WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades can give you an increase in certain stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. upgrade item upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the item has a low requirement by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a large variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as important for the latter because of the requirement to roll the perfect 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 for the upgrade will be consumed for the duration of time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended to visit the upgrader every few weeks, to keep your equipment up to date.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the item level, but they will always be cheaper than buying new equipment. Upgrades like upgrading a Benthic chest up to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to purchase weapon, armor, tool and accessory upgrades. They can be bought by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for various currencies, and may also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade is purchased, it can be used on any weapon, tool, or armor with a button, which will display a preview of the item at the next upgrade level when the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the slot for the item and the current level of the item. For example weapons cost more than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a few crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of the Flightstones or the crests used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain level it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and the chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The discount on upgrades increases as more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players finish certain achievements or quests.
In contrast to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades are acquired via various methods that are both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system has been altered a bit, with numerous new features added. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a certain level of an item for a specific armor slot, upgrading other items to the same level will cost less, even if they belong to another set of gear.
The amount of Valorstones required to upgrade is reduced and the discount is account-wide. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is cut also, but is only available when certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
Players have a variety of options for upgrading their gear in WoW. They can choose to use Flightstones that are a general upgrade currency that is available to all players, or crests that are more specialized and are used to upgrade specific levels of the item. Crests are a crucial element of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System that was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
First, you must be aware that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is of a particular rank. Each rank comes with a different upgrade path. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complex upgrade requires up to 20 crests, contingent on the type of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by completing content of the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons of all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons to obtain endgame gear. The crests can later be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC, such as Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to obtain the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.
Utilizing these new currencies isn't too complicated, but the system does introduce some modifications to the upgrade process. For instance, when 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 change is intended to allow players to upgrade their gear up to the highest level possible for all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant change is that crests only have one usage therefore it's essential to make use of them in a responsible manner. For instance it's a good idea to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests with the best equipment you have and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next round of upgrades you're planning to make. This is especially relevant for trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character, which will only be able to avail the account-wide discount if all slots are filled with high-quality equipment.