What is Durability ?: All weapons and armor have certain properties associated with them. This is why NPC vendors sell such items separate instead of by number like reagents. Each item has the following properties (note this is not a full list, rather a summary of terms I will use here); Durability - This number determines the maximum Hit Points an item can have. Think of it like Strength for an item. Hit Points - Exactly what it sounds like, weapons and armor have a certain number of Hit Points. As they get used, their Hit Points drop. When their Hit Points reach zero, they will be destroyed and thus dissapear. Condition - This is a relative value based on the ratio of an item's current Durability and current Hit Points. Quality - All items have a base Quality, which is the base amount of damage a weapon will inflict upon a successful hit, or the base amount of protection a piece of armor will provide to a certain part of the body. I will be using the more general term of 'Quality' which refers not only to this base Quality, but also any modifiers due to magic, crafting Quality ("due to your skill, the item you made is below / above average quality"), and Condition. It is important to understand that as an item's Condition decreases, so does its Quality - at an even ratio! Next, everyone should have a basic understanding of how combat works and know where to obtain statistics on the base Durability & Condition of items. Note - Some times the Durability is improperly listed as "Hit Points" or "HP" for items, given the above defenitions the difference between HP and Durability should be clear. Suggested sections to read are Combat, Armor Information and Weapon Information. So, why is Durability Important? I've noticed most players practically ignore the Durability of an item, which I see as a large mistake. I will draw an illustration of why it is so important; Lets say that a GM Smith makes two GM Krysses, one of the more popular items in todays UO combat scene. Each one can be sold for the same amount because they are both GM Krysses, and that's it, right? WRONG! For this example I'll say that luck of the draw had him make one at the minimum amount of Durability for that type of item, and the other at maximum Durability. A Kryss' Base Durability is 31 - 90 and GM crafted armor and weapons gain a 5 - 10 bonus on their Durability. So, the Durability of the two items is going to be 36 and 100, the minimum and maximum amounts for GM Krysses. Let's say you are like me and you fix your weapons and armor when they no longer have the word "new" in their Arms Lore report (i.e. at 80% Condition, so that it maintains a good sharp edge on it :) Also, when it starts wearing out quickly, you replace it because it's needing repairs too often, lets say at 15 Durability. This is how it would go... Minimum Durability Kryss : Use from 36 HP to 29 HP, then fix it - the Durability will drop by 1 Point, assuming you have the same GM Smith fix it and he doesn't fail. Use from 35 HP to 28 HP, then fix, 34-27, 33-26 and so on until 15-12, at which point its only taking 3 HP of usage before it needs fixing again - looks like it's time to get a new one. This would be a total of 112 HP of usage, quite a bit of fighting, right? Maximum Durability Kryss : In the same way, 100-80, 99-79, and so on until its Durability is 36, at which point it's now identical to the minimum Durability Kryss. This would mean that after 877 HP of usage, it still has another 112 more to go before needing replacment, totaling a whopping 989 HP of usage compared to the 112 of the other "same item", NINE TIMES AS MUCH USE! If this is not enough to make you re-think Durability, look at this point too; The minimum Durability Kryss can take 7 HP of usage when it's newly made before needing repairs, while the maximum Durability Kryss can take 20 HP of usage, nearly 3 times as much! And not only the first time using it (before the first repair), but after every use and repair of it (35-28 compared to 99-79, 34-27 vs. 98-78, and so on). How do I determine an item's Durability in UO? I myself have been waiting for OSI to add this in the Arms Lore report (perhaps only after a certain level, like some other skills are). I hope they choose to report the Durability as a two fold description, one describing the Durability in ratio to an item of that type (ie. ratio of Current Durability of the example Kryss compared to the 36 - 100 range), and also a ratio of the current Durability compared to that specific item's original Durability. Example - Another Kryss that had 74 Durability when made and now has 57 Durability and 48 HP as current Arms Lore report would be : 84% Condition (48 is 84% of 57) 59% General Durability (74 is 38 above 36 and the range between 36 and 100 is 64 points. 38 is 59% of 64) 55% Specific Durability (57 is 55% of 74) The two different types of Durability could be simply described, maybe somthing like "The GM Kryss looks to be in almost new condition. It's craftsmanship looks average and has been fixed a good amount of times." But what do we do until that day? The answer is simple; have you ever noticed that when you sell items such as armor and weapons to an npc, he offers different amounts for the same types of items? Some items, such as reagent, are based on how many of that type of item the npc has on him, and his currently available funds. But weapons and armor are based on Condition alone (which, when an item is newly spawned or crafted, is the same as it's Durability). This is why magic properties do not affect the price offered, other than maybe the magic bonus on durability. I have a GM Bowyer and have noticed that my GM Bows range from 31 - 36 gp while my GM Heavy Crossbows range from 25 - 53 gp. Why the difference in price range? It's because a GM Bow has from 36 - 70 Durability while a GM Heavy Crossbow has from 36 - 110. Even though archery weapons can't be fixed (except magic Crossbows & Heavy Crossbows), if you use an archery weapon until it is at 70% Condition, the difference between minimum and maximum Durability GM Heavy Crossbows will be twice the usage (110-77 is 23 points of usage, while 36-25 is only 11 points of usage). The point of all this? Now that you know what kind of difference Durability can make, and if you have a GM Smith, Tailor, or Bowyer, what you can do is filter your items before selling them. The process is quite simple and I guarantee that customers who understand this will return to buy your items, not just roll the dice on other peoples vendors, plus if you use your own crafted items you can use only the maximum Durability ones yourself. Seeing my bowyer can make archery weapons rather quickly, I choose to sell any item to an npc vendor that is offered less than 36gp for a GM Bow (price range 31-36), 33 or 34gp for a GM Crossbow (price range 27-34) and 50 - 53gp for a GM Heavy Crossbow (price range of 25-53). I realize this may not be acceptable for smiths though, due to ingots being expensive and / or hard to obtain. So, instead of selling the lower Durability GM items, just separate the higher Durability items and charge slightly more for them (I know I would gladly pay more). The way to determine which item is which on the vendors offer list is also more simple than you probably think; make your items like 5 or 10 at a time (so you get an idea of Durability price offered range, but eventually you will know what prices should be offered and can make them one at a time), before offering to sell them to the npc, move them all into one container (other than the one they are currently in, best to do in rows & columns). Then when you get the price list from the npc, the last item you place will be at the top and the first item at the bottom - of the group they are in (that's why all in the same container). It's just a simple matter of counting what number item on the list has a high offered price, and then counting the items you placed in the container in the backwards order of placement. Sounds like a lot but it's not. Taking 5 items, moving them in a line, saying vendor sell, seeing which one has the highest offered price (example - the 2nd one on the list) and then counting the items to find the one that is the highest durability (example would be the 3rd item you placed; the 2nd item counting backwards). About Myself I am The Illustrious Crom, Grandmaster Warrior (Still a Tank Mage :P). Guildmaster of the Fellowship of Virtue (FoV) on the Shard known as Great Lakes. Previous member of the Paladins of Pain (PoP), The Royal Guardians of Britannia (also known as StormRune), and The Corleone Family - reverse cronological order.