WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give you an increase in certain statistics. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also boosts the random substatus.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a large variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are not as important for those with lower requirements due to the need to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade gear to a higher item upgrader kit level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be made on any kind of weapon or armor. However, the item that is used to upgrade will remain in use for a long time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be used to create the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be accessed anytime to upgrade your equipment. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the level of the item but they will always be cheaper than buying new equipment. For instance, upgrading a Benthic chest piece to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points, while purchasing the same item from another player will costs 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items that can be used to level up weapons, tools, armor, and other items. They are purchased by players from item upgrader NPCs in exchange for a variety of currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased it can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor with the help of button, which displays an item's preview when it is upgraded in the event that the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the slot for the item upgrader mod and the current item level. For instance weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers, or bracers. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Some upgrades offer discounts on Flightstones. Once an item upgrader kit is upgraded to a certain amount it is able to be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lower amount of both currencies.
Item upgraders can be found in many places including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon and the possibility of obtaining a new recipe. The discount for upgrades increases with the number of items being upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete specific achievements or quests.
In contrast to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no item upgrader available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades must be acquired through various methods, which is both an improvement but also a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system was altered a bit, with several new features added. Once a player has upgraded to a certain item level for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same level will cost less. This applies even if those items come from another set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is decreased, and the discount is affixed to all accounts. Similarly, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is also cut and is not available until players achieve certain achievement milestones.
Crests
Players have several options for upgrading their gear in WoW. They can use Flightstones that are a common upgrade currency that is accessible to everyone, or crests, which are more specialized and are used to upgrade specific levels of items. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1 and are available in four ranks.
The first thing to be aware of is that crests are only able to be spent on gear of a specific rank, and that each rank has its own requirements for upgrading. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complicated can require as much as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by completing content of the appropriate level, whether that means walking around and doing outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons with all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons to obtain endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an item upgrader such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and pathways.
Utilizing these new currencies isn't that difficult however, the system introduces some changes to the overall upgrade process. When a piece 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 gear up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests in a wise manner, as they only have one use. For instance it's a good idea to utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests on the top equipment you have and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next round of upgrades you're planning on making. This is particularly applicable to rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, which will only be able to benefit from the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are filled with top-quality gear.