Avoid decay when defeated working properly?

Crotox

Hey there
I have crafted myself some nice equipment and thought, it would be very smart to make four of them avoiding decay when defeated to avoid repair costs. i improved them to the blue level, so its 4x26% avoid decay. but when i die, i get the message, that my equipment has lost durability, no difference. did i miss a point and this does something else or is this thing indeed not working properly?

daemonios

I believe the % chance is only for the enchanted piece of gear, i.e. each of your 4 pieces of sturdy great has a chance of not losing durability on death. But since it's basically random, you can't tell if any or all will be damaged if you did. Plus, gear degrades from mere use, even if you don't die. That perk seems pretty useless to me.

starkerealm

There's already a thread here on the subject of item degradation. It's not just death, combat now slags your gear from pristine to broken in a mater of hours. Supposedly, sturdy pieces have a reduced decay rate for that piece, but your gear will still degenerate to uselessness quickly.