Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide Towards Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and crucial method to enhance the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can also provide additional damage, AD or even affixes.

Rare-grade equipment is often superior to upgraded Common or Magic gear because of their high requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They increase the effectiveness of the item that they are attached to. Upgrades to armor are available in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Additionally, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components inside them, using an expert or greater salvage kit.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it is able to absorb. Upgrading a piece of armor to the highest upgrade level will boost its damage absorption. But, it's important to keep in mind that this will raise its weight, requiring it to weigh more than before.

There are many different kinds of armor upgrades available in the game. Each one has a distinct impact. Certain upgrades grant armor an extra number of health points, while others make it stronger and lighter. The name of the armor upgrade will tell you the kind of upgrade an item upgrading can be given, as illustrated below.

Certain upgrades require magic or a hybrid technology and magic, as identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Furthermore, some upgrades require a fee to use, and are shown by the "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are either continuously updated or never expire depending on the upgrade.

The cheapest way to upgrade armor is with Iron Ore, which can be found by exploring the area and looting chests of minor loot. Titanium is more expensive, but it can be obtained through smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant improvements in stats and are well worth the cost.

Upgrading a piece of armor to max upgrade level will greatly boost its defense but the wearer must be aware that putting on weight will drastically reduce its speed and agility. For this reason, it is typically not recommended to upgrade armor pieces that are higher than +9 because the increase in defense is usually not worth the weight and power costs of the improvements required.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades give players the ability to improve certain aspects of their weapon. For instance an upgrade could increase the damage dealt by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Some weapons also have special enhancements that enhance their intrinsic qualities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, minimizes weapon overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed for greater damage) are two examples.

The majority of upgrades to weapons require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons and a whetblade for applying. These can be gained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain number of bosses and monsters.

To upgrade an equipment set, weapon piece or Whetblade You must go to the NPC [Armor] Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a certain amount of bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars are required to complete it. The cost of upgrading will be lower if you have more than one of the upgrade materials.

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5, you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a certain amount of Bars. You could do this until you reached a maximum upgrade level for your weapon or equipment, after which the upgrades would reset.

You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. You should consider buying equipment that has low levels of upgrade and high base scores and stat distributions. These will then have a better chance of bringing you the best tier of perks and blessings.

To improve their skills faster, most players will be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. In addition players, they should also consider upgrading the weapons that are most popular with their squadmates to increase their power and effective. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels are utilized in the armor's sockets and weapons, increasing the stats of a weapon and providing additional effects. They can be created using the process of jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gem and various chemicals at a table. The higher the grade of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained around the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and sometimes by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The Jeweler can improve the quality of the gem in stages that range from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the tier the jewel is at when it is inserted into jewelry, weapons or gear.

All tiers of jewels can be made at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels that require you to be at a certain level to be able to get these. Jewels can be substituted with another jewel without damaging the original. However you can only swap out a jewel in an item of equipment once.

It is typical to use more gems for aesthetic reasons. In addition to enhancing performance, the jewels also create an outer layer that is more durable than steel, so the repeated friction with pivots doesn't cause damage as easily.

A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the look of your shields and weapons. These glyphs provide a small boost in power and can be exchanged, however they are not guaranteed to show up as loot. Glyphs are upgradeable, like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold and scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits or aegis cannot be exchanged and can only be found by using an Upgrade extractor or salvaging using Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are pieces of equipment that provide an array of tiny but valuable advantages to your hero. They can be obtained in the starter areas as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, and by doing road interactions. They can be purchased from the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinket that a player will be able to unlock is the cloak. It grants a small but valuable boost in speed of movement and evasion. After that, they can get amulets, rings, and necklaces in the same way to how a player can acquire armor and weapons. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade item. Universal upgrades are smaller and are able to be used on any piece of equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.

These trinkets also grant additional bonuses and abilities that are active when the hero is not fighting. This enables the hero to perform better when they are not active and may also help make up for a lack of a strong team or any talent tree slots that would normally be filled with the hero's ideal statistics.

A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader-in-Slot) items that you will not replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item upgrade being upgraded. This is especially true when you are looking to upgrade multiple stats on an item. It's best to upgrade just one crucial stat rather than two suboptimal ones.

In the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their trinket into a red one in the middle and top players will usually opt for a green or pink ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's abilities to control maps.

In addition to the things mentioned above, players can also find other items in the form of trophies and awards. These can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance the main quest of a chapter or killing a particular boss. You can check them out by clicking on the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.