WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades can give you an increase in certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also boosts the random substatus.
The upgraded gear is usually more useful, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). These types of gear get less value from upgrading due to the requirement to roll for a perfect model.
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 on any kind of weapon or armor. However, the item upgrader kit used to upgrade will remain in use for a long time and will not be able to be used again. Upgrades can be used to create Enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be accessed at any time to upgrade your equipment. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every few weeks.
Upgrades can cost more based on the level of the item however, they are always cheaper than purchasing new gear. For instance upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points, purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used for weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players through item upgrader NPCs in exchange for various currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased it can be applied to any weapon or tool using an button, which will show an image of the item when it is upgraded in the event that the player has enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the slot of the item level upgrade (your domain name) and the current item level as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than gloves or bracers, for example. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a variety of crests, with some upgrades offering discounts to lower the cost of the Flightstones or crests that are used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree, it can be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lower amount of the two currency types.
Item upgraders can be found at many locations, including the main island as well as some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon and a chance to obtain an entirely new recipe. The upgrade discount increases as more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players finish certain achievements or quests.
In contrast to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no upgrader for items available at the start of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are available only via a variety of ways. This is both a benefit and a drawback.
In Season 3, a number of new features were added to the upgrade system. When a player has an upgrade to a specific item upgrader kit level for a particular armor slot, upgrading further items to the same level will cost less even if they are part of another set of gear.
The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players reach certain milestones in their achievements.
Crests
Players have a number of choices when it comes to 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 an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1 and are available in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only available for gear with a certain rank. Each rank has an upgrade path that is different. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complicated may require as many as 20 crests, based on the type of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by completing content of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, dungeons or raids of all difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons to obtain endgame gear. These crests can be exchanged with an upgrader for the item upgrades like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken to upgrade items the item in the proper steps and paths.
Utilizing these new currencies isn't that difficult, but the system introduces some modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it will no longer require Flightstones. This is to allow players to upgrade their equipment to the highest level possible on all their characters, instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
Another notable change is that crests have one usage and it's crucial to use them wisely. It's best to use your Whelpling-rank crests on the top-quality equipment you can find, and save Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly true for items such as trinkets and rings that fill several slots. The discount for the entire account is only applicable when all the slots on the character are filled with high-quality gear.