WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also boosts the random substatus.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are not as useful for those with lower requirements due to the requirement to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any kind of weapon or armor. However, the item upgrader kit used to upgrade will be consumed for the duration of time and can't be used again. Upgrades can be applied to Enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in all major cities, and is accessible at any time to upgrade your equipment. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each few weeks.
Upgrades will cost more, based on the item level, but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment. For instance, upgrading a Benthic chest piece to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are functional items that are used to upgrade weapons, tools, armor, and other items. They are purchased by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased it can be applied to any weapon or tool using an The button will display the preview of an item's next upgrade level, if there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the item slot, and the current item level. For instance weapons cost more than gloves, bracers or bracers. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Some upgrades give discounts on Flightstones. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain amount, it can be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currency types.
Many locations have upgraders for their items in addition to the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and the possibility of getting an entirely new recipe. The discount on upgrades increases when more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete certain achievements or complete quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at start unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only available via a variety of ways. This is both a benefit as well as a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system was modified a bit, and several new features added. After a player has earned an upgrade to a certain item Level upgrade level for a particular armor slot, upgrading other items to that same item level will cost less even when they belong to a different gear set.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is affixed to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is reduced also, but is only available when certain milestones are reached.
Crests
Players have a variety of choices when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an integral component of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
First, you must be aware that crests are only available for gear with a certain rank. Each rank has distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complex can require as much as 20 crests based on the type of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by 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 difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. These crests are then exchanged with an item upgrade upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and pathways.
Utilizing these new currencies isn't that difficult, but the system will introduce a few changes to the overall upgrade process. When a piece of equipment attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it will no longer require Flightstones. This change lets players upgrade their equipment to the highest possible level on all of their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another important change is that crests only have one purpose, so it's important to use them properly. It is best to put your Whelpling-rank Crests on the best gear you can find and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly relevant for rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which will only be able to avail the account-wide discount when all of the slots are filled with top-quality equipment.