The default Durability VR settings determines how fast weapon or armour degrades based on whether you meet the level requirements for the materials it is crafted from. This means that at lower levels you are forced to use lower quality weapons and armours, as higher quality weapons/armour degrade rapidly in inept hands. This is designed to stop players using more advanced equipment early on which can be OP in vanilla play-throughs. I personally prefer a more hardcore permadeath survival play-style and I use a large number of mods to make surviving very difficult, so getting access to higher quality weapons and armour is a vital part of surviving especially early on. Shizof has kindly included an alternative .ini settings file by Wolfman: Low-Reverse - this reduces the rate of degradation significantly and removes the level requirements to safely use any weapons and armour. It then changes the degradation levels so that better quality materials are more resilient than lower quality materials - which makes more sense to me. However, whilst I prefer this approach, the weapons and armour then degraded so slowly it stopped being a significant factor in the gameplay - I was finding better weapons/armour long before the ones I was using were even close to breaking. I enjoy the challenge of having to keep an eye on the condition of my weapons/armour and maintain them, so that I  won't be caught defenceless and unprotected deep into a Dwemer ruin (again!). I have fond memories of having to try to punch a Dwemer centurion to death when my only weapon broke - but sometimes retreat is the better part of valour...

So I have tweaked the .ini file to increase the degradation to the rate used in the original .ini settings file and then made a few other changes as well:

• Global Degrade Multiplier = 5 (Increased from 0.5) - Weapons/Armour degrade at same rate as the original
• Repairable Normal = 1 (Changed from 0) - Unenchanted weapons/armour are repairable
• Armors Degrade On Chance = 1 (Changed from 0) - Degradation is based on probability/chance
• Weapon Ranged Attack Multiplier = 0.1 (Reduced from 0.3) - You wouldn't expect a bow to degrade much with normal use
• Armor Ranged Attack Multiplier = 0.25 (Reduced 0.75) - Arrows shouldn't do too much damage to armour
• Weapon Enchanted Multiplier = 0.5 (Reduced from 1.5) - Enchanted weapons are more resilient to damage
• Armor Enchanted Multiplier = 0.27 (Reduced from 0.8) Enchanted armours are more resilient to damage
  

I also changed the Weapons/Armour Degradation Multipliers to use a uniform linear scale, incremented by 0.1/0.05 at each step - more inspired by my OCD than logic :)

• Multiplier Weapon Wood = 1.8
• Multiplier Weapon Iron = 1.7
• Multiplier Weapon Imperial = 1.6
• Multiplier Weapon Draugr = 1.5
• Multiplier Weapon DraugrHoned = 1.4
• Multiplier Weapon Falmer = 1.3
• Multiplier Weapon FalmerHoned = 1.2
• Multiplier Weapon Steel = 1.1
• Multiplier Weapon Silver = 1.0
• Multiplier Weapon Orcish = 0.9
• Multiplier Weapon Dwarven = 0.8
• Multiplier Weapon Nordic = 0.7
• Multiplier Weapon Elven = 0.6
• Multiplier Weapon Glass = 0.5
• Multiplier Weapon Stalhrim = 0.4
• Multiplier Weapon Ebony = 0.3
• Multiplier Weapon Daedric = 0.2
• Multiplier Weapon Dragon Bone = 0.1
  

 

• Multiplier Armor Forsworn=1.7
• Multiplier Armor Hide=1.65
• Multiplier Armor Studded=1.6
• Multiplier Armor Iron=1.55
• Multiplier Armor Iron Banded=1.5
• Multiplier Armor Imperial=1.45
• Multiplier Armor Imperial Studded=1.4
• Multiplier Armor Bonemold Heavy=1.35
• Multiplier Armor Vampire=1.3
• Multiplier Armor Dawnguard=1.25
• Multiplier Armor Steel=1.2
• Multiplier Armor Falmer Hardened=1.15
• Multiplier Armor Leather=1.1
• Multiplier Armor Bear Stormcloak=1.05
• Multiplier Armor Falmer Heavy=1.0
• Multiplier Armor Chitin=0.95
• Multiplier Armor Dwarven=0.9
• Multiplier Armor Elven=0.85
• Multiplier Armor Steel Plate=0.8
• Multiplier Armor Nordic Heavy=0.75
• Multiplier Armor Blades=0.7
• Multiplier Armor Thieves Guild=0.65
• Multiplier Armor Scaled=0.6
• Multiplier Armor Orcish=0.55
• Multiplier Armor Thieves Guild Leader=0.5
• Multiplier Armor Elven Gilded=0.45
• Multiplier Armor Ebony=0.4
• Multiplier Armor Stalhrim=0.35
• Multiplier Armor Glass=0.3
• Multiplier Armor Dragon Plate=0.25
• Multiplier Armor Dragon Scale=0.2
• Multiplier Armor Nightingale=0.15
• Multiplier Armor Daedric=0.1
  

 
The net result of these changes is that weapons and armour crafted from softer, lower quality materials will degrade quite rapidly, whilst those made from harder more resilient materials will degrade more slowly. So at lower levels you are going to have to locate new weapons and armour regularly or at least repair what you already have in order to stay combat ready. As you find or craft better quality equipment they will last longer and require less repairing or replacing. This should encourage players to search for better equipment, mine ores and develop their smithing skills early on to improve their chances of survival...

All DP's go directly to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)