simpler ways to control in-game money, such as less gold earned by questing or selling items).

So, then why does ESO even have an armor durability and breaking mechanic? If it doesn't serve as a contributor to realism or as a means of controlling gold counts, can it be removed so that players can be less annoyed and inconvenienced?

Psyonico

I've never seen armor degrade without being hit and/or dying.

It's not going to get removed for the simple fact that it is a gold sink.

Draxys

Psyonico wrote: »

I've never seen armor degrade without being hit and/or dying.

It's not going to get removed for the simple fact that it is a gold sink.

It gets degraded and scales with experience gained, at least through pve quests. Combat has nothing to do with it.

And it's not a gold sink, you can very very easily make way more gold doing almost anything compared to how much it costs to repair armor. It's just annoying.

CasNation

It is a gold sink. It is there to artificially remove money from the game to combat inflation.

To those saying it isn't a gold sink...you obviously don't know what a gold sink actually is. The point isn't that you make more money than it costs to repair anyways, the point is that you would have had more money if you hadn't had to repair. Even this little bit of cost, along with things like horse feeding (before crown store) are there to prevent people from being able to make money and spend NO money at all.

Now the efficacy of current gold sinks is a different topic entirely...but it doesn't change the fact that it is one.

the_man_of_steal

Armor Degeneration needs to be taken down a notch. Please lower it so it is a minimal cost... not a few hundred gold per piece.

Vythri

Not one single time since I started a new character until now have ever even once thought about the cost/reason of repairing my gear to be an issue.

Is this a serious thread?

GrumpyDuckling

Vythri wrote: »

Not one single time since I started a new character until now have ever even once thought about the cost/reason of repairing my gear to be an issue.

Is this a serious thread?

Yes. The inclusion of armor breaking doesn't make sense in this game. Just because you haven't thought about it doesn't mean it should be a part of the game.

Armor repair isn't in the game because ZOS is trying to be "realistic." And if it's supposed to prevent players from having too much money then why would they make the effort to build it into the game when they could have just reduced the amount of money we get from quests and items?

Armor breaking and repair doesn't appear to have a reasonable purpose beyond annoying and inconveniencing players.

redspecter23

Armor degrading is a messed up system. I'm not for or against removing it but for removing the confusing inconsistency. The only time I've ever encountered my armor breaking and having it matter at all is during mob xp grinding or extreme amounts of deaths such as practicing new hard dungeons like vMSA. It never comes up in pvp due to an artificial rule excluding armor damage from pvp deaths. It never comes up in most dungeons and trials because it doesn't degrade at a rate that matters in that content unless you die... a lot.

So basically for me, if it was removed, the only thing that would change is that I won't have to repair my training gear that I use to level new toons and it will save me a repair bill once a week on each of my toons that runs dungeons/pledges. I'd also save the "learning curve" cost associated with any new hard content that will lead to numerous deaths.

code65536

It's a gold sink tied primarily to the XP you earn and the deaths you take. Earn no XP, take no damage.

There are some details about it in this thread:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/273766

Honestly, it's fine. The costs are pretty small and lower than the gold you will earn along the way.