My idea is that durability will still occur but is a battle concern that you can use strategy around to avoid or minimize. That way you can retain role-playing immersion and minimize having to repair equipment all the time.
Instead of having equipment deteriorating from usage you could have equipment in three states and remove usage from the equation.
Enhanced - Equipment/weapons gain bonus effects Normal - Equipment/weapon is as advertised Broken - Equipment/weapon can no longer be used until repaired
What determines if equipment is in these three states?
Broken - Battle ~ aka a rust monster/spell etc - Sabotage ~ a vial of corrosive acid makes your equipment brittle - Use whet stones/armorer hammers to repair 'broken' state equipment/weapons
Normal - All equipment/weapons start like this usually
Enhanced - Use things like whet stones or armorer hammers to enhance armour/weapons and add effects with spells etc
*Chests and doors will not break weapons and neither will attacks with your weapon cause durability to reduce. Noise made should be enough of a check and balance for breaking chests and doors. *Armour/weapons will not suffer durability loss from use. Going from 'normal' to 'broken' is caused by special attacks from some enemies like rust monsters and will not occur straight away but after a couple of turns will be unusable unless treated or repaired by a spell or tool etc
