WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear generally sees higher trade value regardless of whether it has low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or has a high stat variance (like the eth titan weapons). Upgrades are less important for those with lower requirements due to the requirement to roll an exact version.
Recycle Points
The
item upgrade r lets players upgrade their gear by giving the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be used to create the enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in every major city, and can be visited at any time to upgrade your gear. It is recommended to visit the upgrader once every few weeks to ensure that your equipment is up to date.
The cost of upgrades will vary based on the current item level of the gear being upgraded but they will always be less expensive than buying new gear from other sources. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players through item upgrader NPCs in exchange for various currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased,
item upgrades can be applied to any tool, weapon or armor. button, which displays an image of the item at its next upgrade level in the event that the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the slot of the item and the current level of the item. For example weapons cost more than gloves, bracers, or bracers. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with some upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of the Flightstones or crests used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain level, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.
Many locations have upgraders for their items which include the main island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a possibility of obtaining a new recipe. The discount for upgrades increases depending on the amount of items being upgraded, and can be boosted by having players complete specific achievements or quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items in the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who are able to facilitate upgrades are only available through a variety of methods. This is both a benefit as well as an issue.
In Season 3 the upgrade system has been tweaked a bit, with several new features added. Once an upgrade has been completed to a certain item level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same level will cost less. This is even if those items are from a different set of equipment.
The amount of Valorstones required for upgrades is decreased, and the discount is affixed to 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 couple of choices. They can make use of Flightstones that are a general upgrade currency available to all, or crests, which are more specialized and are consumed during upgrades at specific item levels. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only available for gear that is of a particular rank. Each rank has a different upgrade path. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade costs 15 crests.
item upgrades can require up to 20 crests, contingent on the kind of equipment being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, which involves walking around and performing outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, dungeons or raids of all difficulties for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and 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 routes and steps.
The use of these currencies isn't that difficult however, the system introduces some modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This allows players to upgrade their equipment to the highest possible level on all of their characters rather than relying on seasonal loot.
Another notable change is that crests only have one use therefore it's essential to use them wisely. It is best to use your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear that you can find and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is especially true for items like rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, which will only be able to take advantage of the account-wide discount when all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.