Five Things Everybody Gets Wrong Concerning Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give you an increase in certain statistics. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by +3. Each upgrade also boosts an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the Item level Upgrade is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are not as useful for the latter due to the requirement to roll an exact version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be made on any kind of armor or weapons. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be used to create enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be visited at any time to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every couple of weeks.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item however, they are always cheaper than purchasing new equipment. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar item, it will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used for weapons, armor, tools and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased through NPCs who sell upgrades to item owners for various 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 show a preview of an item's next upgrade level, in the event that there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the item slot and current item level as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than gloves or bracers for instance. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with certain upgrades offering discounts to lower the cost of Flightstones or crests used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree, it can be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currency types.
Upgraders for items can be found at many locations including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and a possibility of obtaining a new recipe. The upgrade discount increases with the number of items being upgraded. It can also be boosted by requiring players to complete specific achievements or complete quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no item upgrader available at the start of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who are able to facilitate upgrades are only available through a variety means. This is both a positive and an issue.
In Season 3 the upgrade system has been altered a bit, with some new features added. When a player has an upgrade to a certain level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading further items to the same level will cost less, even when they are part of a different gear set.
The amount of Valorstones required to upgrade items is reduced and the discount is available across all accounts. Similarly, the amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players reach certain milestones in their achievement.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW, players have a variety of choices. Flightstones are an Best item upgrader that is available to everyone who wants to upgrade. Crests are more specific and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an important part of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System introduced in version 10.1. They are available in four ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests are only able to be used to purchase equipment that is of a particular rank, and that each rank has its own requirements for upgrading. The simplest and simplest upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complex may require as many as 20 crests depending on the type of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons of any difficulty for higher-tier items or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses for gear that is used in the endgame. The crests can then be exchanged with an upgrader for the item like Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to upgrade the item in the proper steps and paths.
The use of these currencies isn't that difficult, but the system does introduce some changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, when an item is at the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This allows players to upgrade their equipment to the highest possible level for all their characters rather than relying on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests with care, since they have only one purpose. For instance it's a good idea make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the top equipment available and then save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you're planning on making. This is especially applicable to rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character which can only be eligible to take advantage of the discount for all accounts when all slots are filled with high-quality equipment.