11 Strategies To Completely Redesign Your Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item upgrades by 3. Each upgrade also increases a random substat.
The more modernized gear generally has a greater value for trade, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB sorc's shield) or very high stat variation (like eth titan weapons). Upgrades are less important for the latter due to the need to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapons. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be accessed at any time to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear up-to-date, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
Upgrades will cost more, based on the level of the item but they will always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item Level Upgrade will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapons, armor, tools and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for various currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon, or armor. button, which will show an item's preview when it is upgraded if the player has sufficient materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the slot for the item upgrades and the current level of the item. For example, weapons will cost more than gloves, bracers or bracers. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. Once an item is upgraded to a certain level it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
Many locations offer item upgraders in addition to the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade discount as well as a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades increases according to the number of items being upgraded. It is also possible to be boosted by having players complete specific achievements or complete quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an upgrader for items at the beginning unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. Instead the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades are acquired via various methods that are both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3, many new features were added to the upgrade system. When a player has an upgrade to a specific level for an item in an armor slot, upgrading further items to the same level will cost less, even when they belong to a different gear set.
The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is reduced also, but is only available once certain milestones are reached.
Crests
Players have a variety of options 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 integral element of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System introduced in version 10.1. They are available in four ranks.
The first thing to note is that crests are only able to be used to purchase equipment of a particular rank, and that each rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complex requires as many as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by working through tasks at the appropriate level. This could mean doing outdoor activities, or by taking on dungeons and raids of all difficulties to get lower-level gear or Mythic+ raid bosses or dungeons with heroic difficulty to obtain endgame gear. These crests can be exchanged with an upgrader such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and pathways.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, however it brings some changes to the upgrade process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is designed to allow players to get their equipment to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
It's also crucial to choose crests with care, since they are only used for one purpose. For instance it's a good idea to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests with the Best item upgrade equipment you have and save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan on making. This is especially true for items like trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character, which can only be eligible to avail the account-wide discount when all of the slots are filled with high-quality equipment.