So You ve Bought Item Upgrade ... Now What
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases item upgrading level by +3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless it is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like eth Titan weapons). The latter see less value from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect model.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in all major cities and can be visited at any time to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current it is recommended you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
The cost of upgrading will be based on the current item level Upgrade level of the gear being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear from other sources. For example, upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points, while buying a similar item from another player will costs 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to level up weapons and tools, armor and other items. They are purchased by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased it can be applied to any weapon or tool with an button, which displays an item's preview when it is upgraded in the event that the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the slot for the item and the current item level. For instance weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers or bracers. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of Flightstones or crests that are used. Once an item is upgraded to a certain amount, it can be 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 provide both an upgrade discount and the chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases when more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players finish certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an upgrader for items at the beginning, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only available through a variety of methods. This is both a positive and a disadvantage.
In Season 3, the upgrade system has been altered a bit, with several new features added. After 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 applies even if the items come from another set of gear.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is reduced too, but it is only available when certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
When upgrading equipment in WoW, players have a variety of choices. Flightstones are an item that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is with a certain rank. Each rank comes with an upgrade items path that is different. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complex can require as much as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, dungeons or raids of 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 kit upgrader, such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to upgrade the item in the proper steps and routes.
The new currency system isn't difficult to use, however it will bring some changes to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment attains 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 gear up to the highest level possible on all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
Another important change is that crests only have one usage, so it's important to use them properly. For instance it's a good idea utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests on the best equipment you have and save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan on making. This is especially applicable to trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character, which can only be eligible to take advantage of the account-wide discount when all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.