WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. A random substat is also increased with each upgrade.
The upgraded gear typically has a greater value for trade as long as it meets low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or has a high stat variance (like Eth titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as useful for those with higher variance because of the requirement to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be made on any type of armor or weapons. However, the item that is used for the upgrade will remain in use for a long time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.
The upgrader can be found 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 several weeks.
The cost of upgrades will be based on the current level of the item upgrader mod being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than buying new gear from other sources. For example upgrading a Benthic chest piece to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points while buying a similar item from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items which can be used to upgrade weapons and tools, armor and other items. They can be bought by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon or armor. The button will show the item's next level of upgrade, when there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the item slot and the current item level as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than bracers or gloves, for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Some upgrades give a discount on the Flightstones. Once an item upgrades has been upgraded to a certain degree it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items which include the main island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon as well as the possibility of obtaining an entirely new recipe. The discount on upgrades increases as more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete certain achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items available at the start of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are available only through a variety of methods. This is both a benefit and a disadvantage.
In Season 3, several new features have been added to the upgrade system. When a player has an upgrade to a particular item level for a particular armor slot, upgrading additional items to the same level will cost less, even when they belong to an entirely different set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is affixed to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is reduced as well, but is only available after certain milestones are reached.
Crests
Players have a number of options when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are an item that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more special and are utilized during specific upgrades to the level of an item. Crests are an important element of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System, which was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
First, you should know that the crests can only be purchased for equipment of a certain rank. Each rank comes with a different upgrade path. The simplest and simplest upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one requires as many as 20 crests, based on the type of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by completing tasks at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities or doing dungeons or raids in any difficulty to earn lower-level gear or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons with heroic difficulty for endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
Using these new currencies isn't that difficult, but the system does introduce some modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This change allows players to upgrade their equipment to the highest level possible for all their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
It's also essential to use crests in a wise manner, as they are only used for one purpose. For instance it's Best item upgrade to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests with the Best item upgrade equipment available and then save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you're planning to create. This is particularly true for items like rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, that will be able to take advantage of the discount for all accounts when all slots are filled with top-quality gear.