WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to specific stats. Each upgrade increases the
item upgrader kit level by +3. Each upgrade also boosts a random substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the
item upgrade is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are less important for the latter because of the requirement to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of weapon or armor. However, the item that is used to upgrade will remain in use for a long time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to Enchantments.
You can upgrade your equipment anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To keep your gear current it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every several weeks.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item, but they will always be cheaper than buying new gear. For example, upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 levels will cost 20 recycle points while buying a similar item from another player will costs 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade weapons, tools, armor, and other items. They can be purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades to item owners for various currencies. They can also find them in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased, it can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor with the help of The button will show a preview of an item's next level of upgrade, if there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the slot of the
item upgrader mod and the current level of the item. For example weapons are more expensive than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Some upgrades offer a discount on the Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
Many locations have upgraders for their items, including the main Island and some outposts. The NPCs provide an upgrade discount as well as a chance to obtain a new upgrade recipe. The discount for upgrades increases according to the number of items that are being upgraded. It is also possible to be boosted by having players complete some specific achievements or complete quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an upgrader for items at the start, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. The NPCs who are able to facilitate upgrades are available only through a variety of methods. This is both a benefit and a drawback.
In Season 3, several new features were added to the upgrade system. When a player has an upgrade to a specific level for an item in an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same level will cost less, even when they belong to another set of gear.
The discount is available to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is reduced also, but is only available when certain milestones are achieved.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW, players have a couple of options. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone who wants to upgrade. Crests are more specific, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are a crucial part of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System that was introduced in version 10.1. They are available in four ranks.
First, you must be aware that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is of a certain rank. Each rank comes with an upgrade path that is different. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complex may require as many as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through completing content of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and performing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, dungeons or raids of all difficulties for higher-tier items or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses for endgame gear. Crests can be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
Using these new currencies isn't too difficult, but the system does introduce some modifications to the upgrade process. For example, once an Item level Upgrade (
atavi.com) 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 change is intended to allow players to get their equipment up to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant change is that crests only have one use and it's crucial to use them properly. For instance it's best to utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests with the best equipment available and save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next round of upgrades you plan to make. This is especially applicable to rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which will only be able to benefit from the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are filled with top-quality equipment.