Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide To Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

item upgrading upgrades are a common and important way to improve the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can be a good source of damage or more AD or even more affixes.

Rare-grade equipment is often superior to upgraded Common or Magic gear due to their higher requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a kind of upgrade that can be used on weapons and armor items. They increase the performance of the item they are connected to. Upgrades to armor can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at bonfires. Alternately, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components inside them, using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it will take on. The damage absorption of an armor piece will increase when it is upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. However, it's important keep in mind that this will increase its weight, causing it to be heavier than before.

There are several types of armor upgrades that are available in the game and each one has distinct effects. Certain upgrades give armor an extra number of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade that an item will receive, as shown below.

A few of the upgrades are also magic or a hybrid of technology and magic, which is identified by the "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees to use. These are indicated as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades refresh daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.

The cheapest method of upgrading armor is with Iron Ore, which can be gathered by exploring the environment and looting minor loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, however it is obtainable through smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant improvement in stats and are a worthwhile cost, especially for single-handed weapons.

A piece of armor upgraded to the highest upgrade level will significantly boost its defense but the wearer must be aware that increasing its weight will drastically reduce its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The added defense typically isn't worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to enhance certain aspects of their weapon. For instance an upgrade could increase the damage dealt by shotgun shells or the accuracy of a rifle that snipes. Certain weapons come with special upgrades to improve their inherent capabilities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, minimizes the possibility of overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed for greater damage) are two examples.

The majority of upgrades for weapons require a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These are obtained through either doing side quests, or taking out a certain number of monsters or bosses, or from the Weapon upgrade item NPC located in Central Flarine.

To upgrade the weapon, equipment set piece, or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a certain amount of bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade, the higher the level. If you have multiple upgrade materials the cost of upgrading will be lower.

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed a bit. Previously you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased level of rarity. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which point the upgrades would be reset.

You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're much better off going to stores and buying gear that has low upgrade item levels but good base scores and stat distributions. They will also have a better chance of bringing you the highest tier bonuses and blessings.

To increase their level faster, most players will be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons their squadmates use to make them stronger. Shepard for instance should upgrade his M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more useful when accompanied with biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels are placed in the armor's sockets and weapons, increasing a stat and providing secondary effects. Jewelry crafting is the process of making them, where you combine gemstones with specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the jewel, the better its secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses all over the world, or through finding Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The Jeweler can improve the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. The boosts to stats will differ depending on the tier the jewel is in when it's inserted into weapons, jewelry, or equipment.

The Jeweler can craft all tiers of gems, apart from the rare and legendary ones which require a certain level to get. Jewels can be replaced by another jewel without damaging the original. You are able to replace the jewel once within an item of equipment.

It is common to use more jewels for aesthetic reasons. The jewels can also enhance performance and make an outer layer that is more durable than steel, so that the repeated friction caused by pivots does not damage them.

A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs that can enhance the look of your shields and weapons. These provide a small bonus and can be swapped freely but aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs, like jewelry, can be upgraded at the Jeweler to exchange gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be removed from the inventory, and they are returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits and aegis, aren't swappable and can only be retrieved using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them with a Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are pieces of equipment that provide many small, but beneficial advantages to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the starter areas as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, or by doing road interactions. They can also be crafted by jewelers and later found or purchased at the Trading Post.

The first trinket a player will unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny but valuable boost in movement speed and the ability to evade. The player can then collect rings, amulets and necklaces in a similar fashion as they did with weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be put into any type of equipment, however, jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded and is only compatible with certain types of trinkets.

These trinkets also grant additional buffs and skills that are active even when the character is not fighting. This allows a hero to be more efficient when they are not active. It can also compensate for the absence of good slots in the team or talent tree that are normally filled by a hero's top stats.

A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace in the near future, then any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is particularly true if an Item upgrade has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade since it's generally better to upgrade a single crucial stat than two subpar ones.

In the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their yellow trinket into a red one, while top and mid players typically choose a green or pink ward (depending on the matchup). These choices will have an impact on the hero's ability to manage the map.

In addition to the items listed above, players will also find other trinkets in the form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. These can be earned by completing certain milestones within the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or destroying a boss. You can see them by selecting the achievement from the reward section of the hero's menu.