14 Misconceptions Commonly Held About Item Upgrade

WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades can give you boost in specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item upgrading by +3. A random substat is also increased with every upgrade.

The upgraded gear is usually more useful, unless the item has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a large variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are less useful for the latter due to the need to roll the perfect version.

Recycle Points

The item upgrade upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of weapon or armor. The item level upgrade used to upgrade the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.

You can upgrade your gear at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended to visit the upgrader at least once every few weeks, to keep your equipment up to date.

The cost of upgrading will vary based on the current item level of the equipment being upgraded, but will always be less expensive than purchasing new gear from other sources. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. A similar item will cost you 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items that can be used for tools, armor, weapon, and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players from NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for different currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any weapon, tool or armor. The button will display a preview of an item's next level of upgrade, if there are enough materials.

The cost of upgrades varies based on the slot of the item and the current item level as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than gloves or bracers, for example. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Some upgrades offer a discount on the Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain amount it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.

A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and a possibility of obtaining the latest recipe. The discount for upgrades increases according to the number of items that are being upgraded. It is also possible to be boosted by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.

Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs that can assist with upgrades are only accessible through a variety of methods. This is both a positive and an issue.

In Season 3, many new features were added to the upgrade system. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a specific level for an item in an armor slot, upgrading further items to that same item level will cost less, even if they belong to an entirely different set of gear.

The amount of Valorstones required to upgrade items is reduced and the discount is account-wide. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is also cut and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievements.

Crests

When it comes to upgrading gear in WoW players have a few choices. Flightstones are an item that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specific, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1 and are available in four ranks.

The first thing to remember is that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is that is of a particular rank. Each rank has a different upgrade items path. The simplest and easiest upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade can require up to 20 crests, depending on the type of equipment being upgraded.

Players can obtain crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons of all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons to obtain endgame gear. Crests can be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.

Utilizing these new currencies isn't too complicated however, the system does introduce some changes to the overall upgrade process. For example, once an item is at the highest level of upgrading for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change allows players to upgrade their equipment to the highest level possible on all of their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.

Another important modification is that crests have one purpose therefore it's essential to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance, it's a good idea to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests with the best gear you have available, and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you plan to create. This is especially true for items like rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character that will be able to take advantage of the account-wide discount when all of the slots are full of high-quality gear.