Recently, I've had great luck with the official Rollerblade brand. Every pair of theirs I have put my hands on lately has covered the basics:
- Nice ratchet clip above the ankle to adjust tightness.
- Adjustable boot size for kids that are still growing
- Ships with bearings that are suitable for beginners but (only just) good enough not to be distracting to expert skaters.
- Reasonable amount of padding, tough enough plastic to survive, while not overly heavy.
- Usually ships with alternate axle hardware, for skaters who immediately remove the stupid useless dangerous heal brake.
The list above is decent for reading reviews of other brands, as well.
Like most sports, there's no upper limit to how much we can spend, and not all of what we can spend on will matter to us.
That said, there's some things a basic Rollerblade won't do:
- Most aggressive skating tricks. (Most RillerBlades brand skates do not have a grind plate.)
- If you know you're going to quickly put hundreds of hours on them, get a set with metal foot pads and wheel frames. (I believe) Some Rollerblades have them, but not all.
- If you're going to do jump tricks in them, look for reviews specifically of the axle durability. Skates with grind plates may have stronger axles for landing, but if you're planning to land hard and often (routinely from a meter of more) on them, they can be broken.
Since you've already burned through your first set, I would be looking for metal frames and durability reviews. Street trick skates tend to be much more durable, but can be surprisingly uncomfortably heavy.
You could also look at rollerblades designed for hockey. They tend to be durable while light. But beware, a traditional ice hockey skate boot is...an aquired taste? Incredibly uncomfortable until broken in, and even then only ever comfortable if the boot was a great fit to begin with.
I'm a fan of finding reviews by roller hockey players of regular comfortable street skates. Those tend to be tough, partly metal, and still comfortable.