WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boosts in certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. A random additional substat is also added to every upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless it is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a large variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade items their gear to a higher level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any kind of armor or weapons. The item upgrade used to upgrade the item will be consumed and can't be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be accessed anytime to upgrade your equipment. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every several weeks.
Upgrades will cost more, based on the level of the item however, they are always cheaper than purchasing new gear. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar item level Upgrade, it will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased from NPCs of item upgraders in a variety of currencies. They can also find them in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any tool, weapon, or armor. The button will show a preview of an item's next upgrade level in the event that there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the slot for the item and the current item level. For instance weapons cost more than gloves, bracers or bracers. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. Once an item is upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
Item upgraders can be found in a variety of locations on the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide an upgrade discount as well as a chance to get a brand new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades increases depending on the amount of items that are being upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at the start, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. 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, many new features were added to the upgrade system. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a specific item level for a particular armor slot, upgrading additional items to the same level will cost less even if they are part of another 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 also cut and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievement.
Crests
Players have a variety of choices when it comes to upgrading their gear in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more special and are used for specific item upgrader kit level upgrades. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only available for equipment that is that is of a particular rank. Each rank comes with distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade route costs 15 crests while the more complex one can require as much as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons with any difficulty for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. These crests are then exchanged with an item upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
The use of these currencies isn't too difficult, but the system will introduce a few changes to the overall upgrade process. Once a piece of gear reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This change allows players to upgrade their gear to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another important change is that crests have one purpose, so it's important to use them properly. For instance, it's a good idea to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests with the Best item upgrader equipment available, and then save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you're planning to make. This is especially applicable to items like trinkets and rings that take up several slots. The account-wide discount will only be applicable if all slots on the character are filled with high-quality gear.