WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give you boosts in certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. A random substat is also added to every upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). These types of gear get less value from upgrading due to the necessity to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be made on any kind of armor or weapons. However, the item that is used for the upgrade will be consumed forever and will not be able to be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in every major city, and is accessible anytime to upgrade your equipment. It is recommended that you 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 but they will always be less expensive than purchasing new equipment. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. A similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items which can be used to level up weapons and tools, armor and other accessories. They can be bought by players through item upgrader NPCs in exchange for various currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any weapon, tool or armor. button, which will show an item's preview when it is upgraded if the player has sufficient materials.
The upgrade cost depends on the Best item upgrade slot and the current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers for example. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a specific number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain amount it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.
Upgraders for items can be found in many places, including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a chance to obtain an entirely new recipe. The discount for upgrading increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players finish certain achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no upgrader for items at the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead the NPCs that can be used to upgrade must be acquired through several methods which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, a number of new features have been added to the upgrade system. Once the player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same Best item upgrade level will cost less. This is even if the items are from an entirely different set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed to upgrade is reduced and the discount is account-wide. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is reduced also, but is only available once certain milestones are reached.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW players have a variety of options. Flightstones are an item that is available to everyone who wants to upgrade. Crests are more specific, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests can only be spent on gear of a specific rank, and each rank has different requirements for upgrading. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complex upgrade requires up to 20 crests, contingent on the kind of equipment being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through finishing content at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities or doing dungeons or raids in all difficulties to get equipment of lower tier or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons that have a high difficulty to obtain endgame gear. The crests can then be exchanged with an upgrader for the item level upgrade (Link Website) such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken to upgrade the item in the proper steps and pathways.
The new currency system isn't complicated to use, however it will bring some changes to the process of upgrading. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is designed to allow players to upgrade their equipment up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests with care, since they only have one use. For instance, it's a good idea utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests on the top gear you have available and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next round of upgrades you plan to make. This is especially applicable to trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character which will only be able to avail the discount for all accounts when all slots are filled with top-quality equipment.