What Freud Can Teach Us About Item Upgrade

WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader

Upgrades will give you a boost to specific stats. Each upgrade boosts the level of an item by 3. A random additional substat is also boosted alongside every upgrade.

Upgraded gear generally sees greater value for trade, unless it has inherently low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or very high stat variance (like the eth titan weapons). The latter see less value from upgrading due to the necessity to roll for a perfect version.

Recycle Points

The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by transferring the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and can't be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enhancements.

The upgrader can be found in all major cities, and can be visited anytime to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear up-to-date, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every several weeks.

The cost of upgrading will vary based on the current item level of the gear being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than purchasing new gear from other sources. Upgrades like 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 are also available on random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade is able to be used on any weapon, tool, or armor. The button will show a preview of an item's next upgrade level if there are enough materials.

The upgrade item cost depends on the slot of the item upgrader kit and current item level, with weapons costing more than bracers or gloves, for example. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a specific number of crests. Some upgrades give a discount on the Flightstones. Once an item upgrader kit is upgraded to a certain degree it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.

A lot of locations offer upgraders for items in addition to the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade discount as well as a chance to obtain a new upgrade recipe. The discount for upgrades increases with the number of items that are being upgraded, and can be increased by having players complete some specific achievements or quests.

Icewind Dale does not have an upgrader for items at the start unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. The NPCs who are able to facilitate upgrades are only available via a variety of ways. This is both a benefit as well as an issue.

In Season 3, many new features have been added to the upgrade system. After a player has earned an upgrade to a specific level of an Item level Upgrade for a specific armor slot, upgrading additional items to the same level will cost less, even in the event that they are part of an entirely different set of gear.

The discount is applicable to all accounts. In the same way, the amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players reach certain achievement milestones.

Crests

Players have a number of options when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to all players for upgrading. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an important element of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System that was introduced in version 10.1. They are available in four ranks.

The first thing to note is that crests can only be spent on equipment that is of a particular rank, and that each rank has its own requirements for its upgrade path. The most basic and straightforward upgrade route costs 15 crests while the most complicated may require as many as 20 crests depending on the kind of gear being upgraded.

Players can obtain crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, which involves walking around and performing outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, dungeons or raids of all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses or dungeons for endgame gear. The crests can later be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, such as Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade pathways and steps.

Using these new currencies isn't too complicated however, the system does introduce some changes to the overall upgrade process. Once a piece of gear has reached the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer) it will no longer require Flightstones. This change allows players to upgrade their gear to the highest possible level on all of their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.

It's also important to use crests in a wise manner, as they only have one use. For instance it's best to utilize all of your Whelpling rank crests with the best equipment available and then keep Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan to make. This is particularly relevant for items like trinkets and rings that fill multiple slots. The account-wide discount will only be applicable if all the slots on the character are filled with high-quality equipment.