Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide Towards Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and important way to improve the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.

Sometimes, however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is outclassed by Rare-grade gear because of their higher requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a type of upgrade that can be used on weapon and armor items. They increase the effectiveness of the item that they're attached to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Alternately, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components inside them, with a professional or higher salvage kit.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it can absorb. The upgrade of an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will boost its damage absorption. However, it's important be aware that this upgrade will increase its weight, which will cause it to weigh more than it was before.

There are a few different kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game and they all have different effects. Certain upgrades grant armor a greater amount of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an item upgrade can receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade, as illustrated in the table below.

A few upgrades are magic or a mix of technology and magic which is identified by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Additionally, some upgrades require a charge to use, which are indicated by a "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are either updated daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.

The cheapest method to upgrade armor is with Iron Ore, which can be gathered by exploring the area and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available from smelters located in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to higher level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant improvements in stats and are worth the investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.

A piece of armor upgraded to max upgrade level will greatly boost its defense but the wearer must be aware that putting on weight will drastically reduce its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor above +9. The defensive boost gained typically isn't worth the weight and power expenses of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of an weapon. For instance an upgrade can improve the damage that is caused by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of a rifle that snipes. Certain weapons come with special upgrades that enhance their inherent qualities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, and reduces the risk of overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's velocity for greater damage) are two examples.

Most weapon upgrades require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons and a whetblade. These can be obtained by completing side quests or killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.

To upgrade a weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee that is a certain amount of bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars are required to complete it. The cost of the upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the upgrade materials.

In Chapter 2: Season 5, the ways to upgrade your equipment and weapon sets has changed a bit. In the past you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a set number of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased rarity. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which point the upgrades would reset.

You can still do this, but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're much better off visiting stores and purchasing equipment that has low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These items have a higher chance of giving you the highest tier blessings and perks.

The majority of players will prioritize upgrades to the weapons they are most likely to use to allow them to progress quicker. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates utilize to increase their power. Shepard for instance should upgrade his M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used with biotic specialists such as Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to improve a stat or provide secondary effects on weapons and armor. Jewelry crafting is a method for creating them. You combine gemstones with specific reagents on a table. The higher the grade of the jewel has, the more powerful its secondary effect. These reagents can be gotten from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses in the world, or through finding Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The quality of a gem can be improved at the Jeweler in stages that range from Crude to Royal. Depending on the tier of the gem it can provide different stat boost when slotted into gear, weapons and jewelry.

The Jeweler can craft the highest levels of gems apart from the rare and legendary ones that you must attain an appropriate level to obtain. Jewels can be substituted with another jewel without damaging the original. You are able to replace the jewel once in an item of equipment.

It is common to use more jewelry for aesthetic reasons. The jewels can also enhance performance and create a harder surface than metal so that repeated friction caused by pivots does not cause damage to the movement.

A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the look of your shields and weapons. They offer a small benefit and are able to be swapped easily, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are like jewelry and can be upgraded at the Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be taken out and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as aegis or traits cannot be swapped, and can only be retrieved through an upgrade extractor or salvaging using a Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are a great way to provide your hero with a variety of small, but useful advantages. They can be acquired starting in the starter areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, or by completing road interactions. They may also be crafted by jewelers, and found or purchased at the Trading Post.

The first trinkets that a player unlocks will be the cloak, which gives an unimportant but beneficial boost in speed of movement and evasion. After that, they can acquire rings, amulets, and necklaces in the same way to how a player acquires armor and weapons. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal or jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be put into any type of equipment while jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and is only compatible with certain kinds of trinkets.

These trinkets also provide additional buffs and skills that remain active whenever the hero is not in combat. This enables the hero to be more effective when not active and may also help to compensate for the absence of a solid team or any slots from the talent tree that would normally be filled with the hero's ideal statistics.

As a general rule, trinket upgrades should prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader in Slot) items that you aren't likely to replace in the near future. Next, any items that have desirable statistics aren't as significant as the iLevel for the item upgrader mod to be upgraded. This is true especially if you're looking to upgrade several statistics on an item. It's Best item upgrade to upgrade just one crucial stat than two less important ones.

In the beginning of the game players in the jungle are likely to upgrade their yellow trinket into a red one, while top and mid players usually choose the pink or green ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's map control abilities.

In addition to the items mentioned above, players can also find other trinkets that form of trophies and rewards throughout the game. These can be obtained through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. These can be viewed by selecting the relevant achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.