WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give you an increase in certain statistics. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear generally sees higher trade value as long as it meets low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or has a high stat variation (like eth titan weapons). The latter see less value from upgrading due to the necessity to roll for a perfect model.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapons. However, the item upgrader kit used for the upgrade will be consumed for the duration of time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enhancements.
The upgrader is located in all major cities, and can be accessed at any time to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current it is recommended you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
Upgrades can cost more based on the item level, however, they are always cheaper than buying new gear. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. A similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used for weapon, armor, tool, and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players from NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased it can be used on any weapon, tool, or armor using an The button will show a preview of an item's next upgrade level, when there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the item level upgrade slot, and the current level of the item. For instance, weapons will cost more than gloves, bracers, or bracers. Each upgrade items costs 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with certain upgrades offering discounts to lower the cost of the Flightstones or the crests used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain level it is able to be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lesser amount of both currencies.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items in addition to the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and a chance to obtain a new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades 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 the start, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only available through a variety of methods. This is both a positive and a disadvantage.
In Season 3, several new features have been added to the upgrade system. Once a player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same level will cost less. This is even if the items come from another set of equipment.
The discount is available to all accounts. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players reach certain achievement milestones.
Crests
When it comes to upgrading gear in WoW, players have a couple of choices. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to all players for upgrading. Crests are more special, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1, and come in 4 ranks.
First, you should know that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is with a certain rank. Each rank has a different upgrade path. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade process costs just 15 crests while the most complex requires as many as 20 crests based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by completing content of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and performing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons of all difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons to obtain endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an upgrader for the item like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and paths.
The new currency system isn't complicated to use, however it brings some changes to the upgrade process. When a piece has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This change lets players upgrade their equipment to the highest possible ilvl on all of their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant modification is that crests have one usage and it's crucial to make use of them in a responsible manner. It is Best item upgrade to put your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear you can locate, and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly applicable to rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character which can only be eligible to avail the account-wide discount if all slots are filled with top-quality equipment.