WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades can give you boosts in certain statistics. Each upgrade increases the level of an item upgrader kit by 3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.

Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the item has a low requirement by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like 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 allows players to upgrade item their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be used to create enchantments.

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

Upgrades can cost more based on the item level, however, they are always cheaper than purchasing new equipment. For instance, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points while buying a similar item from another player will cost 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapons, armor, tools and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades to item owners for a variety of currencies. They are also available on random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased it can be used on any weapon, tool, or armor with the help of button, which will show a preview of the item at the next upgrade level when the player has enough materials.

The cost of upgrading is based on the slot of the item and the current level of the item, with weapons costing more than bracers or gloves, for instance. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Certain upgrades provide a discount on the Flightstones. Once an item level upgrade is upgraded to a certain level, it can be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currency types.

Upgraders for items are available at many locations, including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon as well as the possibility of getting the latest recipe. The discount for upgrades increases depending on the amount of items being upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.

Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II there is no item upgrader available at the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead, the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades are acquired via various methods, which is both an improvement and a drawback.

In Season 3, several new features were added to the upgrade system. After a player has earned an upgrade to a particular level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading other items to that same item level will be less expensive, even when they are part of another set of gear.

The discount applies 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 achievement milestones.

Crests

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

The first thing to remember is that Crests are only available to equipment that is with a certain rank. Each rank comes with an upgrade path that is different. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complicated can require as much as 20 crests, based on the type of gear that is being upgraded.

Players can earn crests through completing content of the appropriate level, whether that means walking around and doing outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons of any difficulty for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. Crests can be exchanged at an item Level Upgrade upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to obtain the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.

The use of these currencies isn't too complicated, but the system does introduce some modifications to the upgrade process. For instance, when an item is at the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This change lets players upgrade their equipment to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.

It's also crucial to choose crests in a wise manner, as they only have one use. It's Best item upgrade to put your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear you can find and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly relevant for rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which can only be eligible to avail the discount for all accounts when all slots are full of high-quality equipment.