WoW Upgrades - The item upgrades Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. A random additional substat is also boosted alongside each upgrade.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item has a low requirement by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are not as important for those with higher variance due to the need to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. 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 level of the Item level Upgrade, but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear. For instance, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 levels will cost 20 recycle points purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used for weapons, armor, tools and accessory upgrades. Players can purchase them from NPCs of item upgraders for various currencies. They can also find them on random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased it can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor with an button, which will display an item's preview at the next upgrade level when the player has enough materials.
The upgrade cost depends on the item slot and the current level of the item, with weapons costing more than bracers or gloves, for instance. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a specific number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain amount it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.
Item upgraders can be found in a variety of locations, including the main island as well as some outposts. The NPCs provide an upgrade discount and the chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases with the number of items being upgraded. It is also possible to be increased by having players complete specific achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items available at the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who are able to facilitate upgrades are only accessible via a variety of ways. This is both a benefit as well as a drawback.
In Season 3, many new features have been added to the upgrade system. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a certain level for an item in an armor slot, upgrading additional items to that same item level will be less expensive, even in the event that they belong to a different gear set.
The amount of Valorstones required to upgrade 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 after certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW players have a few options. Flightstones are a currency that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more special, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1 and are available in four ranks.
First, you must be aware that Crests are only available to equipment of a certain rank. Each rank has distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one may require as many as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by working through tasks at the appropriate level. This could mean doing outdoor activities or taking on dungeons and raids of all difficulties to get lower-tier gear or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons with heroic difficulty for endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an item upgrader, such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and pathways.
Utilizing these new currencies isn't that difficult, but the system does introduce some modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it no longer requires Flightstones. This is to allow players to get their equipment up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
It's also crucial to choose crests wisely, as they only have one use. It is Best item upgrade to put your Whelpling-rank Crests on the top-quality equipment you can find, and save Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is especially applicable to rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which will only be able to avail the account-wide discount if all slots are full of high-quality gear.