WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. A random extra substat is also increased with each upgrade.
Upgraded gear generally sees more value in trade regardless of whether it has low requirements (like the FB sorc's shield) or a very high stat variation (like the eth titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the necessity to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the Best item upgrade will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in every major city, and is accessible at any time to upgrade your gear. It is recommended that you visit the upgrader at least once every couple of weeks to ensure that your equipment is up to date.
Upgrades will cost more, based on the level of the item but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar item, it will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade tools, armor, weapon and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players through NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for different currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool, or armor. button, which will display an image of the item at the next upgrade level when the player has enough materials.
The cost of upgrading varies based on the item slot, and the current level of the Item Level Upgrade. For instance weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers or bracers. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Some upgrades give discounts on Flightstones. Once an item is upgraded to a certain level it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.
Many locations offer item upgraders which include the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon and a possibility of getting the latest recipe. The discount on upgrades increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no Best item upgrade upgrader available 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 but also a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system was tweaked a bit, with numerous new features added. After the player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same item upgrade level, will cost less. This is true even if the items come from an entirely different set of gear.
The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is reduced as well, but is only available when certain milestones are achieved.
Crests
Players have a variety of choices when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more special, 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 four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only able to be spent on equipment of a particular rank, and each rank has different requirements for upgrading. The simplest and simplest upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complicated requires as many as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through finishing content at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities, or by taking on dungeons and raids of all difficulties to get lower-tier gear or Mythicbosses of raids or dungeons that have a high difficulty to obtain endgame gear. The crests can later be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade routes and steps.
The new currency system isn't difficult to use, however it does bring some changes to the process of upgrading. Once a piece of gear attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it will no longer require Flightstones. This is to allow players to upgrade their gear up to the highest level possible on all their characters, instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
It's also crucial to choose crests with care, since they are only used for one purpose. For instance, it's a good idea utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests on the Best item upgrader equipment available and then save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you're planning on making. This is particularly applicable to rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character that will be able to benefit from the account-wide discount when all of the slots are filled with high-quality gear.