WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. A random substat is also boosted alongside each upgrade items.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). These types of gear get less value from upgrading due to the need to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher Item Upgrade level by providing the appropriate currency to the 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 also be applied to enhancements.
The upgrader can be found in all major cities, and is accessible anytime to upgrade your equipment. It is recommended that you visit the upgrader once every few weeks, to ensure that your equipment is up to date.
The cost of upgrades will vary based on the current item level of the item being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear from other sources. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar item, it will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade weapon, armor, tool, and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players from item upgrader NPCs in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon, or armor. The button will show the preview of an item's next upgrade level, in the event that there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the slot of the item and the current item level and the weapon's price is higher than bracers or gloves, for instance. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of Flightstones or crests that are used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain degree and is degraded, it can be sold and sold back to the upgrader for a lesser amount of both currency types.
item upgrade upgraders can be found in many places including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon and a possibility of getting the latest recipe. The upgrade discount increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or complete quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no item upgrader available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who are able to facilitate upgrades are available only via a variety of ways. This is both a benefit and a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade item system was tweaked a bit, with numerous new features added. Once the player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same level, will cost less. This is even if those items are from an entirely different set of equipment.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. Similarly, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players reach certain achievement milestones.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW, players have a variety of choices. They can use Flightstones which are a common upgrade currency available to everyone players, or crests that are more specialized and are used to upgrade specific levels of the item. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
The first thing to be aware of is that crests are only able to be used on equipment that is of a particular rank, and every rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade is 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade could require as much as 20 crests, depending on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons of all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses to obtain endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an item upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
Using these new currencies isn't that difficult, but the system will introduce a few modifications to the upgrade process. Once a piece of gear attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it no longer requires Flightstones. This change allows players to upgrade their gear to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another notable change is that crests only have one use and it's crucial to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance, it's best to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests on the Best item upgrader gear you have available and then save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan to create. This is especially true for items such as trinkets and rings that take up multiple slots. The discount on the account will only apply when all slots on the character are filled with top-quality equipment.