WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades can give you boosts in certain statistics. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also boosts the random substatus.
item upgrades upgraded gear typically has a higher trade value, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or has a high stat variance (like Eth titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader enables players to upgrade gear to a higher item level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be made on any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.
The upgrader is located in all major cities, and is accessible at any time to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each several weeks.
Upgrades will cost more, based on the level of the item, however, they are always cheaper than purchasing new gear. For instance, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points, while purchasing the same item from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to level up weapons, tools, armor, and other accessories. They can be purchased by players through NPCs who sell upgrades to item owners for a variety of currencies. They are also available on random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased it can be used on any weapon or tool with a button, which will display an item's preview when it is upgraded if the player has sufficient materials.
The cost of upgrades varies based on the slot of the item and the current level of the item, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower cost.
Item upgraders can be found at many locations on the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and the possibility of obtaining an entirely new recipe. The discount on upgrades increases with the number of items being upgraded. It is also possible to be boosted by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II there is no upgrader for items available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead, the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades are acquired via a variety of means which is both an improvement as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3, a number of new features have been added to the upgrade system. After 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 is true regardless of whether the items come from a different set of equipment.
The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is reduced too, but it is only available when certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
Players have a variety of choices when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. They can use Flightstones that are a common upgrade currency that is available to everyone, or crests, which are more specialized and used to upgrade specific item levels. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
The first thing to remember is that the crests can only be purchased for equipment that is of a certain rank. Each rank has a different upgrade path. The most basic and straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the more complex one can require as much as 20 crests, based on the kind of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, which involves walking around and engaging in outdoor activities for lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons with any difficulty for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons to obtain endgame gear. These crests are then exchanged with an upgrader for the item like Cuzolth or Vaskarn, in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and paths.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, but it does bring some changes to the process of upgrading. For instance, when 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 is to allow players to upgrade their gear up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
Another notable change is that crests have one usage and it's crucial to make use of them in a responsible manner. It's best 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 items like rings and trinkets that occupy several slots. The discount for the entire account will only be applicable if all slots on the character are filled with top-quality gear.