World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a method to boost the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade, it can increase an item's Rarity or Mark Level and boost additional stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increase when it is upgraded. This value is the sum of all of an item's upgraded perks (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades to items can be costly depending on the upgrader and the kind of upgrade you decide to perform. This is due to the variety of perks that have to be modified to upgrade an item upgrade.
It is also used as a gating requirement while queueing for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It also serves to limit how much PvP gear players are able to wear, since PvP is limited at a lower level. Players can view their average item level in their character sheet.
When deciding to purchase or sell equipment, players can compare the levels of the item. It's an excellent indicator of an item's quality and how much damage it's capable of dealing with. The item level can also be used to compare items when examining the inventory of a vendor.
The item level can be checked by pressing the ALT key on PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will show the item's full description, including the ilvl. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are a few theories on how the calculation of the item's level is made. One theory suggests that the level of an item is determined by a formula that calculates the worth of the stats of an item really are. It considers the fact that different perks have different values and that gems in sockets add to the overall value of the item. This process can result in a calculated amount for the item's level, which is usually quite close to the actual Blizzard item level.
However, this is not the only factor which determines the ilvl of an item, as the level of the region the item is dropped into can alter the value of its stats, for example by adding an additional level to its haste or crit rating. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The stats of an item are a major component of what makes or breaks an item for players. The game makes use of them in a variety of ways to encourage players to not limit themselves to one weapon and to encourage them to try out other weapons. The base stats of a weapon are boosted by the weapon's stat modifications which are then increased by the player's skill.
Upgrades to the item add by increasing certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines the cost of upgrading. An item that is white or grey, for example, will only be upgraded one time however, items that has rare tiers can be upgraded several times at higher prices.
Affixes can also be used to alter the stats of an item. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. The affixes are used to give items extra damage or special abilities (such as reviving dead or reducing cooling downs), or to differentiate them by putting a name on them.
At present, all affixes can be changed by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button with circles arrows. This will cost a certain amount of gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges, similar to other rerolling methods.
Players can choose to upgrade item an item to specific stats or reroll attaches. The possible stat ranges for an item are based on the level of the item, however all items are guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within the range, unless it's an exclusive item or the result of a God roll from a boss in a raid.
Another thing that could be changed is the possibility to upgrade equipment without having to reroll the attaches, or select which stats to increase. But as with base equipment, this would need to be performed on a per-item basis, and the interface for item comparison will not show all the stats that could be either lost or gained at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player increases the probability of obtaining items and the properties that are spawned by loot and the intensity of these properties. However, it does not, directly affect damage or the ability to Upgrade item items. It provides players with an opportunity to get better equipment earlier in the game. This is especially useful in the early game, because players tend to put weapon scaling and defenses above raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing item discovery, Luck also increases the chance of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading, which increases with each item level and can be further enhanced through the use of an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
The shields, armor and weapons have a default Luck value of 40. These items can be enhanced with golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the item's material type) to give +40 Luck, or to increase the Luck of an item up to 140.
Moreover, certain items, like the Hollow weapon that is infused with hollow, can be equipped to increase the damage of any damage-dealing skill by five percent. These items can be found in the shops or made by using the appropriate ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. However, there are cash shop items that allow players to boost their success rate or prevent them from losing an item if the upgrade is unsuccessful.
When you upgrade an item, the rate of success is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage indicates the probability of successful upgrading an item. This can be increased by using Additional Materials or Special Materials. The chance of success can only be increased so much, and the likelihood that an upgrade item will fail cannot exceed 100%.
The luck of an item can influence the effectiveness of an upgrade. Each item has an average success rate of 25 percent and each item that has Luck increases the chance of success by five percent.
It is important to note that upgrade items are rendered above the items in the inventory therefore enchantment glints and other effects can be masked by them. If you wish to disable the upgrade overlays, the config option decoration.renderUpgradeOverlays can be set to False in the Item Upgrader CORE client config.