Path of Exile Item Upgrades
item upgrades (click through the up coming document) are a common and essential way to boost the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.
Rare-grade equipment is usually superior to the more modernized Common or Magic gear because of their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They improve the effectiveness of the item upgrader mod they are attached to. Armor upgrades are available in the world of games and purchased from Blacksmiths on bonfires. They can also be salvaged using an expert or higher salvage kit to retrieve upgrade components from other items.
The amount of damage that an armored item level upgrade or weapon will absorb is contingent on the level of its upgrades. A piece of armor upgraded to the highest upgrade level will boost its damage absorption. However, it's important keep in mind that this will increase its weight, causing it to weigh more than before.
There are several types of armor upgrades available in the game and each one has distinct effects. For example, some upgrades will give the armor a certain amount of health points while others will make it lighter and stronger. The name of the upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade an item can receive, as shown below.
Certain upgrades require magic or a combination of technology and magic, as indicated by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Furthermore, some upgrades require charges to use, which are shown by a "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are either updated daily or never expire based on the upgrade.
The cheapest method to upgrade armor is by using Iron Ore, which can be gathered by exploring the area and looting chests of minor loot. Titanium is more expensive, but can be found at the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant improvement in performance and are worth the investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.
A piece of armor upgraded to max upgrade level will significantly increase its defense capabilities but the wearer must be aware that putting more weight on it can drastically decrease its speed and agility. Therefore, it is not recommended to upgrade armor pieces beyond +9, since the defensive boost gained is typically not worth the extra weight and power cost of the upgrades required.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of a weapon. Upgrades can increase the accuracy of a rifle or the damage that shotgun shells do. Certain weapons also come with upgrades that improve their innate qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes the risk of overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).
The majority of weapon upgrades require the use of a whetblade, or one of the three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These can be obtained by completing side quests or by killing a certain amount of monsters and bosses.
Upgrades to a weapon, equipment Set piece, or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade cost of a certain number of Bars. The more bars needed to complete an upgrade, the more expensive the upgrade. The cost of upgrading will be lower if have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed a bit. Before you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a set amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased quality. You could do this until you reached a max upgrade level of the weapon or equipment, after which the upgrades would be reset.
It's still possible, but it depends heavily on RNG. Instead, you're better off going to the stores and purchasing equipment that has low upgrade levels but good base scores and stat distributions. These items will have a greater chance of giving you the highest tier advantages and benefits.
Most players will want to prioritize upgrades to the weapons they use most frequently to help them level up quicker. Players should also upgrade the weapons their teammates use to boost their strength. Shepard, for example should upgrade his M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more useful when used in conjunction with biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to boost the stats of a character or to provide additional effects in weapons and armor. They can be made through the process of jewelry crafting, where you combine a gem with several reagents at a jewelry table. The higher the quality of the gemstone, the better the secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained around the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The quality of a gem can be improved upon by the Jeweler in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts will vary depending on the tier the jewel is at when it's slotted into jewelry, weapons, or other gear.
All tiers of jewels can be crafted at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels which require you to be at a high enough level to obtain these. Jewels can be substituted with another jewel without damaging the original. However you can only swap out one jewel in an item of equipment only once.
Utilizing more jewels in a movement will make it more smooth, and is often used to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. In addition to enhancing performance, the diamonds create an area that is stronger than steel, so the repeated friction from pivots doesn't cause harm as easily.
In addition to the upgrades mentioned above additionally, players can acquire glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. They offer a small benefit and can be swapped out at any time however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are like jewelry and can be upgraded by the Jeweler to exchange Scattered Crystals and gold. Glyphs are also removed, which returns them to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as aegis or traits cannot be exchanged, and can only be recovered with an Upgrade extractor or salvaging with a Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that provide a wide range of small but useful benefits to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the beginning areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, or by completing road interactions. They can also be crafted by jewelers and later found or purchased from the Trading Post.
The first trinket a player can unlock is the cloak. It grants a small, but useful bonus in movement speed and the ability to evade. The player can then acquire necklaces, rings, and amulets, in a similar way as they did with weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade items slot that can accept either a universal or jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be utilized on any piece of equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.
These trinkets also provide additional buffs and skills that are active whenever the hero is not fighting. This lets the hero perform better when they are not active and also helps to compensate for the absence of a strong team or any slots in the talent tree which would normally be filled with the hero's ideal statistics.
As a general rule trinket upgrades should be a priority BiS (Best item upgrade in Slot) items that you will not replace in the near future. Then, you should consider any items with desirable statistics that aren't as significant as the iLevel of the item that is to be upgraded. This is true especially if you're looking to upgrade several statistics on an item. It is more beneficial to upgrade a single important stat rather than two suboptimal ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red one at the beginning of the game. Top and mid players, on the other hand will pick a green or a pink ward, depending on the matchup. These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's abilities to control maps.
In addition to the items mentioned above, players can also discover other trinkets in form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. They can be obtained by completing certain milestones in the story. For instance, finishing the main quest of a chapter or beating the boss. You can check them out by selecting the achievement from the reward section of the hero's menu.