WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades will give you a an increase in certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. A random extra substat is also increased with each upgrade.

Upgraded gear generally sees more value in trade regardless of whether it has low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or a very high stat variation (like Eth titan weapons). Upgrades are not as useful for those with higher variance because of the requirement to roll an exact version.

Recycle Points

The item upgrading upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any kind of armor or weapons. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and can't be used again. Upgrades can be applied to enchantments.

The upgrader is located in every major city, and can be visited at any time to upgrade your equipment. It is recommended to visit the upgrader once every few weeks, to ensure that your equipment is up to date.

The cost of upgrading will be based on the current item level of the item being upgraded but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment from other sources. For example, upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points, while purchasing the same item from a different player will cost 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade weapon, armor, tool, and accessory upgrades. They are purchased by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for different currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any tool, weapon, or armor. The button will show the item's next level of upgrade, if there are enough materials.

The upgrade cost depends on the item slot and the current item level as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than gloves or bracers for example. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Some upgrades give a discount on the Flightstones. Once an item is upgraded to a certain degree and is degraded, it can be sold and sold back to the upgrader for a lesser amount of both currency types.

A lot of locations offer upgraders for items in addition to the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade discount as well as a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades increases depending on the amount of items being upgraded. It is also possible to be increased by requiring players to complete specific achievements or complete quests.

Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at the start, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. The NPCs that can assist with upgrades are only available through a variety of methods. This is both a benefit as well as a drawback.

In Season 3, the upgrade system has been modified a bit, and some new features added. When a player has an upgrade to a specific level of an item Level upgrade for a specific armor slot, upgrading further items to that same item upgrade level will cost less, even if they are part of a different gear set.

The amount of Valorstones required to upgrade is reduced and the discount is available across all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players achieve certain milestones in their achievement.

Crests

When upgrading equipment in WoW, players have a few choices. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to everyone who wants to upgrade. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an integral component of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.

The first thing to remember is that Crests are only available to equipment that is that is of a particular rank. Each rank has distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade item route costs 15 crests while the more complex one may require as many as 20 crests based on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.

Players can earn crests by completing content of the appropriate level, which involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons of all difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. Crests can be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.

The new currency system isn't complicated to use, however it will bring some changes to the process of upgrading. For instance, once an item upgrade is at the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This is to allow players to upgrade their equipment up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.

Another notable modification is that crests have one purpose, so it's important to use them properly. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank crests on the top-quality equipment you can locate, and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is especially relevant for rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character, which can only be eligible to take advantage of the account-wide discount if all of the slots are filled with top-quality equipment.