15 Shocking Facts About Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost in specific statistics. Each upgrade increases the item level by +3. A random extra substat is also added to every upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more useful, unless the item upgrader mod has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like eth Titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as valuable for the latter due to the need to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be made on any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To keep your gear current it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every couple of weeks.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item however they'll always be cheaper than buying new gear. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used for weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players from NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased, it can be used on any weapon, tool, or armor using the help of The button will display the item's next upgrade level if there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the slot of the item upgrading and current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers, for instance. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a specific number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain level and is degraded, it can be sold and returned to the upgrader for a lower amount of the two currencies.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a chance to obtain the latest recipe. The discount on upgrades increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or complete quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no item upgrader available at the start of Icewind Dale. Instead, the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades require several methods which is both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3, many new features have been added to the upgrade system. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a specific item Level upgrade level for a particular armor slot, upgrading other items to that same item level will cost less, even when they are part of another set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed to upgrade item is reduced and the discount is available across all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is cut also, but is only available once certain milestones are achieved.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW, players have a couple of choices. Flightstones are an item that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are used for specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1, and come in 4 ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests can only be spent on equipment of a particular rank, and that each rank has its own requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade process costs just 15 crests while the more complex one can require as much as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through completing content of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and performing outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons with all difficulties for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons to obtain endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an upgrader such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
The use of these currencies isn't too complicated however, the system does introduce some changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, when an item is at the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is designed to allow players to upgrade their gear up to the highest ilvl possible for all their characters instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
Another significant modification is that crests have one usage and it's crucial to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance, it's a good idea use all of your Whelpling-rank crests on the best equipment available and then save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you're planning to create. This is particularly true for items like trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character, that will be able to take advantage of the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.