WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades can give you an increase in certain stats. Each upgrade increases item level by 3. A random extra substat is also added to each upgrade.

The upgraded gear typically has a more value in trade as long as it meets low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or a very high stat variation (like the eth titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the necessity to roll for a perfect model.

Recycle Points

The item upgrades upgrader enables players to upgrade gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item upgrader mod is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.

The upgrader can be found in every major city, and is accessible at any time to upgrade your gear. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.

Upgrades will cost more depending on the item level Upgrade level, however, they are always less expensive than purchasing new gear. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to 385 ilvl will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.

Valorstones

Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase tools, armor, weapon, and accessory upgrades. They are purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool or armor. The button will show the item's next upgrade level, when there are enough materials.

The upgrade cost depends on the slot of the item and the current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers, for example. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades offering discounts to lower the cost of the Flightstones or crests used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain level, it can be degraded and returned to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currencies.

Item upgraders can be found in many places including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade discount and a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases as 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. Instead the NPCs that can be used to upgrade must be acquired through several methods, which is both an improvement and a drawback.

In Season 3 the upgrade system was altered a bit, with some new features added. Once an upgrade has been completed to a certain item level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same level will cost less. This applies even if the items come from an entirely different set of gear.

The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is reduced too, but it is only available when certain milestones are reached.

Crests

Players have several options for upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specific, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1 and are available in four ranks.

First, you must be aware that Crests are only available to equipment with a certain rank. Each rank has distinct upgrade paths. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade is 15 crests. The most complex upgrade can require up to 20 crests, depending on the type of gear being upgraded.

Players can obtain crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons of any difficulty for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons for endgame gear. The crests can then be exchanged with an upgrader like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken to upgrade the item in the proper steps and pathways.

Using these new currencies isn't that difficult, but the system will introduce a few modifications to the upgrade process. For example, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic), it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This is to allow players to upgrade their equipment to the highest level possible for all their characters instead of relying only on seasonal loot.

It's also crucial to choose crests with care, since they only have one use. For instance, it's best to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests with the best equipment you have and then save Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you're planning on making. This is particularly relevant for trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character which will only be able to benefit from the account-wide discount when all of the slots are full of high-quality gear.