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 extra substat is also boosted alongside every upgrade.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like eth Titan weapons). These types of gear get less value from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect model.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of weapon or armor. However, the item used to upgrade will be consumed forever and will not be able to be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create the enchantments.
You can upgrade your equipment anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended that you visit the upgrader every few weeks to keep your equipment up to date.
Upgrades will cost more, based on the item level, however, they are always cheaper than buying new equipment. For example, upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points while purchasing the same item from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items which can be used to improve the quality of weapons and tools, armor and other items. They can be purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for different currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon or armor. button, which will show an image of the item when it is upgraded if the player has sufficient materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the item slot and current item level as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than gloves or bracers for example. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with some upgrades offering discounts to lower the cost of Flightstones or the crests used. Once an item is upgraded to a certain amount it is able to be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currency types.
Upgraders for items can be found in many places, including the main island as well as some outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a possibility of getting the latest recipe. The discount for upgrading increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at start unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead, the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades must be acquired through several methods, which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system has been tweaked a bit, with numerous new features added. Once item upgrading obtains an upgrade to a specific level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading additional items to that same item level will cost less even if they belong to an entirely different set of gear.
The discount is available to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is reduced as well, but is only available after certain milestones are reached.
Crests
When it comes to upgrading gear in WoW, players have a couple of choices. They can use Flightstones which are a common upgrade currency available to everyone, or crests, which are more specialized and are consumed during upgrades at specific levels of the item. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only able to be used to purchase equipment of a particular rank, and that each rank has its own requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and simplest upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one may require as many as 20 crests depending on the type of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, whether that means walking around and doing outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons of all difficulties for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons for gear that is used in the endgame. The crests can later be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
Using these new currencies isn't too difficult however, the system will introduce a few modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it no longer requires Flightstones. This change is intended to allow players to upgrade their equipment up to the highest ilvl possible on all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
Another notable modification is that crests have one purpose therefore it's essential to use them properly. It's best to put your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear that you can find, and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next round of upgrades. This is especially applicable to items like trinkets and rings that take up multiple slots. The discount for the entire account is only applicable when all the slots on the character are filled with top-quality equipment.