Then You ve Found Your Item Upgrade ... Now What
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an Item level upgrade by 3. A random extra substat is also increased with each upgrade.
Upgraded gear generally sees higher trade value as long as it meets low requirements (like the FB sorc's shield) or has a high stat variance (like eth titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as useful for the latter due to the need to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by giving the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapons. However, the item that is used to upgrade will be consumed forever and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to the enchantments.
The upgrader can be found in every major city, and can be visited at any time to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every few weeks.
Upgrades can cost more based on the level of the Best item upgrade however they'll always be cheaper than buying new gear. For instance upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points, purchasing a similar piece from another player will costs 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used for weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players through item upgrader NPCs in exchange for various currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be applied to any tool, weapon or armor. The button will display a preview of an Best item upgrade's next upgrade level, when there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the item slot and the current level of the item as well as the level of the weapon, which is more than gloves or bracers for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Certain upgrades provide a discount on the Flightstones. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain amount, it can be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lower amount of both currencies.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades increases depending on the amount of items that are being upgraded, and can be boosted by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no upgrader for items at the beginning of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who are able to facilitate upgrades are only available through a variety means. This is both a positive and an issue.
In Season 3, several new features were added to the upgrade system. After an upgrade has been completed to a certain level of item for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same item level will cost less. This is true even if those items are from a different set of equipment.
The discount is available to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievements.
Crests
Players have a number of choices when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1, and come in 4 ranks.
The first thing to be aware of is that crests can only be used on equipment of a particular rank, and that every rank has different requirements for upgrading. The simplest and easiest upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade can require up to 20 crests, contingent on the kind of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through working through tasks at the appropriate level. This could be done by engaging in outdoor activities or taking on dungeons and raids of all difficulty levels to obtain lower-tier gear or Mythicbosses of raids or dungeons with heroic difficulty to obtain endgame gear. The crests can then be exchanged with an item upgrader, such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to upgrade the item in the proper steps and routes.
The new currency system isn't complicated to use, but it brings some changes to the process of upgrading. Once a piece of gear attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it will no longer require Flightstones. This change allows players to upgrade their equipment to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests with care, since they only have one use. For instance it's a good idea to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the top equipment available, and then save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you're planning to create. This is particularly applicable to rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character, which will only be able to take advantage of the account-wide discount when all slots are full of high-quality gear.