20 Things You Should Be Educated About Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to specific stats. Each upgrade increases item level by +3. Each upgrade also boosts an unspecified substat.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like the eth Titan weapons). The latter see less value from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher item level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapon. However, the item used for the upgrade will remain in use for a long time and will not be able to be used again. Upgrades can be applied to the enchantments.
You can upgrade your equipment anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
The cost of upgrading will be based on the current level of the gear being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than buying new equipment from other sources. For example, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points purchasing a similar piece from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapons, armor, tools and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool, or armor. button, which displays a preview of the item at its next upgrade level in the event that the player has enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the item slot and current item upgrades level as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than gloves or bracers for example. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Certain upgrades provide a discount on the Flightstones. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lesser amount of both currencies.
Many locations offer item upgraders, including the main Island and some outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a possibility of getting an entirely new recipe. The discount on upgrades increases according to the number of items being upgraded. It can also be boosted by having players complete specific achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at start unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead, the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades are acquired via several methods that are both an improvement but also a drawback.
In Season 3 the upgrade system was modified a bit, and some new features added. After an upgrade has been completed to a certain item level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same item level, will cost less. This is true even if the items come from a different set of equipment.
The discount is available to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is reduced also, but is only available after certain milestones are achieved.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW, players have a couple of choices. Flightstones are an item that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specific and are utilized during specific item level upgrade (updated blog post) level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
The first thing to remember is that the crests can only be purchased for gear of a certain rank. Each rank has distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade process costs just 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 through working through content at the appropriate level. This could mean doing outdoor activities, or by doing dungeons or raids in any difficulty to earn equipment of lower tier or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons with a heroic difficulty to obtain endgame gear. Crests can be exchanged at an item upgrading upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to obtain the appropriate upgrade routes and steps.
Using these new currencies isn't that difficult, but the system does introduce some modifications to the upgrade process. For instance, when an item upgrading is at the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is designed to allow players to upgrade their equipment to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters, rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
It's also crucial to choose crests wisely, as they only have one use. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear that you can find and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly relevant for items like trinkets and rings that fill several slots. The discount on the account will only be applicable if all the slots on the character are filled with high-quality gear.