World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to boost the stats of a particular item. Depending on the upgrade type, it may boost an item's Mark Level or Rarity, as well as boost other stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the following one by a certain amount.
Item Level
When an
Item upgrader mod is upgraded, its basic stats increase in value. This value is the total of all of its upgraded advantages (attack, magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be expensive depending on the person you hire and what you do. This is due to the number of perks that have to be altered to upgrade an item.
Item level is a commonly used measure of power, and is visible on all item tooltips. It can also be used to determine a gating condition when waiting for dungeons, scenarios, and raids, as well as to limit the amount of PvP gear players can wear (since PvP is capped at an lower level). The average level of an item can be found in the character sheet.
When deciding whether to purchase or sell equipment players can look at the levels of the item. It's an indicator of the item's condition and quality. The level of the item can be used to compare items when evaluating the inventory of a seller.
On PC, you are able to check the level of the item by pressing ALT or using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. The item will be displayed with its full description, including ilvl. It can also be found by hovering an
item level upgrade with the mouse cursor and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are a few theories on how the item level calculation is made. One theory is that the level is a numerical value derived from a formula that determines the amount an item's stats are worth. It takes into consideration that different benefits are valued differently and that gems found in sockets increase the value of the item. This process could result in a calculated value for the item's ilvl, which is usually quite close to Blizzard's actual level of the item.
It's not the only thing that affects the level of an item. The level of the area where the item was dropped may change its stats. For example it can add a level to the item's haste or crit rating. Items that drop in higher-level instances will have a higher value.
Item Stats
Item stats can be the difference between a good or bad item for players. The game uses a variety of them in different ways to encourage players to play with a variety of weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the
Best item upgrader." The stats of a base weapon are increased by the weapon's stat modifications, which are themselves enhanced by the player's level.
The upgrades to an item can increase the stats of an item. The rarity of an item determines its cost of upgrading. A white or grey item for instance, will only be upgraded one time and items that has rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times at higher costs.
Another way to change the stats on an item is through affixes. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and they come in all shapes and sizes. The affixes can be used to provide items with extra damage or other special abilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs), or to distinguish them by putting a name on them.
All affixes can be currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade window, and pressing the green button. It will cost a set amount of gold and other items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges as with other methods of rerolling.
Players can choose to upgrade an item by specific stats or reroll the affixes. The possible stat ranges of an item are determined by the level of the item, however every item is guaranteed to have at least 1 stat within the specified range, unless it is an item that is unique or a God roll from a raid boss.
Another thing that could be changed is the option to upgrade equipment without having to reroll attaches, or select which stats to boost. Similar to base equipment, it must be done per item and the interface for item comparison wouldn't display all possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player boosts the likelihood of locating items as well as the properties generated by loot, and the strength of these properties. However, it does not directly impact damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives players a possibility to obtain better equipment earlier in the game and is thus more beneficial in the initial game run than later ones because most players value higher weapon scaling and defenses over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing the discovery of items, Luck also increases the chance of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading that increases with each item level and can be further increased through the use of an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
The shields, armor and weapons come with an initial Luck value of 40. These items can then be enhanced with golden ingots, spined leather, or oak boards (depending on the type of material used) to grant an additional +40 Luck or to increase the Luck of an item up to 140.
Certain items, like the Hollow-infused weapon can also be outfitted to increase the damage dealt by any skill that is able to deal damage by five percent. These items can be found in the shops or made with the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. However, there are cash shop items which allow players to increase their chance of success or stop them from losing an item if the upgrade fails.
When you upgrade an
item upgrading, the success rate is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the likelihood of successful upgrading an item. This can be increased by using Additional Materials or Special materials. There are limitations to how much the success rates can be improved and the probability of an upgrade failing can't exceed 100%.
The success of an upgrades is also influenced by the luck of that item. Every item has a base success rate of 25% and every item with Luck increases that chance by five percent.
The
upgrade item overlays for items are rendered above the items in the inventory. This could obscure enchantment effects and other effects. If you wish to disable the upgrade overlays, the config option decoration.renderUpgradeOverlays can be set to False in the Item Upgrader CORE client config.