WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boosts in specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. A random additional substat is also boosted alongside each upgrade.
Upgraded gear is generally more useful, unless the item has low requirements 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 need to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The upgrader for items allows players to upgrade gear to a higher item level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be used to create enchantments.
The upgrader is located in every major city, and is accessible at any time to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear up-to-date, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader each several weeks.
The cost of upgrading will be based on the current level of the gear being upgraded, but will always be cheaper than buying new gear from other sources. For example upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points, while buying a similar item from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items that can be used to upgrade weapons, tools, armor, and other accessories. They are purchased by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for different currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be used on any tool, weapon or armor. The button will display a preview of an item's next upgrade level in the event that there are enough materials.
The cost of upgrading varies based on the slot of the item and the current item level. For example weapons are more expensive than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of Flightstones or crests that are used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain level it is able to be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lesser amount of both currency types.
Upgraders for items are available in a variety of locations including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon and the possibility of getting a new recipe. The discount for upgrading increases when more items are upgraded. It can be increased if players complete certain achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items at the start of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are available only through a variety means. This is both a benefit as well as a disadvantage.
In Season 3 the upgrade system has been modified a bit, and several new features added. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a certain item level for a particular armor slot, upgrading further items to the same level will be less expensive, even in the event that they belong to another set of gear.
The discount is applicable to all accounts. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is also cut and is not available until players achieve certain achievement milestones.
Crests
When it comes to upgrading equipment in WoW, players have a couple of choices. They can use Flightstones that are a common upgrade currency that is accessible to everyone, or crests, which are more specific and consumed during upgrades on specific levels of items. Crests are a crucial part of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System that was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests can only be spent on equipment of a particular rank, and that each rank has its own requirements for upgrading. The simplest and simplest upgrade process costs just 15 crests while the most complex may require as many as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear being upgraded.
item upgrades can earn crests through completing content at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities or taking on dungeons and raids of all difficulties to get lower-level gear or Mythic+ raid bosses or dungeons that have a high difficulty for gear in the endgame. Crests can be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.
The new currency system isn't difficult to use, but it does bring some modifications to the upgrade process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrading for 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 possible ilvl for all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant change is that crests have one use therefore it's essential to use them properly. For instance it's best to use all of your Whelpling-rank crests with the best gear you have available and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests for the next batch of upgrades you're planning on making. This is particularly applicable to rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which will only be able to benefit from the account-wide discount when all of the slots are filled with top-quality equipment.