WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. A random extra substat is also increased with each upgrade item.
Upgraded gear generally sees more value in trade, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB sorc's shield) or a very high stat variance (like eth titan weapons). Upgrades are less important for those with higher variance due to the requirement to roll an exact version.
Recycle Points
The Best item upgrade upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.
You can upgrade your gear anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each several weeks.
The cost of upgrading will vary based on the current level of the equipment being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than buying new equipment from other sources. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest up to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items that can be used to improve the quality of weapons tools, armor, and other accessories. They can be bought by players from item upgrader NPCs in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool or armor. The button will display the preview of an item's next upgrade level when there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the slot for the item and the current level of the item upgrade (from the Hubstack blog). For instance weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers, or bracers. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Some upgrades give a discount on the Flightstones. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.
Item upgraders can be found in a variety of locations, including the main island as well as some outposts. The NPCs provide an upgrade discount and the chance to obtain a new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases according to the number of items being upgraded. It can also be boosted by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no item upgrader available at the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades are acquired via several methods that are both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3, a number of new features have been added to the upgrade system. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a particular level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading further items to that level will cost less, even if they are part of a different gear set.
The amount of Valorstones required for upgrades is decreased, and the discount is account-wide. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is reduced as well, but is only available once certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW players have a variety of choices. Flightstones are an option that is accessible to all players for upgrading. Crests are more special and are utilized during specific upgrades to the level of an item. Crests are a crucial component of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System, which was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests can only be used on gear of a specific rank, and each rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and simplest upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade could require as much as 20 crests, contingent on the type of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and performing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons with any difficulty for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. The crests can then be exchanged with an item upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to upgrade items the item in the proper steps and routes.
The new currency system isn't complicated to use, but it brings some modifications to the upgrade process. Once a piece of gear has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it no longer requires Flightstones. This change is intended to allow players to get their equipment up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
It's also crucial to choose crests in a wise manner, as they only have one use. For instance, it's a good idea make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the top equipment available and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you plan to create. This is particularly relevant for rings and trinkets that fill 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.