WoW Upgrades – The Item Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by +3. Each upgrade also boosts an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the item has a low requirement by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like the eth Titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the necessity to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be made on any kind of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item upgrader kit is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended to visit the upgrader every few weeks to ensure that your equipment is up-to-date.
The cost of upgrading will depend on the current level of the equipment being upgraded but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear from other sources. For example upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points while buying a similar item from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade items weapons tools, armor, and other accessories. They are purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for various currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased, it can be used on any weapon or tool with a button, which displays a preview of the item when it is upgraded in the event that the player has enough materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the item slot and the current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of the Flightstones or the crests used. Once an item is upgraded to a certain degree, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items in addition to the main island and a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and a chance to get a brand new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades increases as more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players finish certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at the beginning unlike Cromwell from Baldur’s Gate II. Instead the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades require several methods, which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system has been modified a bit, and numerous new features added. Once the player has upgraded to a certain Item Level upgrade level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same item level, will cost less. This is regardless of whether the items come from a different set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed to upgrade is reduced and the discount is available across all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is reduced as well, but is only available when certain milestones are reached.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW players have a couple of choices. Flightstones are a currency that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more special and are used for specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests can only be used on gear of a specific rank, and each rank has different requirements for upgrading. The simplest and simplest upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one can require as much as 20 crests based on the type of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through completing content at the appropriate level. This could mean doing outdoor activities, or by taking on dungeons and raids of any difficulty to earn lower-tier gear or Mythicbosses of raids or dungeons with heroic difficulty for gear in the endgame. The crests can later be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
The use of these currencies isn’t too complicated, but the system does introduce some changes to the overall upgrade process. When a piece has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This change is designed to allow players to get their gear up to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters, instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
Another significant change is that crests have one usage, so it’s important to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance it’s a good idea make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the top gear you have available, and then save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you’re planning on making. This is particularly applicable to rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, that will be able to take advantage of the account-wide discount if all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.