15 Reasons To Not Ignore Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades can give you boosts in certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of the item level upgrade by +3. A random additional substat is also increased with each upgrade.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item upgrades has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are less valuable for those with lower requirements due to the need to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade gear to a higher level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapon. However, the item used for the upgrade items will remain in use for a long time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in all major cities and can be visited at any time to upgrade your gear. It is recommended to visit the upgrader once every few weeks, to keep your equipment up to date.
The cost of upgrading will vary based on the current Item Level Upgrade level of the equipment being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than buying new equipment from other sources. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. A similar item upgrading will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players through NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for various currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon or armor. The button will display the item upgrading's next upgrade level, when there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the slot of the item and the current item level. For instance weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers, or bracers. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Certain upgrades provide a discount on the Flightstones. Once an item is upgraded to a certain level and is degraded, it can be sold and returned to the upgrader for a lower amount of both currency types.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade discount as well as a chance to get a brand new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases according to the number of items that are being upgraded. It is also possible to be increased by requiring players to complete specific achievements or complete quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items at the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades require several methods, which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, several new features have been added to the upgrade system. Once an upgrade has been completed to a certain level of item for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same level, will cost less. This applies even if the items come from an entirely different set of gear.
The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is also cut and is not available until players achieve certain achievement milestones.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW, players have a few 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 an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests can only be spent on equipment that is of a particular rank, and that each rank has its own requirements for upgrading. The simplest and easiest upgrade is 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade could require as much as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through finishing tasks at the appropriate level. This could be done by engaging in outdoor activities or taking on dungeons and raids of any difficulty to earn lower-tier gear or Mythic+ raid bosses 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 to get the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
The new currency system isn't difficult to use, however it does bring some changes to the process of upgrading. Once a piece of gear has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it no longer requires Flightstones. This change is designed to allow players to upgrade their equipment up to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters, instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
Another significant change is that crests only have one use, so it's important to use them wisely. For instance, it's best to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the best equipment available and save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next round of upgrades you're planning to create. This is especially true for items like trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character, that will be able to avail the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are filled with top-quality gear.