WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades provide a guaranteed boost to certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of the item by +3. Each upgrade also boosts an unspecified substat.
The more modernized gear generally has a greater value for trade, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or very high stat variance (like Eth titan weapons). These types of gear get less value from upgrading due to the requirement to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader enables players to upgrade their gear to a higher level by supplying the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear at any time by visiting the upgrader in any major city. To keep your gear current, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every few weeks.
The cost of upgrades will vary based on the current level of the gear being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than buying new gear from other sources. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade tools, armor, weapon, and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased through NPCs who sell upgrades to item owners in a variety of currencies. They can also find them on random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any weapon, tool or armor. The button will show the item's next upgrade level if there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the slot of the item and the current item level, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers for instance. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a few 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 and is degraded, it can be sold and sold back to the upgrader for a lesser amount of both currencies.
Item upgraders can be found in many places on the main island and some outposts. The NPCs provide an upgrade discount as well as a chance to get a brand new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at the start 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 as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3, the upgrade system was altered a bit, with several new features added. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a particular item level for a particular armor slot, upgrading additional items to that level will be less expensive, even when they belong to a different gear set.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is affixed to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is cut too, but it is only available when certain milestones have been reached.
Crests
Players have a variety of options when it comes to upgrading their gear in WoW. They can make use of Flightstones, which are a general upgrade currency that is available to all players, or crests, which are more specific and consumed during upgrades at specific levels of the item. Crests are a key element of the Dragonflight gear progression system that was introduced in 10.1, and come in 4 ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only able to be spent on equipment that is of a particular rank, and each rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and simplest upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complicated requires as many as 20 crests depending on the type of equipment being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by finishing tasks at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities or completing dungeons and raids in all difficulty levels to obtain lower-level gear or Mythicbosses for raids, or dungeons that have a high difficulty for endgame gear. These crests can then be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, but it does bring some changes to the upgrade process. Once a piece of gear has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it no longer requires Flightstones. This is to allow players to get their equipment to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters instead of relying only on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests in a wise manner, as they have only one purpose. For instance, it's best to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests on the top equipment available and keep Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you're planning on making. This is especially applicable to items like trinkets and rings that fill several slots. The account-wide discount is only applicable when all the slots on the character are filled with top-quality equipment.