WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades will give you a boosts in specific statistics. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item level upgrade by 3. Each upgrade also increases the random substatus.

The upgraded gear is usually more useful, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a large variance in stats (like eth Titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as important for those with lower requirements due to the need to roll a perfect version.

Recycle Points

The Item Upgrade upgrader allows players to upgrade gear to a higher level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any kind of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create the enchantments.

The upgrader is located in all major cities and is accessible anytime to upgrade your gear. It is recommended to visit the upgrader every few weeks, to ensure that your equipment is up-to-date.

Upgrades will cost more depending on the item level, but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar item, it will cost you 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapons, armor, tools and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players through item upgrader NPCs in exchange for a variety of currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased, it can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor using the help of button, which will display an item's preview at its next upgrade level in the event that the player has enough materials.

Upgrade costs differ based on the item slot, and the current item level upgrade level. For instance, weapons will cost more than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Some upgrades offer a discount on the Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree, it can be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currencies.

Item upgraders can be found in many places on the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount as well as a chance to obtain a new upgrade recipe. The discount for upgrades increases with the number of items being upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete specific achievements or complete quests.

Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II there is no item upgrader available at the start of Icewind Dale. Instead, the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades must be acquired through various methods which is both an improvement but also a drawback.

In Season 3, several new features have been added to the upgrade system. When a player has an upgrade to a specific level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading additional items to that level will be less expensive, even when they are part of another set of gear.

The discount is available to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is reduced too, but it is only available after certain milestones are reached.

Crests

When upgrading equipment in WoW, players have a few choices. They can make use of Flightstones, which are a general upgrade currency that is accessible to everyone players, or crests, which are more specialized and used to upgrade specific levels of items. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.

The first thing to note is that crests are only able to be spent on equipment of a particular rank, and that every rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade process costs just 15 crests while the most complicated may require as many as 20 crests, based on the type of gear being upgraded.

Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, which involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons with all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. The crests can then be exchanged with an item upgrader such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and paths.

The new currency system isn't difficult to use, but it does bring some modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it no longer requires Flightstones. This allows players to upgrade their gear to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters rather than relying on seasonal loot.

It's also essential to use crests with care, since they are only used for one purpose. 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 for the next batch of upgrades you plan to create. This is particularly applicable to trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character which can only be eligible to take advantage of the account-wide discount if all slots are filled with high-quality gear.