World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a method to increase the stats of an item. Depending on the type of upgrade you choose, it can increase the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level and increase other stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a specific amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increases when it is upgraded. This value is the sum of all of an item's leveled-up perks (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades to items can be costly, depending on the upgrader you choose and what kind of upgrade you decide to make. This is due to the fact that many perks have to be replaced to allow the item to be upgraded.
Item level is a commonly used measurement of power and can be found on all tooltips for items. It is also used as a gating requirement while waiting to queue for dungeons and scenarios and raids, and to limit the amount of PvP gear players can wear (since PvP is restricted to an lower level). Players can view their average level of items on their character sheet.
When deciding to purchase or sell gear, players can compare the item level. It's an excellent indicator of the quality of an item and the amount of damage it is able to deal. The level of the item can be used to compare items when evaluating a vendor's inventory.
On PC, you can see the level of the item using ALT, or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will show the item's full description, including ilvl. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing in /itemlevel chat.
There are several theories about the method by which the level of an item is calculated. One theory is that the item level is a number derived from a formula that determines the amount an item's stats are worth. It takes into consideration the fact that different perks have different worth, and also that sockets have gems that increase the item's overall value. This can lead to an item's ilvl calculated, which is often very close to Blizzards actual item level.
It's not the only thing that affects the value of an item. The degree of the area in which the item was dropped may change its stats. For instance, it could add a level to the item's haste or crit score. Items dropped in higher-level instances will have higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The stats of an item can be the difference between a good or bad item for players. The game makes use of a lot of them in a variety of ways to encourage players to use multiple weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the most effective." The stat modifications of a weapon boost the base stats. These stat mods are then increased by a player's skill.
The upgrades to items add by increasing certain stats of the item. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade item cost. An item that is white or grey, for example, will only be upgraded once and items that has rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times at higher costs.
Affixes are a different method to alter the stats of an item. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. The affixes can be used to give items additional damage, special capabilities (such as revitalizing dead or reducing cooling downs) or to make them unique by naming them.
Presently, all affixes are able to be changed by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button, which is accompanied by circling arrows. This process will cost the player a specific amount of gold as well as items which can be used to add to the upgrade item gauge in the same manner as the other rerolling options.
Players can choose to upgrade an item to specific stats or reroll affixes. The possible stat ranges of an item are based on the level of the item, but all items are guaranteed to have at least 1 stat within that range, unless it's an Best item upgrade that is unique or the result of a God roll from a boss of a raid.
This is another aspect that can be modified by adding an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to boost. Similar to the base equipment, this will have to be done per item, and the item comparison interface will not show all possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player boosts the chance of finding 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 items. It gives the player an opportunity to get better gear earlier in the game. This is more advantageous for early game runs, because players tend to put defenses and weapon scaling over raw damage gains.
Luck can also increase the chance of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade chances that increase with each level of the item. They can also be increased by using anti-materials like the Scroll of Strength and a Jewel of Blessing.
Weapons, armor, and shields can be made or spawn using the Luck property, with the default value of 40. These items can be enhanced by golden ingots, spined leather, or oak boards (depending on the item's material type) to grant an additional +40 Luck, or to increase the Luck of the item up to 140.
Certain items, such as the weapon with Hollow-infused components can also be outfitted to increase the damage of any ability that is able to deal damage by five percent. These items are available in the shop, or they can be constructed using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Item upgrades are costly and not every upgrade will be successful. However, there are some cash shop items which allow players to increase their success rate or prevent themselves from losing an item in the event that the upgrade fails.
When you upgrade an item the success rate is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the likelihood of successfully upgrading the item. This can be increased with Additional Materials or Special materials. The percentage of success can only be increased by so much, and the likelihood that the upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%.
The performance of an upgrades is also influenced by the luck of that item. All items have an initial success rate of 25% and every item with Luck increases that chance by an additional five percent.
It is important to note that upgrade items are rendered above the items in the inventory therefore enchantment glints and other effects could be obscured by the overlays. 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.