Repair: Why not percentage or level based?

[Zinke]

After listening to my tank friends complain about repair costs, and rogues don't have it too much better, it quickly becomes apparent something is wrong with the repair and durability idea. It penalizes people for getting better gear, forcing them to farm for gold for x hours for every y hour of raiding.

So, my question is, why wouldn't a level based repair cost work? Make it a flat rate depending on level of damage to gear (green, yellow, red) not per durability point. Or, make the repair cost based on the percentage of damage, not the actual amount of durability points. I.E. a 0/60 item costs as much to repair as a 0/100 item, with a small modifier for rarity (blue, purple, etc..) of item.

There are certain negatives to each idea, of course, but they are easily worked around. With a level based system, it might be harder on new lvl 60's then people who are decked out in full purples. But, I know that when I wasn't raiding I rarely ever went red in my equipment. So, they save money in that regard. Scale it heavily. Red is twice the cost of yellow, which is twice the cost of green. It still penalizes the raiders more then the casual players, which was probably intended, but not for getting stacked out in epic items.

Basically, the high end repair costs needs to get curtailed back, they've spiraled a little bit too far out of hand. If Blizz just wants to re-do the costs on epics, that'd be fine too. But, I have a feeling we'd run into this problem again after awhile.

[FuckYou]

I'd still like to see something like this go in, but sadly I think Blizzard would rather break new shit (hi new group loot rolling scheme) than improve stuff that actually needs it.

[Metranon]

i dunno but my 60 warrior in half MC gear is shelved for my druid until they change it, not worth the repair costs when i can just play another class and have just as much fun, and not have to spend 100 gold a week on repairs.

[Remfin]

I'm obligated to ask the question...where is the proof durability has anything at all to do with repair costs? I know there's been at least one repair "reduction" fix since this point so maybe things changed, but I seem to remember the cost to repair was the exact same as how much an item sold for at one point. And the selling price for epic items seems to be about equal for all classes

Is there any reason to suspect the difference is not made up of:

1. Some green/blue gear being superior for casters than some purple gear (I'm sure color factors into price)
2. Caster weapons generally have worse DPS (probably factors into selling price), and aren't worn out AT ALL through normal play
3. Casters don't have to repair shields, their offhands are durability-free
4. Wands are probably cheaper period
5. Casters probably have at least 1 less death per "raid", if not more. And tanks will wear out at least SOME durability more than casters even if it's a smaller amount of the total in %?

I don't deny costs have spiraled out of control for everyone tho. But does anyone have some current data on exactly how much it costs to repair a fully-worn-out Bracer of Might, or whatever? Or any other Tier1 bracer for any class?

[Dintorr]

Let's see ... hours and hours grinding mobs earning gold for repairs or spend $30 for 400g?

There's definitely a Farmers market here.

I understand Blizzards desire to take gold out of the economy, but durability repair costs are just way too high. I like FU's suggestion of letting Tailors, Leatherworkers, and Blacksmith's be able to repair.

[Parabola]

Repair bots should give a 50% discount when used in a raid instance, that'd satisfy me.

[Zinke]

Yea, that'd be a good fix too.

[Fris_Leafshadow]

As a mage that's about fully decked in MC loot and 1 item from BWL, my biggest repair bill from a repair bot in BWL (thanks for all the deaths AE'ing up to broodlord) was 9gold. MT's can be over 20 w/o getting red.

Epic weapons seem to have a crazy repair cost to them. I don't think it's based on durability, warrriors's equp doesn't seem to have that much higher durability. We have 1 Eye and it's cheaper to repair then teh guy's typhoon.

[Mkopec1]

Speaking of repair costs, Rita was just upgraded to a category 5, sustained winds of over 165mph.

For the record only 3 cat5 hurricanes ever hit the mainland in recorded history.

If you live in texas ge the fuck out.

Now back to your regularly scheduled whines and flames.....

[Zierain]

The problem is durability loss from death = 10%.. which is kind of lame in a way.

My BP of might has 165 durability. yay? That just ups the repair cost, but i still can only take 10 deaths before it breaks.

More durability doesnt help, and it seems the durability loss from actually taking dmg is so low it doesnt matter.

All the more durability does is up repair costs, and does nothing else realy. Its lame and needs to be changed imho =/

[Jubee]

The repair-smith is friggen genious. My guild has 5 300 armorsmith warriors. The officer Armorsmith was chosen to get raised TB rep, so we have 4 300 armorsmiths who haven't made shit for months. And out of those 4 armorsmiths, 2 keep it for the GMI (which requires like 135 skill to use), and the other 2 keep smithing for sharpening stones.

Money leaves the economy
Useless tradeskills find a purpose
Warriors turn their attention to something else that pisses them off

Speaking of! Set bonuses on wrath gear. Why does Might give +blocking on the first bonus and wrath gives +atk to battle shout? DPS warriors will stick to leather crit gear and defensive warriors couldn't give a shit if they do 100dps or 105 dps.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Durability doesn't punish failure so much as it punishes experimenting. A better system would be

Have the mobs in a zone "level up" with a decay timer. This is also very decent anti-zerg code and would allow them to relax the raid cap limit (see the other thread and my concerns about low raid caps). After 1 or 2 wipes, maybe not much of an improvement in mob stats, but after the 3rd~7th wipe the mobs in the zone start hittng harder, faster, have more hps, higher mitigation/resist rates, etc...to the point where it just doesn't become worth it. Have the mob level decay as time goes on so in a raid setting you can come back a day later and try again rather then have to wait for an instance reset because of one night of retardation or a single encounter that gives you problems.

Durability = stupid from any angle you look at it. There are better ways to "punish" failure and sink money.

[DisgruntledOrangatang]

What the fuck is the point of that ? Lol seriously. The more you wipe the stronger the mob gets? Come on that just deters from persistance and penalizes people for doing that basically putting a hardcap on how many times you can attempt a mob per night and cockblocking content.

[Ultramax]

Originally Posted by Zehn_Druidbane

Durability doesn't punish failure so much as it punishes experimenting. A better system would be

Have the mobs in a zone "level up" with a decay timer. This is also very decent anti-zerg code and would allow them to relax the raid cap limit (see the other thread and my concerns about low raid caps). After 1 or 2 wipes, maybe not much of an improvement in mob stats, but after the 3rd~7th wipe the mobs in the zone start hittng harder, faster, have more hps, higher mitigation/resist rates, etc...to the point where it just doesn't become worth it. Have the mob level decay as time goes on so in a raid setting you can come back a day later and try again rather then have to wait for an instance reset because of one night of retardation or a single encounter that gives you problems.

Durability = stupid from any angle you look at it. There are better ways to "punish" failure and sink money.

This is an even worse idea than making a boss despawn an hour after engaging him.

[Warrik]

Where repair costs hurt the most is working your way through new content like BWL....way too much of a money sink at times. I see the logic: keep players playing to farm for cash to maintain their way as they learn new encounters, but isnt that one of the mechanics we all hated about Shadowbane? Farming for constant upkeep costs is something I really do not like, and it completely destroys attendance when it comes to developing strategies on End Game mobs.

I realize that they need so some sort of money sink for the post 60 game, but reapir costs in their current form is way too high imo.