10 Things People Hate About Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by +3. A random extra substat is also boosted alongside each upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item has a low requirement by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like the eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are less valuable for the latter due to the requirement to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapon. However, the Item level upgrade that is used to upgrade will be consumed for the duration of time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enhancements.
The upgrader can be found in every major city, and is accessible anytime to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
The cost of upgrading will be based on the current level of the item being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than buying new equipment from other sources. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest up to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. A similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are functional items which can be used to level up weapons, tools, armor, and other accessories. They can be bought by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for different currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool or armor. The button will display a preview of an item's next upgrade level, when there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the item slot, and the current item upgrades level. For example, weapons will cost more than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Some upgrades give a discount on the Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currency types.
Many locations have upgraders for their items in addition to the main island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a chance to obtain an entirely new recipe. The upgrade discount increases according to the number of items that are being upgraded. It can also be increased by requiring players to complete specific achievements or quests.
In contrast to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II there is no item upgrader available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are available only via a variety of ways. This is both a benefit as well as an issue.
In Season 3, several new features were added to the upgrade system. After a player has earned an upgrade to a specific level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading further items to that level will cost less even if they are part of another set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is decreased, and the discount is affixed to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain achievement milestones.
Crests
Players have a variety of options for upgrading their gear in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
First, you should know that crests are only available for gear that is of a particular rank. Each rank comes with an upgrade item path that is different. The most basic and straightforward upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complex requires as many as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons of all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons to obtain endgame gear. The crests can later be exchanged at an item upgrader mod upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to obtain the appropriate upgrade routes and steps.
Using these new 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 is to allow players to upgrade their equipment to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests wisely, as they only have one use. For instance, it's a good idea to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the top gear you have available and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan on making. This is especially relevant for items like trinkets and rings that fill multiple slots. The account-wide discount is only applicable when all slots on the character are filled with top-quality equipment.