WoW Upgrades – The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item upgrader kit by 3. A random additional substat is also increased with every upgrade.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless it is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are not as valuable for those with higher variance due to the requirement to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item upgrading will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To keep your gear up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every few weeks.
The cost of upgrades will be based on the current level of the equipment being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment from other sources. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest up to ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item upgrade will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade weapons, armor, tools, and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades to item owners for a variety of currencies. They can also find them on random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool or armor. The button will show the preview of an item’s next level of upgrade, when there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the item slot and the current level of the item and the weapon’s price is higher than gloves or bracers for example. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a variety of crests, with some upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of Flightstones or crests used. Once an item is upgraded to a certain amount it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
Many locations have upgraders for their items which include the main island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon and the possibility of getting a new recipe. The upgrade discount increases according to the number of items being upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur’s Gate II, there is no upgrader for items available at the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only accessible through a variety of methods. This is both a positive and a disadvantage.
In Season 3 the upgrade system was altered a bit, with several new features added. Once an upgrade has been completed to a certain item level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same item level upgrade (you could look here) level, will cost less. This is true regardless of whether the items come from a different set of equipment.
The amount of Valorstones required to upgrade is reduced and the discount is affixed to all accounts. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is also cut and is not available until players reach certain milestones in their achievements.
Crests
When it comes to upgrading equipment in WoW players have a couple of choices. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
First, you must be aware that Crests are only available to equipment of a certain rank. Each rank comes with an upgrade item path that is different. The most basic and straightforward upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complex can require as much as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by working through tasks at the appropriate level. This could mean doing outdoor activities or doing dungeons or raids in all difficulty levels to obtain lower-level gear or Mythic+ raid bosses or dungeons with heroic difficulty for gear in the endgame. The crests can then be exchanged with an item upgrader such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
Using these new currencies isn’t too difficult however, the system introduces some changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches 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 gear to the highest possible ilvl on all of their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another important change is that crests have one use, so it’s important to use them wisely. It is best to use your Whelpling-rank crests on the highest-quality gear you can locate, and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next round of upgrades. This is especially relevant for rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, which will only be able to avail the account-wide discount when all slots are full of high-quality gear.