15 Reasons Not To Be Ignoring Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also boosts the random substatus.
Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the item upgrader mod (a cool way to improve) is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as useful for the latter due to the need to roll an exact version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade items their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapon. However, the item that is used for the upgrade will be consumed for the duration of time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be visited anytime to upgrade your equipment. It is recommended that you visit the upgrader every few weeks to ensure that your equipment is up to date.
Upgrades can cost more based on the level of the item, but they will always be cheaper than buying new equipment. For example, upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points, purchasing a similar piece from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that are used to upgrade weapons tools, armor, and other items. They can be bought by players through item upgrader NPCs in exchange for a variety of currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any weapon, tool or armor. button, which displays a preview of the item at its next upgrade level when the player has enough materials.
The upgrade cost depends on the item slot and current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers for example. Each step costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of Flightstones or crests used. Once an item upgrader kit is upgraded to a certain amount and is degraded, it can be sold and returned to the upgrader for a lower amount of both currency types.
Upgraders for items can be found at many locations, including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and the possibility of getting the latest recipe. The upgrade discount increases with the number of items being upgraded, and can be boosted by having players complete specific achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrading upgrader at the start, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. Instead the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades require several methods that are both an improvement but also a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system was tweaked a bit, with several new features added. Once the player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same item level will cost less. This applies even if those items are from a different set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is affixed to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is cut too, but it is only available when certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW players have a couple of choices. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specific and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an integral component of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System, which was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests can only be used to purchase equipment that is of a particular rank, and that each rank has different requirements for upgrading. The simplest and simplest upgrade is 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade can require up to 20 crests, based on the type of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by completing tasks at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities or completing dungeons and raids in any difficulty to earn lower-tier gear or Mythic+ raid bosses or dungeons with heroic difficulty for gear in the endgame. The crests can later be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC, such as Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.
Using these new currencies isn't that difficult however, the system introduces some changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is designed to allow players to get their equipment to the highest ilvl possible for all their characters instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
Another notable change is that crests only have one purpose, so it's important to use them properly. For instance it's Best item upgrade to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests on the best equipment you have and then save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you plan to make. This is especially relevant for rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character which will only be able to benefit from the account-wide discount if all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.