WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades will give you a boosts in specific stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.

The upgraded gear typically has a more value in trade regardless of whether it has low requirements (like the FB sorc's shield) or has a high stat variance (like Eth titan weapons). Upgrades are less important for the latter due to the requirement to roll an exact version.

Recycle Points

The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher Item level upgrade level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to 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 every major city, and can be accessed anytime to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each few weeks.

The cost of upgrades will vary based on the current item level of the gear being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear from other sources. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar item upgrader mod, it will cost you 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items that can be used for weapons, armor, tools, and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players through NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for various currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased it can be applied to any weapon or tool using a The button will show the item's next level of upgrade, in the event that there are enough materials.

Upgrade costs vary depending on the slot of the item and the current item level. For example weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers or bracers. Each upgrade item cost 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of the Flightstones or crests used. Once an item is upgraded to a certain level it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.

Upgraders for items can be found in a variety of locations on the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon as well as the chance to obtain an entirely new recipe. The discount on upgrades increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or quests.

Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at beginning, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead the NPCs that can be used to upgrade are acquired via a variety of means, which is both an improvement but also a drawback.

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

The amount of Valorstones needed to upgrade is reduced and the discount is account-wide. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is cut also, but is only available once certain milestones are reached.

Crests

Players have a variety of choices when it comes to upgrading their gear in WoW. Flightstones are an item that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are used for specific item level upgrades. Crests are a crucial part 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 able to be spent on equipment that is of a particular rank, and each rank has different requirements for its upgrade items path. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade items is 15 crests. The most complex upgrade requires up to 20 crests, depending on the type of equipment being upgraded.

Players can obtain crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons of all difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for endgame gear. The crests can later be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.

The use of these currencies isn't too difficult however, the system introduces some modifications to the upgrade process. Once a piece of gear has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it no longer requires Flightstones. This change is designed to allow players to upgrade their equipment to the highest level possible on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.

It's also important to use crests with care, since they only have one use. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank crests on the Best item upgrader gear that you can find, and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is especially applicable to items like trinkets and rings that take up multiple slots. The account-wide discount will only be applicable if all the slots on the character are filled with top-quality gear.