WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a an increase in specific statistics. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by +3. A random extra substat is also increased with every upgrade.
The more modernized gear generally has a higher trade value, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or very high stat variation (like the eth titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as valuable for those with higher variance due to the need to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade item the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities, and can be accessed 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 depending on the level of the item, however, they are always less expensive than purchasing new equipment. For example upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points, purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade tools, armor, weapon, and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players from item upgrader NPCs in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any weapon, tool, or armor. button, which will display an image of the item at the next upgrade level in the event that the player has enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the slot of the item upgrader kit and current item upgrader kit level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a variety of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of Flightstones or crests that are used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.
Upgraders for items are available in a variety of locations including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and a possibility of getting an entirely new recipe. The upgrade discount increases as more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players finish certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at beginning unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead, the NPCs that can be used to upgrade require a variety of means that are both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3, a number of new features have been added to the upgrade system. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a particular item level for a particular armor slot, upgrading additional items to that same item level will cost less even if they are part of an entirely different set of gear.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievements.
Crests
When it comes to upgrading gear in WoW, players have a variety of choices. Flightstones are an Item level upgrade that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that Crests are only available to equipment that is of a particular rank. Each rank has a different upgrade path. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complicated can require as much as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, whether that means walking around and doing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons with all difficulties for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for endgame gear. The crests can then be exchanged with an upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and pathways.
Utilizing these new currencies isn't too complicated however, the system introduces some changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, when an item reaches the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change lets players upgrade their gear to the highest possible ilvl on all of their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
It's also crucial to choose crests wisely, as they only have one use. For instance it's best to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests with the best equipment available and save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you're planning to create. This is particularly true for items like rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character that will be able to take advantage of the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.