Runescape.com wrote:
Further to yesterday's news post, we thought we would explain the finer details of how we will balance the barrows equipment.
We're keen not to devalue dragon, but we also want to make sure the barrows equipment is a really powerful option for level 70+ players. We think it's possible to achieve both aims.
We've decided not to reduce the barrows equipment stats. It will still be super-duper powerful! Instead bearing in mind this equipment is very old and antique, (it has after all been lieing in the ground for centuries!) it will require a bit of occasional servicing to keep it in tiptop condition.
The upkeep isn't too extreme, the equipment will last for 15 hours of solid combat before wearing out and requiring a repair. 15 hours might not sound long but you can actually kill a seriously large number of monsters and get a lot of loot in that time. Also the items won't wear out at all unless actually being used to fight.
The planned repair costs for a full repair from 0% are as follows:
Barrows Weapons: 100k
Barrows Bodies: 90k
Barrows Legs: 80k
Barrows Helmets: 60k
Unlike the crystal bow and shield, the barrows items last longer, and the effectiveness of the items will NOT reduce as it wears out. Until it reaches 0% it will still be as powerful as it was when it was new. When it gets to 0% you just pay to get it fixed up and carry on using it.
The equipment will only be tradable when it is at 100% condition so there won't be any problems regarding bartering for sub-standard equipment. There will also be a physical representation of how much it's degraded so you can work out when you will need to get it repaired.
You can get it repaired at any time, instead of having to wait until it is at 0% to get it repaired. The cost is proportionally lower if you do (so if it's only half damaged the repair cost is also halved).
This means dragon equipment remains the best available "no-upkeep" equipment. And therefore it's still definitely worth having, but the new equipment is good too in a different way.
Consider this week a good chance to try out the new equipment without it wearing out, so you can experiment a bit and see what it's like without having to pay extra.
Regarding the "set bonuses", we would like to clarify that you only get this bonus if you are wearing the entire set. Carrying it in your inventory does not have the same effect.
We have also (already) reduced the likelihood of receiving a half key or a dragon helm from the barrows, because these were too common.
Really nice job on balancing it... Something like this needs to be done so I can buy cheap dragon equiments 
anyway on topic, i think the repairs will make it sound less atractive than it did before, because you know you're gonna have repair bills for it.
