WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost in certain stats. Each upgrade increases item level by 3. Each upgrade also boosts an unspecified substat.
The upgraded gear is usually more useful, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). The latter see less value from upgrading due to the requirement to roll for a perfect model.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by giving the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any type of weapon or armor. However, the item that is used for the upgrade will be consumed forever and will not be able to be used again. Upgrades can be used to create the enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in all major cities, and is accessible anytime to upgrade your equipment. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended you visit the upgrader each few weeks.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item but they will always be less expensive than purchasing new equipment. For instance, upgrading a Benthic chest piece to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points while purchasing the same item from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are functional items that are used to improve the quality of weapons tools, armor, and other accessories. They can be bought by players from NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for different currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any tool, weapon or armor. button, which displays an item's preview when it is upgraded if the player has sufficient 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 example. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Some upgrades offer discounts on Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain amount, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
Upgraders for items are available at many locations, including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an
upgrade items coupon and a possibility of obtaining an entirely new recipe. The discount for upgrading increases as more items are upgraded. It can be increased by having players finish certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at start, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. Instead the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades require several methods which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, many new features have been added to the upgrade system. After a player has earned an upgrade to a certain level for an
item level upgrade in an armor slot, upgrading additional items to the same level will cost less even if they are part of an entirely different set of gear.
The discount is available to all accounts. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievement.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW players have a couple of choices. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more special and are used for specific
item upgrader mod level upgrades. Crests are an important component of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System that was introduced in version 10.1. They 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 each rank has different requirements for upgrading. The simplest and easiest upgrade is 15 crests. The most complex upgrade requires up to 20 crests, based on the type or equipment 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 for gear of lower tiers, dungeons or raids of all difficulty for items of higher tier or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons to obtain endgame gear. Crests can be exchanged at an
item upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, but it will bring some changes to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This change is intended to allow players to get their equipment to the highest level possible on all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
Another notable change is that crests only have one purpose, so it's important to use them wisely. For instance, it's a good idea utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests with the best gear you have available and save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you plan to create. This is particularly true for items like rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, which will only be able to benefit from the account-wide discount when all of the slots are filled with top-quality equipment.