Durability & Quantity

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Last Updated:May 26, 2023

Items in Diablo 2 Resurrected have life spans just as short and tenuous as the brave heroes that carry them. An Item's Durability and Quantity determine how many hits it can take, or dish out, before needing to head back to Ol' reliable Charsi to have her Repair them. From the first step out of the Rogue Encampment, all the way to the end game, Durability and Quantity play surprisingly big roles gameplay wise. Ethereal as an Item quality goes even further, making very powerful Items that have a limited lifespan unless modified to become Indestructible! Here we'll teach you everything you need to know to keep your blades sharp, your armor shiny, and how to stay in the fight longer!

Increased Stack Size Quantity — Increased Quantity on Throwing Weapon

Durability

Except for Missile Weapons (Bows and Crossbows), Phase Blades, and Indestructible items, every piece of gear in Diablo 2: Resurrected has Durability. Even items that don't list their Durability (Throwing Weapons) have a secret Durability stat that is not displayed. Durability is a measurement of an item's structural integrity, which breaks down over time from wear and tear, and eventually need to be repaired by the skilled hands of a Blacksmith. Once an item's Durability reaches 0, it's considered Broken and can no longer be used (with exception).

Durability Damage

An item's Durability can be reduced from two sources, performing a Melee Attack, and being hit by a Melee Attack.

Performing a Melee Attack

Any normal Melee Attack or attack Skill has a 4% chance to reduce a non-Missile Weapon's Durability by 1.
- Skills like bladeshield and smite both count as attacking with the Weapon, and does not reduce the Durability of any Shields equipped.
- Skills like dragontalon, dragontail, and dragonflight do not reduce the Durability of the Weapon or Boots that are equipped.
- Missile Weapons have internal Durability values that have a 10% chance of being reduced by one when used for Melee Attacks. This is covered further in the Quantity section below.
- The Skill impale has its own Durability loss chance that's determined by the Skill Level.
  - max(50 - (30 * (110 * slvl) / (slvl + 6)) / 100), 20)
  - This reduces Missile stack size by 1 instead of the internal Durability.

Being hit by a Melee Attack

When struck by a Melee attack, there is a 10% chance that any piece of Armor (including Shields) equipped may reduce their Durability by 1.
- Each gear slot has a different % chance of being the target of the Durability loss seen in the table below.

To calculate the chance of a piece being selected, you take the slot's weight and divide by the total weight available from gear.

If you have a piece of gear in every slot, then your Lore has a 2/10 = 20% chance of being selected.
If you are not wearing a piece of gear in every slot, the total weight is reduced. While you're not wearing Gloves, then your Lore has a 2/9 = 22% chance of being selected.
Any piece of gear that is Broken or Indestructible does not count towards the total weight.

Slot	Weight
Head	2
Body	3
Shield	2
Waist	1
Feet	1
Hands	1
Total:	10

It is important to note that Ranged Attacks and spell Skills / Special abilities do not typically reduce an item's Durability. Blocking with a Shield, or with weaponblock does not reduce the Shield, Weapon, or Claw's Durability.
Items equipped by Mercenaries, Summons, the Ancients and turned into irongolem do not lose Durability.

Calculating Durability

Every Item type in the game has a base Durability value. For example: Archon Plate has a base Durability of 60 points. Now, there are many modifiers which might further change the item's Durability:

Superior Modifiers - Increase Maximum Durability (IMD)

On Superior items, this modifier can increase the base Durability of an item by 10-15%.
To calculate the item's new Durability:

New Durability = (Maximum Durability * (100 + IMD%) / 100)

Failed Set Items: When a Magic Find check fails to roll a Set Item, the item generates to be of Magic quality instead. This occurs when the Magic Find check would select Set quality, but the item base does not have a Set quality version.
- The Durability of this Magic Item is double the base item's Durability.
Failed Unique Items: When a Magic Find check fails to roll a Unique Item, the item generated is of Rare quality instead. This occurs when the Magic Find check would select Unique quality, but the item base's iLVL is not high enough to spawn as the Unique. This can also happen if that Unique Item has already dropped in the current game. Only 1 of a Unique can drop in a game. See our resource for more information.
- The Durability of this Rare Item triples the base item's Durability.
Durability has a max ceiling of 255, so a failed Unique - Rare Item maxes out at 255 even if the calculated Durability would be higher.
Ethereal Quality:
- Ethereal Items sacrifice the ability to be repaired, for additional 50% Defense or base Weapon Damage.
- Additionally, the item's base Durability is reduced. Ethereal Items don't last as long as non-Ethereal versions.

