Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a common and important way to improve the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.
Rare-grade equipment is usually superior to upgraded Common or Magic equipment because of their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a kind of upgrade that can be used on weapon and armor items. They improve the performance of the item they are connected to. Upgrades to armor are available in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Alternatively, they can also be rescued from items with upgrade components inside them, using an expert or greater salvage kit.
The amount of damage that a piece of armor or weapon is able to absorb is dependent on the extent of its upgrades. The absorption of damage by a piece armor will increase when it is upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. However, it's important note that this will also increase its weight, causing it to be heavier than it was before.
There are many different kinds of armor upgrade available in the game. Each has a different impact. For instance, some upgrades give the armor a certain number of additional health points, while others will make it lighter and stronger. The name of the upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade the item upgrading can be given, as illustrated below.
A few of the upgrades are also magic or a hybrid of technology and magic, which is identified by the "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require a fee to use, and are indicated by an "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are updated daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest method to upgrade your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, but it can be obtained from smelters located in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be applied to high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant improvements in stats and are worth the investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.
The player must be aware that upgrading a piece to its max upgrade level will increase its defense value. However, it can also decrease its agility and its speed. For this reason, it is generally not recommended to upgrade the majority of armor pieces that are higher than +9 since the added defense is usually not worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades required.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of the weapon. Upgrades can boost the accuracy of a rifle or the damage caused by shotgun shells. Certain firearms also have upgrades that enhance their inherent characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, reduces the risk of the possibility of overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed for greater damage) are two examples.
The majority of weapon upgrades require a whetblade, one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. They can be gained by completing Side Quests or killing a certain amount of monsters and bosses.
To upgrade the weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade You must go to the NPC [Armor] Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a certain amount of Bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade the more advanced the level. The cost of upgrading will be lower if have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade item your equipment and weapon sets has changed a bit. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5, you could upgrade your weapon or equipment by paying a certain amount of Bars. You could continue to do this until you reached the maximum upgrade level for the equipment or weapon, following which upgrades would reset.
You can still do this, however, the process is high on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're better off visiting stores and buying equipment that has low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. They will also have a chance at gaining you the best tier of bonuses and blessings.
To improve their skills faster, most players will prioritize upgrading their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons their teammates use to boost their strength. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to make it more useful when accompanied by experts in biotics like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to improve the effectiveness of a skill or provide additional effects on weapons and armor. They can be made through an process known as jewelry crafting, in which you combine a gemstone and various ingredients at a table for jewelry. The higher the level of the gemstone, the better the secondary effect. These reagents are available from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses all over the world, or through finding Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The quality of a gem can be improved at the Jeweler in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. Based on the level of the jewel it can provide different stat boost when slotted into gear, weapons and jewelry.
All kinds of jewels are crafted at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels which require you to be at a certain level to qualify for these. In contrast to other upgrade components, jewels can be swapped out by a different jewel of the same kind without damaging the original one. However you can only swap out one jewel in an item upgrading of equipment only once.
It is normal to use more gems to enhance the appearance of. Jewels also enhance performance and create a surface harder than steel so that repeated friction from pivots does not damage them.
A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the look of your weapons and shields. They offer a small benefit and can be swapped out at any time, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Crystal. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits and aegis, aren't swappable and are only recoverable by using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them using the Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are a great way to provide your hero with various small, but valuable advantages. They are available in the starting area as loot or personal story rewards. They can also be obtained from vendors and by completing road interaction. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket players can unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny, but useful bonus in movement speed and the ability to evade. The player can then collect necklaces, amulets, and rings in a similar manner to how they acquired weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has an upgrade slot that can be either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be placed in any type of equipment, however, jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded and is only compatible with specific types of trinkets.
These trinkets also grant additional bonuses and abilities that are active whenever the hero is not fighting. This allows a hero to be more efficient when they are not active. It can also compensate for the lack of a good slots in the team or talent tree that are normally filled by the hero's optimal stats.
A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is especially true if an item has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade, since it's generally better to upgrade a single important stat rather than two sub-optimal ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinket to a red one prior to the start of the game. Mid and top players however they will select either a pink or green ward, depending on the matchup. These choices can impact the ability of a hero to control the map.
Aside from the items listed above, players can find a number of other trinkets throughout the game in the form of trophies and awards. These can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, like finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. These can be viewed by selecting the relevant achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.