World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to improve the stats of a particular item. Depending on the upgrade type, it may increase an item's Mark Level or Rarity and boost additional stats.
Each item has a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next one by a certain amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its base stats improve in value. This is the sum of all its upgraded benefits (attack magic attack, attack defense). Upgrades can be expensive, depending on the person you hire and what you do. This is due to the sheer number of perks that need to be altered to upgrade an item.
It is also used to enforce gating requirements when queueing for raids, dungeons and scenarios. It is also used as a gating requirement while waiting to queue for dungeons and scenarios, and raids, as well as to limit the amount of PvP gear a player can wear (since PvP is capped at the lower levels). The average level of an item can be found in the character sheet.
Using the item level can help players evaluate the strength of equipment when deciding to purchase or sell. It's an indicator of the item's condition and its quality. Comparing items from a vendor's stock can be done using the level of the item.
On PC, you are able to view the item level using ALT, or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the complete description of the item, including its level. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are a few theories about how the calculation of the item's level is carried out. One theory says that the item level is calculated by an equation that determines the worth of an item's stats really are. It considers that different perks are valued differently, and that gems in the sockets boost the value of the item. This process can result in a calculated amount for the item's ilvl, which is usually close to Blizzard's real item level.
It's not the only factor that influences the value of an item. The level of the area where the item was dropped may change its stats. For instance it can increase the item's haste, or crit rating. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
Item stats are a big element in what determines the value of an item for players. The game utilizes them in a variety of ways to encourage players to not limit themselves to a single weapon and to encourage players to experiment with other weapons. The base stats of a weapon are enhanced by the weapon's stat modification that are in turn enhanced by the player's level.
Upgrades to an item may increase its stats. The rarity of an item determines its upgrade cost. For example, a grey or white item will only be upgraded once, whereas an item with the rare tiers can be upgraded many times, at higher costs.
Another way to change the stats on an item is by affixing it. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an Best item upgrader. The affixes are used to provide items with extra damage or other special abilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs) or to differentiate them by naming them.
All affixes can be being re-rolled right now by selecting them in the upgrade window, and pressing the green button. This will cost a specific amount in gold and other items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges as with other methods of rerolling.
In addition to Rerolling affixes and rerolls, players can select which stats they want to keep on an item upgrading when it is upgraded. The possible stat ranges for an item are based on the item level, but all items are guaranteed to have at least one stat within the range, unless it's a unique item or the result of a God roll from a boss in a raid.
This is another aspect that could be altered by adding the option to upgrade the equipment without rolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to enhance. But as with base equipment, this would have to be done on a per-item basis and the item compare interface will not show all the stats that could be gained or lost at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player increases the likelihood of locating items and the properties that are generated by loot, and the strength of these properties. It does not, however, directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It gives the player the chance to upgrade equipment earlier in the game. This is especially beneficial in early game runs since players tend to prioritize the scaling of weapons and defenses over raw damage gains.
Luck can also boost the chances of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading, which increases with each level of the item and can be further enhanced by using an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields, and weapons have an initial Luck value of 40. These items can be improved with golden ingots, or spined leather (depending on their material type) to add another 40 luck or to increase the Luck of an item up to 140.
Additionally there are certain items, such as the Hollow infused weapon, can be equipped to increase the damage dealt by any damage-dealing skill by 5percent. These items can be bought from the shop, or they can be crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
item level upgrade upgrades are a costly process and not all upgrades will be successful. However, there are some cash shop items which allow players to increase their chances of success or even prevent themselves from losing an item if the upgrade is unsuccessful.
When you upgrade an item the rate of success is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of successfully upgrading that item and it can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The chance of success can only be increased by so much, and the likelihood that an upgrade will fail can't be greater than 100%..
The Luck of an item may affect the effectiveness of an upgrade. All items have a base success rate of 25% and each item level upgrade with Luck increases the chance of success by an additional 5percent.
The item upgrading upgrade overlays are rendered above the items in the inventory. This could cause obscurity to enchantment effects or other effects. If you wish to disable the upgrade overlays, the config option decoration.renderUpgradeOverlays can be set to False in the Item Upgrader CORE client config.