World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
The upgrade of an item can be used to improve the stats of a particular item. Based on the type of upgrade you choose, it can increase an item's Rarity or Mark Level and increase other stats.
Each item has a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increases when it is upgraded. This value is the sum of an item's upgraded perks (attack magic attack and defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high depending on the upgrader and the type of upgrade you choose to perform. This is due to the sheer number of perks that need to be altered to upgrade an item.
It is also used as a gating requirement while queueing for raids, dungeons and scenarios. It can also be used to limit how much PvP gear players can wear as PvP is restricted at lower levels. Players can see their average item level in their character sheet.
The level of an item can help players compare the potency of gear when deciding to purchase or sell. It's an excellent indicator of the quality of an item and the amount of damage it is capable of dealing with. Comparing items from a vendor's stock can be done by using the level of the item.
The level of the item can be viewed by pressing the ALT key on PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. The item will be displayed with its full description, including ilvl. It is also accessible by hovering over an item with the mouse cursor and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are a few theories on how the calculation of the item's level is done. One theory is that the item level is a number derived from a formula that determines the amount an item's stats are worth. It considers the fact that different perks have different values and that sockets have gems that increase the item's overall value. This process can result in a calculated value for the item upgrade's ilvl which is usually quite close to Blizzard's actual level of the item.
It's not the only thing that affects the level of an item. The level of the area where the item dropped can also change its stats. For instance it can increase the item's haste or crit score. This means that items dropped at higher levels will have more ilvl than those from lower-level instances.
Item Stats
Item stats can determine the fate of an item for players. The game uses them in various ways to encourage players not to limit themselves to one weapon and to encourage players to experiment with other weapons. The stat mods of a weapon boost the base stats. These stat mods are then boosted by the player's level.
Upgrades to the item add by boosting certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. For instance, a gray or white item can only be upgraded once, whereas an item with the rare tiers can be upgraded many times at higher prices.
Affixes are another way to alter the stats of an item. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. Affixes can provide the item additional damage, or add a unique capability to the item (such as reviving dead or decreasing the cooldowns), or make the item unique by giving an additional name to the item.
All affixes can be re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade window pressing the green button. It will cost a set amount of gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges similar to other rerolling methods.
In addition to the possibility of rerolling affixes, players may select which stats they want to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The possible stat ranges of an item are based on the level of the item, but every item is guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within the range, unless it is an item that is unique or the result of a God roll from a raid boss.
This is another aspect that could be altered by adding an option to upgrade the equipment without having to reroll the affixes, or selecting which stats to boost. But as with base equipment, this would need to be done on a per-item level, and the interface for comparing items would not display all the possible stats either lost or gained at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player stacks up to increase the odds of item discoveries and the properties that are spawned from loot drops and the strength of these properties. However, it does not directly impact damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives the player a chance to acquire better equipment earlier in the game and is therefore more beneficial in the early game than later ones since most players prefer higher weapon scaling and defenses over raw damage gains.
Luck can also increase the chance of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade probability which increases with each level of the item and can be further increased through the use of an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons can be made or spawn with the Luck property, with the default value of 40. These items can be improved by using golden ingots or spined leather (depending on their material type) for a further +40 luck, or to increase an item's existing Luck 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 purchased in the shop or crafted by using the appropriate ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items are a costly process and not all upgrades will succeed. However, there are cash shop items that allow players to boost their success rate or prevent them from losing an item in the event that the upgrade is unsuccessful.
When you upgrade an item, the success rate is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the likelihood of successfully upgrading an item. This can be increased with Additional Materials or Special materials. The probability of success can only be increased so high, and the probability that an upgrade will fail cannot be greater than 100%..
The success of an can be affected by the Luck of that item. Each item has a base success rate of 25% and every item with Luck increases the chance of success by an additional five percent.
Note that upgrades to items are rendered above the inventory items therefore enchantment glints and other effects may be obscured by them. 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.