The Main Issue With Item Upgrade And How You Can Repair It
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. A random extra substat is also increased with each upgrade.
The upgraded gear is usually more valuable, unless the item has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or a high stat variance (like eth Titan weapons). The latter see less value from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect model.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by giving the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be made on any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and can't be used again. Upgrades can be used to create the enchantments.
You can upgrade your equipment at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every couple of weeks.
The cost of upgrading will vary based on the current level of the equipment being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear from other sources. For example upgrading a Benthic chest piece to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points purchasing a similar piece from a different player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are functional items that can be used to improve the quality of weapons tools, armor, and other accessories. They can be purchased by players from item upgrader NPCs in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be applied to any tool, weapon or armor. button, which will show an item's preview at its next upgrade level when the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the item upgrading slot, and the current item level. For example weapons cost more than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of the Flightstones or crests used. Once an item Level Upgrade has been upgraded to a certain level it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and some outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount as well as a chance to get a brand new upgrade recipe. The discount for upgrading 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. Instead the NPCs that can be used to upgrade are acquired via various methods, which is both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3 the upgrade system has been modified a bit, and some new features added. When a player has an upgrade to a specific level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading other items to that same item level will cost less, even when they are part of another set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is account-wide. Similarly, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players reach certain milestones in their achievement.
Crests
Players have several options for upgrading their gear in WoW. Flightstones are an item that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specific, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an integral part of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System, which was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests can only be used on equipment that is of a particular rank, and every rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade items requires up to 20 crests, depending on the type of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through finishing tasks at the appropriate level. This could be by engaging in outdoor activities or doing dungeons or raids in all difficulty levels to obtain lower-level gear or Mythic+ raid bosses or dungeons that have a high difficulty to obtain endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an upgrader for the item, such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and pathways.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, but it does bring some modifications to the upgrade items process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrading for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it will no longer require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change lets players upgrade their gear to the highest possible ilvl on all of their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant modification is that crests have one purpose therefore it's essential to use them properly. For instance, it's best to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the top equipment available and save Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you're planning to create. This is especially true for items like trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character that will be able to avail the discount for all accounts when all of the slots are full of high-quality equipment.