Why You Should Focus On Improving Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of the item by +3. Each upgrade also boosts a random substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item has a low requirement by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the necessity to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any type of armor or weapons. The item upgrades used to upgrade items the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in every major city, and can be visited at any time to upgrade your gear. It is recommended to visit the upgrader every few weeks, to ensure that your equipment is up to date.
Upgrades can cost more based on the item level, however, they are always cheaper than buying new gear. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. If you purchase a similar item, it will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that are used to improve the quality of weapons, tools, armor, and accessories. They are purchased by players from item upgrader NPCs in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon or armor. button, which displays an item's preview at its next upgrade level in the event that the player has enough materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the slot of the item and current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers, for instance. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a variety of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of the Flightstones or crests that are used. Once an item is upgraded to a certain degree it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.
Item upgraders can be found in many places including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon and a possibility of obtaining an entirely new recipe. The discount on upgrades increases with the number of items that are being upgraded. It can also be boosted by requiring players to complete specific achievements or complete quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no item upgrader available at the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead the NPCs that are available to help with upgrades are acquired via various methods which is both an improvement but also a drawback.
In Season 3, several new features were added to the upgrade system. After the player has upgraded to a certain item level for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same level, will cost less. This is true regardless of whether the items are from a different set of equipment.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievements.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW players have a couple of options. Flightstones are a currency that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specific, and are used during specific upgrades to the level of an item. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only available for equipment that is of a particular rank. Each rank has distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and simplest upgrade item process costs just 15 crests while the most complicated can require as much as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by working through tasks at the appropriate level. This could be by doing outdoor activities, or by doing dungeons or raids in all difficulties to get 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 like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and pathways.
The new currency system isn't complicated to use, but it brings some modifications to the upgrade process. For instance, when an item is at the highest upgrade level of any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This change is intended to allow players to upgrade their equipment to the highest ilvl possible for all their characters rather than relying solely on seasonal loot.
Another significant change is that crests only have one purpose, so it's important to use them properly. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank crests on the Best item upgrader gear you can locate and save Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is especially relevant for rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which can only be eligible to take advantage of the account-wide discount when all slots are full of high-quality equipment.