WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boosts in certain statistics. Each upgrade increases the level of an item by 3. Each upgrade also boosts the random substatus.
The upgraded gear is usually more useful, unless the item is not required by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like eth Titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the need to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by giving the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapon. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and can't be used again. Upgrades can also be used to create enchantments.
You can upgrade your gear anytime by visiting the upgrader in any major city. It is recommended that you visit the upgrader every few weeks to keep your equipment up to date.
Upgrades will cost more depending on the item level, but they will always be cheaper than buying new equipment. For instance, upgrading a chest piece from Benthic to 385 levels will cost 20 recycle points, purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items that are used to improve the quality of weapons, tools, armor, and accessories. Players can purchase them from NPCs of item upgraders in a variety of currencies. They can also find them in random treasure lists. Once purchased, an upgrade can be applied to any weapon, tool or armor. The button will show a preview of an item's next upgrade level in the event that there are enough materials.
The upgrade cost depends on the item slot and the current level of the item, with weapons costing more than gloves or bracers, for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones plus a set number of crests. Some upgrades offer discounts on Flightstones. Once an item has been upgraded to a certain amount it is able to be degraded and sold back to the upgrader for a lesser amount of the two currencies.
Many locations offer item upgraders in addition to the main island and a few outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade coupon and the chance to obtain an entirely new recipe. The discount for upgrades increases depending on the amount of items that are being upgraded, and can be increased by having players complete specific achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an upgrader for items at the beginning, unlike Cromwell from Baldur's Gate II. Instead, the NPCs that can be used to upgrade must be acquired through various methods, which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, many new features have been added to the upgrade system. After upgrade item has upgraded to a certain item level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same item level, will cost less. This applies even if those items are from another set of gear.
The discount applies to all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests required for upgrades is reduced also, but is only available when certain milestones are achieved.
Crests
Players have a number of options for upgrading their equipment in WoW. Flightstones are a currency that is available to everyone for upgrading. Crests are more specialized and are utilized during specific item level upgrades. Crests are an important part of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System that was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
First, you should know that the crests can only be purchased for equipment with a certain rank. Each rank comes with a different upgrade path. The easiest and most straightforward upgrade costs 15 crests. The most complex upgrade could require as much as 20 crests, based on the type of equipment being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through completing content at the appropriate level. This could be done by doing outdoor activities, or by doing dungeons or raids in all difficulty levels to obtain lower-level gear or Mythicbosses of raids or dungeons with a heroic difficulty for endgame gear. The crests can later be exchanged at an upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to obtain the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, however it will 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 gear up to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters, instead of relying on seasonal loot.
It's also essential to use crests in a wise manner, as they are only used for one purpose. It is best to use your Whelpling-rank Crests on the top-quality equipment you can find and keep Drake and Wyrm Crests to be used for the next set of upgrades. This is especially true for items like rings and trinkets that fill multiple slots on the character which can only be eligible to avail the discount for all accounts when all slots are full of high-quality equipment.