Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide On Item Upgrades
Path of Exile Item Upgrade Upgrades
Item upgrades are a common and important way to improve the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can be a fantastic source of extra damage and more AD or even more affixes.
Rare-grade equipment is usually superior to the more modernized Common or Magic gear due to their high demands.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They increase the performance of the item upgrading they are attached to. Upgrades to armor can be found in the world of games and purchased from Blacksmiths on bonfires. They can also be salvaged by using an expert or higher salvage kit to recover upgrades from the items.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it can take on. The damage absorption of an armor piece will increase as it is upgraded to the highest upgrade level. It is important to note that this will increase the weight of the armor, which means it must be heavier.
There are a few different kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game and each one has distinct effects. For example, some upgrades will grant the armor a certain amount of health points while others make it lighter and stronger. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade that an item will receive, as shown below.
A few upgrades also feature magical or a combination of technology and magic, which is shown by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require charges to use, and are shown by an "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are continuously updated or never expire depending on the upgrade.
The cheapest method to upgrade armor is by using Iron Ore, which can be obtained by exploring the environment and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, however it is obtainable through smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide a significant boost to performance and are worth the investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.
The player must be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to its max upgrade level will boost its defense. However, it will also affect the speed and agility of the piece. For this reason, it is not recommended to upgrade armor pieces that are higher than +9 since the added defense is usually not worth the extra weight and power cost of the upgrades needed.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of an weapon. For example an upgrade could enhance the damage caused by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Some weapons have special enhancements to enhance their intrinsic capabilities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and decreases the chance of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the velocity of projectiles for greater damage).
The majority of weapon upgrades require a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount Minerals and Erons. They can be obtained by completing Side Quests, taking out a certain number of monsters or bosses, or from the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.
To upgrade the weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade you need to visit the NPC [Armor] Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a certain amount of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the more bars required to complete it. The cost of the upgrades will be lower if have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade weapon and equipment sets has changed. In the past you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a set amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased rarity. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level and at that point, the upgrades would reset.
It's still possible, but it depends heavily on RNG. Instead, you're much better off going to stores and buying equipment with low upgrade levels, but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These items have a greater chance of granting you the highest tier blessings and perks.
To level up quicker, players usually prioritize upgrading their weapons. Additionally, players should consider upgrading the weapons they use with their teammates to make them more powerful and effective. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to enhance its effectiveness when accompanied by experts in biotics like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels are used in the armor's sockets and weapons, enhancing the power of a character and bringing about secondary effects. Jewelry crafting is a method for creating them. You combine the gemstone with specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the level of the gem, the better its secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and sometimes by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The Jeweler can boost the quality of the gem in stages that range from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts will vary according to the tier that the jewel is at when it is inserted into weapons, jewelry, or gear.
The Jeweler can create all tiers of gems, with the exception of rare and legendary ones that you must attain an appropriate level to obtain. Jewels can be replaced with another jewel without destroying the original. However you can only swap out one jewel in a piece of equipment only once.
Utilizing more jewels in the movement will make it feel smoother, and is often done to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. The jewels can also enhance performance and create an outer layer that is more durable than steel, so that the repeated friction caused by pivots does not damage them.
In addition to the above upgrades additionally, players can acquire glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These are a small perk and are able to be swapped easily however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs, just like jewelry, can be upgraded at the Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Crystals and gold. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components like traits or aegis cannot be swapped, and can only be found through an upgrade extractor or salvaging with the Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are pieces of equipment that offer a wide range of small but useful advantages to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the starter areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, and by doing road interactions. They may also be crafted by jewelers, and found or purchased on the Trading Post.
The first trinkets that a player unlocks will be the cloak, which gives a small, but valuable boost to movement speed and evasion. After that, they'll be able to purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in a similar manner to the way a player acquires weapons and armor. Each piece of gear comes with one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and are able to be used on any device. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.
These trinkets also provide additional buffs and skills that are active even when the character is not in combat. This allows a hero to be more efficient while inactive. It can also compensate for the lack of a strong slots in the team or talent tree which are usually filled by the hero's optimal stats.
A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item level upgrade being upgraded. This is especially true when you want to upgrade multiple statistics on an item. It's more beneficial to upgrade a single important stat rather than two suboptimal ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade items their yellow trinket to a red trinket at the beginning of the game. Mid and top players however, will choose either a pink or green ward, based on the matchup. These choices can impact the hero's ability to manage the map.
In addition to the items listed above, players will also discover other trinkets in form of trophies and rewards throughout the game. These can be obtained through completing certain milestones in the story, such as the main quest of a chapter or killing a particular boss. You can view them by clicking on the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.