WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item upgrades by +3. A random extra substat is also increased with every upgrade.

Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless it has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as important for those with lower requirements due to the requirement to roll a perfect version.

Recycle Points

The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be made on any type of weapon or armor. The item upgrading used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be used to create Enchantments.

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

Upgrades will cost more, based on the level of the item however they'll always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. A similar item will cost you 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are useful items that can be used to level up weapons and tools, armor and other items. Players can purchase them from NPCs of item upgrading upgraders for various currencies. They can also find them in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased, it can be used on any weapon, tool, or armor using an button, which will show an image of the item at the next upgrade level in the event that the player has enough materials.

The upgrade cost depends on the item slot and current item level upgrade (just click for source) level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers, for example. Each step costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades offering discounts to lower the cost of Flightstones or crests that are used. After an Best item upgrader has been upgraded to a certain level, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.

A lot of locations offer upgraders for items in addition to the main island and some 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 that are being upgraded. It can also be boosted by having players complete specific achievements or complete quests.

Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at the beginning unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only accessible via a variety of ways. This is both a positive and an issue.

In Season 3, the upgrade system was tweaked a bit, with several new features added. When a player has an upgrade to a certain level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading other items to that same item level will be less expensive, even when they belong to another set of gear.

The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is account-wide. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is reduced too, but it is only available when certain milestones are achieved.

Crests

Players have a number of options for upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more special and are used for specific item level upgrades. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1 and are available in four ranks.

The first thing to remember is that crests are only able to be used to purchase equipment that is of a particular rank, and every rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one may require as many as 20 crests based on the kind of gear being upgraded.

Players can obtain crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, dungeons or raids of all difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses to obtain endgame gear. These crests can be exchanged with an upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and paths.

The use of these currencies isn't too difficult, but the system will introduce a few changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, when an item reaches the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is intended to allow players to get their gear up to the highest level possible on all their characters, rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.

Another significant change is that crests have one use, so it's important to make use of them in a responsible manner. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank crests on the highest-quality gear you can find, and save 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 apply when all the slots on the character are filled with top-quality equipment.