Why You Should Focus On Improving Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boost in certain stats. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. A random substat is also added to every upgrade.
Upgraded gear generally sees more value in trade as long as it meets low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or very high stat variation (like eth titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as useful for those with higher variance due to the need to roll the perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item level upgrade [80.82.64.206 blog entry] upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear to a higher level by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any type of armor or weapons. However, the item used to upgrade will be consumed for the duration of time and can't be used again. Upgrades can be applied to the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities and can be accessed anytime to upgrade your gear. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date it is recommended you visit the upgrader each couple of weeks.
The cost of upgrading will be based on the current level of the item upgrader kit being upgraded, but will always be less expensive than purchasing new equipment from other sources. For instance upgrading a Benthic chest piece to 385 ilvl will cost 20 recycle points, while buying a similar item from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items which can be used to improve the quality of weapons and tools, armor and other items. They are purchased by players from NPCs who sell upgrades for items in exchange for a variety of currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased, it can be applied to any weapon, tool, or armor with the help of button, which will show an image of the item at its next upgrade level when the player has enough materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the item slot, and the current item upgrading level. For instance weapons cost more than bracers, or gloves. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with some upgrades offering discounts to reduce the cost of the Flightstones or the crests used. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it is able to be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lower amount of the two currencies.
Upgraders for items are available at many locations, including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs offer an upgrade coupon as well as the possibility of getting a new recipe. The discount for upgrades increases depending on the amount of items being upgraded. It can also be increased by requiring players to complete specific achievements or complete quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no upgrader for items at the start of Icewind Dale. Instead the NPCs that can be used to upgrade require various methods which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3 the upgrade system has been tweaked a bit, with numerous new features added. Once the player has upgraded to a specific level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same level, will cost less. This applies regardless of whether the items are from an entirely different set of equipment.
The discount is available to all accounts. Similarly, the amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain achievement milestones.
Crests
Players have several options when it comes to upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specialized, and are used during specific item level upgrades. Crests are a crucial part of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only available for equipment with a certain rank. Each rank has an upgrade path that is different. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade is 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade requires up to 20 crests, based on the kind of equipment that is being upgraded.
Players can obtain crests by finishing content at the appropriate level, whether that involves walking around and performing outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, raids or dungeons of all difficulty for items of higher tier, or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses to obtain endgame gear. These crests can then be exchanged at an upgrader NPC, such as Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken, for the appropriate upgrade routes and steps.
The use of these currencies isn't too difficult, but the system will introduce a few modifications to the upgrade process. When a piece of equipment attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it is no longer required to purchase Flightstones. This is to allow players to get their equipment up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another significant modification is that crests have one usage and it's crucial to make use of them in a responsible manner. It's Best item upgrade to put your Whelpling-rank Crests on the best gear you can locate, and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly applicable to items like trinkets and rings that take up several slots. The discount on the account is only applicable when all the slots on the character are filled with high-quality equipment.