Why You Should Focus On Improving Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give you an increase in specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also increases a random substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapons. The item level upgrade used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in every major city, and can be accessed at any time to upgrade your gear. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every several weeks.
The cost of upgrading will depend on the current level of the gear being upgraded but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear from other sources. For example, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 levels will cost 20 recycle points, while purchasing the same item level upgrade from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used for tools, armor, weapon and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased from item upgraders NPCs for various currencies. They can also find them on random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any tool, weapon, or armor. button, which displays a preview of the item when it is upgraded when the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the slot for the item and the current item Level upgrade level. For example weapons are more expensive than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with some upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of the Flightstones or crests that are used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain amount, it can be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lower amount of both currencies.
Item upgraders can be found in a variety of locations, including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs provide an upgrade discount and a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The discount for upgrading increases when more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players finish certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an upgrader for items at the start unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. Instead the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades require various methods, which is both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3 the upgrade system has been tweaked a bit, with several new features added. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a particular level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading further items to that same item level will cost less, even in the event that they belong to a different gear set.
The discount is available to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is reduced as well, but is only available when certain milestones are reached.
Crests
Players have several options when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are an item that is available to everyone who wants to upgrade. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1, and come in 4 ranks.
The first thing to remember is that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is of a particular rank. Each rank has an upgrade path that is different. The simplest and easiest upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade requires up to 20 crests, based on the kind of equipment being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, which involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons with all difficulties for higher-tier items or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses for endgame gear. These crests can be exchanged with an upgrader for the item, such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, however it brings some modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This change allows players to upgrade items their equipment to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another notable modification is that crests have one usage and it's crucial to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance it's best to utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests with the best gear you have available and save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next round of upgrades you're planning to make. This is particularly applicable to trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character that will be able to take advantage of the account-wide discount if all slots are filled with top-quality equipment.