Why We Enjoy Item Upgrade And You Should Too
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boosts in specific statistics. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item level upgrade items (discover this) by 3. A random extra substat is also boosted alongside each upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are less useful for those with higher variance because of the requirement to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of weapon or armor. However, the item upgrades that is used for the upgrade will remain in use for a long time and can't be used again. Upgrades can be used to create enchantments.
You can upgrade your equipment anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended to visit the upgrader once every few weeks to ensure that your equipment is up to date.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item, but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment. For instance, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points, purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items that can be used to upgrade weapons, tools, armor, and other accessories. They are purchased by players through item upgrader NPCs in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool or armor. The button will display a preview of an item's next upgrade level if there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrading varies based on the item slot, and the current item level. For example weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers, or bracers. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. Once an item upgrading has been upgraded to a certain amount it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.
Upgraders for items are available in many places on the main island as well as some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases according to the number of items being upgraded, and can be boosted by having players complete specific achievements or complete quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at start, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. Instead, the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades are acquired via a variety of means that are both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3 the upgrade system has been tweaked a bit, with numerous new features added. After a player has upgraded to a certain item level for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same item upgrader mod level will cost less. This applies regardless of whether the items are from a different set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones required for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is affixed to all accounts. Similarly, the amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players achieve certain milestones in their achievement.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW players have a variety of choices. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1, and come in 4 ranks.
First, you should know that Crests are only available to equipment of a certain rank. Each rank comes with distinct upgrade paths. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade is 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade requires up to 20 crests, depending on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, whether that means walking around and doing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons with all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses to obtain endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an item upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
Using these new currencies isn't too complicated however, the system will introduce a few changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This change allows players to upgrade their gear to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters rather than relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant modification is that crests have one purpose, so it's important to use them properly. For instance it's a good idea make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests with the best gear you have available and save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you're planning on making. This is particularly true for items like rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, that will be able to avail the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are filled with top-quality gear.