World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a way to boost the stats of an item. Depending on the upgrade type, it may increase an item's Mark Level or Rarity, and also boost other stats.
Each item has a track to upgrade it. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increases when it is upgraded. This is the sum of all of an item's upgraded perks (attack magic attack and defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high, depending on the upgrader you choose and what kind of upgrade you decide to perform. This is due to the sheer number of perks that need to be changed in order to upgrade an item.
It is also used to enforce gating requirements when queueing for raids, dungeons and scenarios. It can also be used to limit the amount of PvP gear players can use since PvP is not available at lower levels. The average level of the item can be found in the character sheet.
When deciding whether to buy or sell equipment players can evaluate the levels of the item. It's an indicator of the damage and quality. The item level can also be used to evaluate items when looking at a vendor's inventory.
On your PC, you can view the item level using ALT, or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the full item description, including its level. It can also be found by hovering an item with the mouse cursor, and then entering /itemlevel into chat.
There are several theories about the method by which the level of an item is calculated. One theory suggests that the level of an item is calculated using an equation that determines how valuable an item's stats actually are. It takes into consideration the fact that various perks have different value and gems in sockets add to the value of the item overall. This can result in a calculated amount for the item's level, which is typically close to Blizzard's real level of the item.
However, this is not the only factor that can affect an item's ilvl since the size of the area the item is dropped into can alter the value of its stats, for example by adding a level to its crit rating or haste rating. Items that drop in higher-level instances will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The item's stats can be the difference between a good or bad item for players. The game makes use of them in many ways to encourage players to not limit themselves to one weapon and to encourage players to experiment with other weapons. The base stats on a weapon are boosted by the weapon's stat modifications which are then boosted by the player's level.
Upgrades to an item may increase the stats of an item. The rarity of an item determines the cost of upgrading. A grey or white item for instance, will only be upgraded once and items that has rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times with higher costs.
Another way to change the stats of an item is to use affixes. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player and they come in all sizes and shapes. The affixes can be used to give items additional damage or other special capabilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs), or to distinguish them by adding a name.
All affixes are being re-rolled right now by selecting them in the upgrade window, and pressing the green button. This procedure will cost the player a certain amount of gold and items, which can be added to the upgrade gauge in the same manner as other options for rerolling.
Players can upgrade an item upgrading to specific stats, or reroll the affixes. The possible stat ranges of an item are based on the level of the item, however all items are guaranteed to have at least one stat within the specified range, unless it's an exclusive item or the result of a God roll from a boss in a raid.
This is another aspect that could be changed by adding an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes or deciding which stats to boost. But, like base equipment, this would need to be done on a per-item basis and the interface for item comparison will not show all the stats that could be that were gained or lost at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the odds of finding items and the properties that are spawned from loot drops, and the intensity of these properties. However, it does not directly affect damage or ability to upgrade items. It provides players with the chance to upgrade equipment earlier in the game. This is particularly beneficial for early game runs, since players tend to prioritize weapon scaling and defenses above raw damage gains.
Luck can also increase the likelihood of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to confuse with the Blacksmith’s overall chances of upgrading, which increase with each item level. They can also be increased with the use of anti-materials, such as the Scroll of Strength and a Jewel of Blessing.
The shields, armor and weapons come with an initial Luck value of 40. These items can then be enhanced by golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the type of material used) to grant an additional +40 Luck, or to increase the Luck of the item up to 140.
Certain items, such as the weapon that is infused with hollow can also be outfitted to increase the damage of any ability that is able to deal damage by 5percent. These items can be purchased in the shop or created with the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. However, there are cash shop items which allow players to increase their success rate or prevent them from losing an item in the event that the upgrade is unsuccessful.
The success rate of an upgrade is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of completing the upgrade successfully and can be enhanced by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. There are limitations to how much the success rates can be improved and the probability of an upgrade failing can't exceed 100%..
The success of an item can be affected by the Luck of that item. Each item has an initial success rate of 25%, and each item with Luck increases that chance by five percent.
Note that item upgrades are rendered above the inventory items therefore enchantment glints and other effects can be obstructed 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 (sneak a peek here) CORE client config.