WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade increases item level by +3. Each upgrade also boosts an unspecified substat.

Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the item upgrading 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 higher variance because of the requirement to roll the perfect version.

Recycle Points

The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any kind of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to the enchantments.

The upgrader is located in all major cities, and can be accessed at any time to upgrade your gear. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each several weeks.

Upgrades will cost more, based on the level of the Item Level Upgrade, however, they are always cheaper than buying new equipment. For example upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 levels will cost 20 recycle points purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are functional items that are used to upgrade weapons tools, armor, and other items. They are purchased by players from NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be applied to any weapon, tool or armor. button, which will display an item's preview when it is upgraded when the player has enough materials.

The upgrade cost depends on the slot of the item and the current level of the item, with weapons costing more than bracers or gloves, for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of Flightstones or crests used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain level it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.

A lot of locations offer upgraders for items in addition to the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon as well as the possibility of getting the latest recipe. The discount on upgrades increases when more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete certain achievements or quests.

Icewind Dale does not have an item level upgrade upgrader at beginning, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead, the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades are acquired via several methods, which is both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.

In Season 3, a number of new features were added to the upgrade system. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a particular item level for a particular armor slot, upgrading additional items to that level will cost less, even in the event that they are part of a different gear set.

The discount is applicable to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is cut too, but it is only available after certain milestones are achieved.

Crests

Players have a variety of choices when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item upgrading level upgrades. Crests are the main component 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 are only able to be used to purchase equipment of a particular rank, and every rank has different requirements for its upgrade items path. The simplest and easiest upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade requires up to 20 crests, based on the type or equipment being upgraded.

Players can earn crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, which involves walking around and performing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons of any difficulty for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. These crests are then exchanged with an upgrader for the item such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken to upgrade the item in the proper steps and paths.

The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, however it does bring some changes to the upgrade process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change lets players upgrade their gear to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters rather than relying on seasonal loot.

Another important change is that crests only have one usage and it's crucial to use them wisely. For instance, it's best to utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests with the Best item upgrade equipment you have and keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next round of upgrades you plan on making. This is particularly true for items like rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which can only be eligible to benefit from the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are filled with top-quality gear.