WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by +3. A random additional substat is also increased with every upgrade.

Upgraded gear generally sees higher trade value, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or very high stat variance (like eth titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as valuable for those with higher variance because of the requirement to roll an exact version.

Recycle Points

The item upgrader enables players to upgrade items gear to a higher item level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of weapon or armor. The item upgrader kit used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to Enchantments.

You can upgrade your gear at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To keep your gear current it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each few weeks.

The cost of upgrades will vary based on the current level of the gear being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment from other sources. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest up to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. A similar Item level upgrade will cost you 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapon, armor, tool, and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players from NPCs of item upgraders in a variety of currencies. They can also find them in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor. The button will display a preview of an item's next level of upgrade, when there are enough materials.

The upgrade cost depends on the slot of the item upgrading and the current item level and the weapon's price is higher than gloves or bracers, for example. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Some upgrades offer a discount on the Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.

Upgraders for items are available in a variety of locations including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and the chance to obtain the latest recipe. The discount for upgrades increases depending on the amount of items that are being upgraded. It can also be increased by requiring players to complete specific achievements or complete quests.

Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at start unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. Instead, the NPCs that can be used to upgrade require several methods, which is both an improvement and a drawback.

In Season 3, the upgrade system was modified a bit, and numerous new features added. When a player has an upgrade to a particular item upgrader mod level for a particular armor slot, upgrading other items to that same item level will cost less, even when they belong to a different gear set.

The discount is applicable to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is cut also, but is only available when certain milestones are achieved.

Crests

When upgrading gear in WoW, players have a few options. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to everyone who wants to upgrade. Crests are more specialized and are used for specific item level upgrades. Crests are an important part of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.

First, you must be aware that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is of a certain rank. Each rank comes with an upgrade path that is different. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complex upgrade could require as much as 20 crests, depending on the type or gear being upgraded.

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

Using these new currencies isn't that difficult however, the system will introduce a few 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 change is intended to allow players to upgrade their equipment up to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters, rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.

It's also crucial to choose crests in a wise manner, as they only have one use. For instance, it's best to utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests with the best equipment available and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you plan to make. This is particularly relevant for rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character that will be able to take advantage of the account-wide discount when all slots are filled with high-quality equipment.