WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. A random additional substat is also boosted alongside each upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are less valuable for those with lower requirements because of the requirement to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of weapon or armor. However, the item used for the upgrade will be consumed forever and will not be able to be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be accessed at any time to upgrade your equipment. To keep your gear current it is recommended you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
The cost of upgrades will vary based on the current level of the item being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than buying new gear from other sources. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar Item Level Upgrade, it will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade tools, armor, weapon, and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased through NPCs who sell upgrades to item upgrading owners in a variety of currencies. They can also find them in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any tool, weapon or armor. button, which displays an item upgrades's preview when it is upgraded when the player has enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the item slot and the current level of the item level upgrade and the weapon's price is higher than gloves or bracers for instance. Each step costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of Flightstones or crests used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items which include the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide an upgrade discount and a chance to get a brand new upgrade recipe. The discount for upgrading increases when more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete certain achievements or complete quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at the beginning, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades must be acquired through various methods, which is both an improvement but also a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system has been tweaked a bit, with some new features added. Once an upgrade has been completed to a specific level for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same item level, will cost less. This is regardless of whether the items come from another set of equipment.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is cut also, but is only available once certain milestones are achieved.
Crests
Players have a number of options for upgrading their gear in WoW. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specific, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests are only able to be used on equipment of a particular rank, and each rank has its own requirements for upgrading. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade is 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade requires up to 20 crests, depending on the kind of equipment being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by finishing tasks at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities, or by doing dungeons or raids in all difficulty levels to obtain equipment of lower tier or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons with a heroic difficulty for endgame gear. Crests can be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.
The new currency system isn't difficult to use, but it will bring some changes to the upgrade process. Once a piece of gear attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it no longer requires Flightstones. This allows players to upgrade items their equipment to the highest possible level on all their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant change is that crests have one usage therefore it's essential to make use of them in a responsible manner. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank crests on the best gear you can locate and save Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is especially relevant for items like trinkets and rings that fill several slots. The account-wide discount is only applicable when all the slots on the character are filled with high-quality equipment.