New Durability =
Failed Set - Magic Durability =
Failed Unique - Rare Durability =

(Maximum Durability / 2) + 1
Maximum Durability + 1
(Maximum Durability * 3 / 2) + 1

Ethereal Items always generate with the maximum modified Durability.
- Ethereal Quality Unique and Rare Items which have their Base upgraded using the Horadric Cube recipe have their maximum Durability changed to the new Base's normal Durability. Then it calculates the remaining Durability randomly as if it was dropped in the wilderness.
  - An Upped The Gnasher Hand Axe would have the Durability of The Gnasher Hatchet.
Items purchased from Merchants or Gambled always have maximum Durability. Items created / Crafted in the Horadric Cube, imbued by Charsi, or dropped in the wilderness do not. (Ethereal Items and Throwing Weapons are the exception)
Many Unique Items actually have a hidden Stat of +xx Maximum Durability. For example: Iron Pelt has 157 Durability, which is 125 more than the base Trellised Armor which only has 32. This also leads to their Repair costs being higher, as you'll see in the next section.

The Cost of Durability

Items with < maximum Durability have an increasing cost to repair them, and stop functioning as equipped gear if they break, and also lose Gold sale value in the case of Ethereal items. While most Normal Quality items are fairly cheap to repair, even when completely broken, higher end gear with Increased Maximum Durability xx% can become prohibitively expensive to repair. An Enigma Archon Plate can cost hundreds of thousands of Gold to repair.

There are multiple Horadric Cube recipes that can be used to fully repair an item, as long as it is NOT Ethereal. See the attached resource for more information.
Items cost more to repair for each additional point of Durability that is missing. If you cannot afford to fully Repair, and the item still has remaining Durability, the game repairs up to the amount of Gold you have remaining. If the item is Broken, then you have to pay the full Repair cost to fix it.
Ethereal Items are worth 25% less Gold when sold to Merchants, and if the item is Broken (0 remaining Durability) they sell for a whopping 1 Gold.
- Ethereal Throwing Weapons are always worth 1 Gold.
Broken items no longer benefit from any Stats they provide until the item is repaired. This can be very hazardous for gear which gives +xx to Strength or Dexterity, which is needed to wear other pieces of gear. Until the item is repaired you may not be able to wear your other gear which may cascade further etc.
Broken Belts still give you access to the additional slots for Potions and Scrolls as long as the item remains in the Waist slot.

Repairs Durability

Having your Weapons and Armor break mid-fight against the likes of Diablo and Baal can spell doom for any adventurer, and is especially bad for Melee builds which rely on their Weapon's Durability. Repairs Durability and Indestructible are the two means players have to mitigate this.

An Affix available on Weapons and Armor of Magic / Rare quality that repairs 1 point of Durability every x seconds. Often this keeps your gear above Broken long enough to finish a farming session, and you'll repair before starting the next session.
- Of Self-Repair (aLVL 3): (Sacred Targe of Self-Repair) takes 33 seconds to Repair 1 Durability.
- Of Restoration (aLVL 20): (Sacred Targe of Restoration) takes 20 seconds to Repair 1 Durability.
- This only repairs Durability while in an active game, and not between games or while logged out.
- If the Item's Durability drops to 0 then it stops repairing. Because these Affixes can roll on Ethereal Items, it makes it highly sought after on Rare weapons.
- The Player must make sure to not allow these to become Broken, or the Affix no longer works.
- There is also a list of Unique and Runeword items with Repairs Durability. Ethereal versions of these more powerful, and more sought after.
  - Prudence
  - Exile
  - Skin of the Flayed One
  - Skullder's Ire
  - Warlord's Trust
  - Demon Limb (This does not repair the Charges of enchant)
  - Hone Sundan
  - Ginther's Rift
  - Sandstorm Trek

Indestructible

Indestructible removes the Durability Stat from an item altogether. The item no longer suffers Durability loss and can be used indefinitely. While there is an Indestructible Affix, and certain Unique / Set / Runeword Items have Indestructible as a Stat, the "easiest" way to make something Indestructible is by socketing a zodrune into it.

