WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases the item level by +3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.

Upgraded gear generally sees greater value for trade, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB sorc's shield) or a very high stat variance (like the eth titan weapons). Upgrades are not as important for those with lower requirements because of the requirement to roll an exact version.

Recycle Points

The item upgrader allows players to upgrade gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enhancements.

The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be visited at any time to upgrade your equipment. It is recommended to visit the upgrader once every few weeks to keep your equipment up-to-date.

Upgrades can cost more based on the level of the item however they'll always be cheaper than buying new equipment. For example upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 levels will cost 20 recycle points, while purchasing the same item from another player will cost 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items which can be used to improve the quality of weapons and tools, armor and other accessories. They are purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade item has been purchased it can be used on any weapon or tool with an button, which will display a preview of the item when it is upgraded when the player has enough materials.

The upgrade cost depends on the slot of the item and the current level of the Item Level Upgrade and the weapon's price is higher than gloves or bracers, for instance. Each step costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of the Flightstones or crests used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.

Upgraders for items can be found in many places including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades increases when more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete certain achievements or complete quests.

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

In Season 3, the upgrade system has been altered a bit, with some new features added. When a player has an upgrade to a particular level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading additional items to the same level will cost less, even in the event that they belong to an entirely different set of gear.

The amount of Valorstones required to upgrade is reduced and the discount is available across all accounts. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is also cut and is not available until players reach certain milestones in their achievement.

Crests

When it comes to upgrading gear in WoW, players have a couple of options. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.

The first thing to be aware of is that crests are only able to be used to purchase equipment of a particular rank, and that every rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and simplest upgrade process costs just 15 crests while the most complicated can require as much as 20 crests based on the type of equipment being upgraded.

Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, dungeons or raids of all difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons to obtain endgame gear. These crests can then be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.

Using these new currencies isn't too complicated, but the system does introduce some modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it will no longer require Flightstones. This change allows players to upgrade their equipment to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.

It's also important to use crests with care, since they only have one use. For instance it's Best item upgrader to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests with the Best item upgrader equipment you have and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you're planning on making. This is particularly true for items such as trinkets and rings that fill multiple slots. The discount for the entire account is only applicable when all slots on the character are filled with top-quality gear.