WoW Upgrades - The item upgrading Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade item boosts the level of an item by 3. A random substat is also boosted alongside every upgrade.
Upgraded gear generally sees more value in trade, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB sorc's shield) or very high stat variance (like the eth titan weapons). Upgrades are not as valuable for the latter due to the requirement to roll an exact version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item upgrader mod is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended to visit the upgrader at least once every few weeks, to ensure that your equipment is up to date.
The cost of upgrading will depend on the current level of the item upgrades being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than buying new equipment from other sources. For example, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points, while buying a similar item from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor. The button will display a preview of an item's next upgrade level, in the event that there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the slot of the item and the current item level. For instance, weapons will cost more than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with some upgrades offering discounts to reduce the cost of Flightstones or crests used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain amount, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
Upgraders for items are available at many locations on the main island as well as some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon as well as the possibility of getting a new recipe. The discount on upgrades increases as more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players finish certain achievements or quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only accessible through a variety means. This is both a benefit as well as an issue.
In Season 3, many new features were added to the upgrade system. Once the player has upgraded to a specific level for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same item level, will cost less. This is true even if the items come from a different set of equipment.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is decreased, and the discount is account-wide. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievements.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW players have a variety of options. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specific and are utilized during specific level upgrades for items. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
First, you must be aware that Crests are only available to equipment of a certain rank. Each rank comes with a different upgrade path. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complex upgrade can require up to 20 crests, contingent on the type or gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by completing tasks at the appropriate level. This could mean doing outdoor activities or taking on dungeons and raids of any difficulty to earn lower-tier gear or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons with a heroic difficulty for gear in the endgame. These crests can be exchanged with an upgrader for the item such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and paths.
The use of these currencies isn't that difficult however, the system introduces some changes to the overall upgrade process. For example, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrading for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change lets players upgrade their equipment to the highest possible level on all of their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another notable change is that crests have one use and it's crucial to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance it's a good idea make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests with the best gear you have available, and then save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan to make. This is especially applicable to items like trinkets and rings that take up several slots. The discount on the account will only be applicable if all slots on the character are filled with high-quality gear.