The Affix "of Ages" Crown of Ages makes an item Indestructible but is rarely sought after as it only appears on Magic Items and takes up an Affix on the generated item that could a more beneficial stat. Even on Ethereal Weapons, a Magic Weapon never has good enough Stats to be used.
Unique Items like crownofages are always Indestructible, and because of this, cannot be found in an Ethereal form.
- There are 3 Unique Items which are always Indestructible, and also always Ethereal. They gain the benefits of Ethereal and do not have Durability.
  - etherealedge
  - shadowkiller
  - ghostflame
Set Items like Immortal King's Stone Crusher Ogre Maul and Aldur's Advance Battle Boots are naturally Indestructible.
Runewords like Breath of the Dying have zodrune in the recipe, so they always be Indestructible. This means that Ethereal bases (especially with the Superior Modifier Enhanced Damage xx%) are strictly better to make the Runeword in, to benefit from the increased base Damage.
As eluded above, putting a zodrune into a Socketed Item removes its Durability Stat. As long as the item had at least 1 Durability point left when the zodrune was put in, this makes the item Indestructible. Removing the zodrune with the Horadric Cube recipe returns the Durability Stat to the item.
Since Phase Blades do not have Durability, upgrading a Crystal Sword or Dimensional Blade Rare / Unique Item to the Phase Blade base makes the item Indestructible.

Quantity

Throwing Weapons (Missiles) have maximum Quantity / Stack Size which determine how many times they can be used by throw and Ranged Attack Skills before they need to be repaired.

Throwing Weapons have a hidden Durability which directly interacts with the Quantity remaining in a stack, if the Weapon is used for Melee Attacks.
There are Ethereal Throwing Weapons, which cannot be repaired and once they are used up, become Broken.
A Throwing Weapon found in the wilderness is generated with a random Quantity <= it's Maximum Quantity.

Hidden Durability

Although it is not listed on the Item, all Throwing Weapons have a Durability. Each Quantity is treated like an individual Weapon when used for Melee Attacks. If the 4 Durability of a Throwing Knife is reduced to 0 then the Stack of knives loses 1 Quantity, which can be seen on the item. The Skill impale actually reduces Quantity on the item by 1 whenever it rolls the % chance to reduce Durability, inherent to the Skill. This facet of Throwing Weapons becomes very important when we're discussing Ethereal quality Throwing Weapons, and the Stat "Replenishes Quantity". Ethereal Quality Throwing Weapon's Durability is reduced by this quality, not the item's maximum Quantity.

Weapon	Quantity	Durability
Throwing Knife	160	4
Throwing Axe	130	6
Balanced Knife	160	8
Balanced Axe	130	10

Increased Stack Size

This Affix increases the maximum Quantity on a Throwing Weapon and is available for Magic, Rare, and Crafted Items.

Compact (aLVL 1): Increases Quantity by 20-40
Thin (aLVL 17): Increases Quantity by 41-80
Dense (aLVL 38): Increases Quantity by 81-120

It is important to note that these Affixes only extend the time that a Throwing Weapon can be used for before depleting to 0 Quantity. This does not counteract Ethereal or Broken weapons in any way.

Replenishes Quantity

The Affix Replenish Quantity causes Throwing Weapons to regain lost Quantity if the Quantity was reduced by throw and Ranged Attack Skills. Even if the Weapon's Quantity is reduced to 0, if the last action taken was a Throw action, it replenishes. This is especially useful for Ethereal Weapons, which effectively "Repair" even if the Quantity hits 0. This Affix is available for Magic, Rare, Unique, and Crafted Items.

Replenishing (aLVL 5): Replenishes 1 Quantity every 20 seconds.
Propagation (aLVL 24): Replenishes 1 Quantity every 10 seconds.
- This only replenishes Quantity while in an active game, and not between games or while logged out.

If a Throwing Weapon starts at 100% Quantity, and then is used for Melee Attacks until Durability reduction would reduce the Quantity, Replenishes Quantity doesn't begin replenishing any Quantity until the weapon is used for a Ranged Attack. This does mean that the Quantity can be reduced all the way to 0 via Melee Attacks, and the item is Broken until it is repaired. If this occurs with an Ethereal Throwing Weapon, it remains Broken indefinitely. The exception to this is via the Skill impale which reduces Quantity instead of reducing Durability.

Because Replenishes Quantity is not "Indestructible", Unique Weapons with this Stat can be found as Ethereal Quality bases. As long as they are thrown, they inevitably replenish their Quantity. This makes items like Lacerator Winged Axe sought after for their high base Damage.

Summary

Durability and Quantity seem like minor details that actually impact Diablo II: Resurrected gameplay experience.
Ethereal Quality is a double-edged sword. While it gives great boosts to Stats, it also drastically changes what items we can use, depending on the situation.
Throwing Weapons have the hidden Durability Stat that can be just as important as their Stack Quantity.

With this information about Durability and Quantity, you're prepared to navigate the gameplay and itemization in Diablo II: Resurrected.

Credits

Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Teo1904