WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases item level by 3. Each upgrade also boosts the random substatus.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless it has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a large variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). These types of gear get less value from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items 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 armor or weapon. However, the item that is used to upgrade will be consumed forever and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.
The upgrader is located in all major cities, and can be visited anytime to upgrade your equipment. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every several weeks.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item but they will always be less expensive than purchasing new gear. For example upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points while purchasing the same item from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are functional items which can be used to improve the quality of weapons tools, armor, and other items. They are purchased by players through NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon or armor. The button will show a preview of an item's next upgrade level, if there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the item slot and the current item upgrade level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers, for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of the Flightstones or crests used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain amount, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.
Many locations have upgraders for their items, including the main Island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and the chance to obtain a new upgrade item recipe. The upgrade discount increases as more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or complete quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items available at the start of Icewind Dale. Instead, the NPCs that can be used to upgrade require several methods, which is both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3 the upgrade system was modified a bit, and several new features added. Once an upgrade has been completed to a certain item level upgrade level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same item level will cost less. This is true regardless of whether the items come from another set of equipment.
The discount is available to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is cut also, but is only available when certain milestones are reached.
Crests
Players have several options for upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone who wants to upgrade. 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 4 ranks.
The first thing to remember is that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is of a certain rank. Each rank comes with distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and simplest upgrade is 15 crests. The most complex upgrade could require as much as 20 crests, contingent on the type of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through finishing content at the appropriate level. This could mean engaging in outdoor activities or taking on dungeons and raids of all difficulty levels to obtain lower-level gear or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons that have a high difficulty for gear in the endgame. These crests can then be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
The new currency system isn't complicated to use, however it does bring some changes to the process of upgrading. For instance, when an item reaches the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is intended to allow players to get their equipment up to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another important modification is that crests have one purpose, so it's important to use them wisely. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear you can locate and save Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly relevant for rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, which can only be eligible to avail the account-wide discount when all of the slots are filled with top-quality gear.