WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give a guaranteed boost to specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. A random substat is also boosted alongside each upgrade.
Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the item has a low requirement by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades are not as valuable for the latter because of the requirement to roll an exact version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to 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 remain in use for a long time and can't be used again. Upgrades can be applied to Enchantments.
You can upgrade your equipment at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended to visit the upgrader once every couple of weeks to keep your equipment up-to-date.
Upgrades can cost more based on the level of the item, however, they are always less expensive than purchasing new equipment. For example, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points while purchasing the same item from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase tools, armor, weapon and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players from NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased it can be applied to any weapon or tool with a button, which will show a preview of the item when it is upgraded when the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based 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 plus a specific number of crests. Some upgrades give discounts on Flightstones. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain amount and is degraded, it can be sold and sold back to the upgrader for a lower amount of both currency types.
Upgraders for items can be found at many locations, including the main island as well as some outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon as well as the possibility of getting the latest recipe. The discount on upgrades increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased by having players finish certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at the beginning unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. The NPCs that can assist with upgrades are only accessible through a variety of methods. This is both a benefit as well as a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system has been modified a bit, and several new features added. Once the player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same item level will cost less. This applies regardless of whether the items are from an entirely different set of gear.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is reduced too, but it is only available when certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
Players have several choices when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. They can make use of Flightstones which are a common upgrade currency that is available to everyone players, or crests that are more specialized and are consumed during upgrades at specific item levels. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system, which was introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
First, you should know that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is of a particular rank. Each rank comes with a different upgrade path. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one requires as many as 20 crests based on the type of equipment being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, dungeons or raids of any difficulty for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for endgame gear. item upgrading can later be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, such as Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade routes and steps.
The new currency system isn't difficult to use, but it will bring 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 is intended to allow players to get their equipment up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests wisely, as they have only one purpose. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank Crests on the top-quality equipment you can find, and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next round of upgrades. This is especially relevant for 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 filled with high-quality equipment.