WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades can give you boosts in certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the item level by +3. A random additional substat is also increased with every upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (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 used to upgrade will remain in use for a long time and will not be able to be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enchantments.
The upgrader is located in every major city, and is accessible anytime to upgrade your equipment. It is recommended to visit the upgrader at least once every few weeks, to keep your equipment up-to-date.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the item upgrader kit level, but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment. For example upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 levels will cost 20 recycle points while buying a similar item level upgrade (the full details) from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. Players can purchase them from item upgraders NPCs for a variety of currencies. They can also find them on random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor. The button will display a preview of an item's next upgrade level if there are enough materials.
The upgrade cost depends on the item slot and current item level and the weapon's price is higher than bracers or gloves, for example. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Some upgrades offer discounts on Flightstones. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain level and is degraded, it can be sold and returned to the upgrader for a lower amount of the two currencies.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a possibility of getting an entirely new recipe. The discount for upgrades increases with the number of items being upgraded, and can be increased by having players complete specific achievements or complete quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an upgrader for items at the beginning, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead, the NPCs that can be used to upgrade must be acquired through various methods, which is both an improvement but also a drawback.
In Season 3 the upgrade system was modified a bit, and some new features added. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a specific level for an item in an armor slot, upgrading additional items to that same item level will cost less, even in the event that they are part of another set of gear.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players achieve certain achievement milestones.
Crests
Players have a variety of options when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to all players for upgrading. Crests are more special and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1, and come in 4 ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests can only be used on gear of a specific rank, and that every rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade item route costs 15 crests while the most complicated requires as many as 20 crests based on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and performing outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons with all difficulties 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 upgrader for the item such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to upgrade the item upgrader kit in the proper steps and paths.
The new currency system isn't difficult to use, however it will bring some changes to the process of upgrading. For instance, when an item is at the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is intended to allow players to get their gear up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters rather than relying solely 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 use all of your Whelpling-rank crests on the top gear you have available and then save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan to create. This is especially applicable to trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character which will only be able to take advantage of the discount for all accounts when all slots are filled with high-quality gear.