10 Things Everyone Hates About Item Upgrade

WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades can give you boosts in certain statistics. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by +3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.

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

Recycle Points

The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enchantments.

The upgrader is located in every major city, and can be accessed at any time to upgrade your gear. It is recommended that you visit the upgrader at least once every couple of weeks to keep your equipment up-to-date.

Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item, however they'll always be cheaper than buying new equipment. For example, upgrading a Benthic chest piece to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points while purchasing the same Item level Upgrade from a different player will cost 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are functional items which can be used to improve the quality of weapons and tools, armor and other accessories. They are purchased by players through NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for different currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade items can be used on any weapon, tool, or armor. The button will display the item's next upgrade level when there are enough materials.

The upgrade cost depends on the slot of the item upgrader kit and current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers, for instance. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades offering discounts to reduce the cost of Flightstones or the crests used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain level and is degraded, it can be sold and returned to the upgrader for a lower amount of the two currency types.

Many locations have upgraders for their items which include 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 on upgrades increases depending on the amount of items that are being upgraded, and can be increased by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.

Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no item upgrader available at the start of Icewind Dale. Instead, the NPCs that can be used to upgrade require several methods, which is both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.

In Season 3, many new features have been added to the upgrade system. After a player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same level, will cost less. This is true even if the items are from an entirely different set of equipment.

The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade item is cut too, but it is only available when certain milestones are achieved.

Crests

Players have a number of options when it comes to upgrading their gear in WoW. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to everyone who wants to upgrade. Crests are more specialized and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. 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 can only be used on gear of a specific rank, and that every rank has different requirements for upgrading. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one may require as many as 20 crests depending on the type of gear being upgraded.

Players can obtain crests by completing content of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, dungeons or raids of any difficulty for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons to obtain endgame gear. These crests can then be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.

The new currency system isn't complicated to use, but it will bring some modifications to the upgrade process. Once a piece of gear reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it will no longer require Flightstones. This change is designed to allow players to get their equipment up to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.

Another important change is that crests only have one usage therefore it's essential to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance, it's best to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests on the top gear you have available, and then save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan to create. This is particularly true for items like rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character that will be able to take advantage of the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.