How To Save Money On Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a an increase in specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of the item upgrading by +3. Each upgrade also boosts an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear generally sees higher trade value as long as it meets low requirements (like the FB shield of the sorc) or very high stat variation (like the eth titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the need to roll for a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied to any kind of armor or weapons. However, the item used to upgrade will be consumed for the duration of time and cannot be used again. Upgrades can also be applied to enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities, and can be visited anytime to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every couple of weeks.
Upgrades can cost more based on the level of the item upgrader mod, however, they are always cheaper than buying new gear. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are functional items which can be used to upgrade 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 is able to be used on any weapon, tool or armor. The button will display the item's next upgrade level if there are enough materials.
Upgrade costs differ based on the slot of the Best item upgrader and the current item level. For example weapons are more expensive than gloves, bracers or bracers. Each step costs 15 Flightstones plus a certain number of crests. Certain upgrades provide discounts on Flightstones. Once an item is upgraded to a certain amount it is able to be downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.
A lot of locations offer upgraders for items, including the main Island and a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade discount and a chance to acquire a new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases when more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete certain achievements or quests.
Contrary to Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II is no upgrader for items available in the beginning of Icewind Dale. Instead, the NPCs that are available to facilitate upgrades are acquired via a variety of means which is both an improvement and a drawback.
In Season 3, the upgrade system has been altered a bit, with numerous new features added. After an upgrade has been completed to a specific level for an armor slot upgrading other items to the same level will cost less. This applies even if the items come from an entirely different set of equipment.
The amount of Valorstones required for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is account-wide. Similarly, the amount of Harbinger Crests required to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players have reached certain milestones in their achievements.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW players have a variety of options. They can make use of Flightstones that are a general upgrade currency available to everyone players, or crests, which are more specialized and consumed during upgrades at specific levels of the item upgrader Kit. Crests are a crucial element of the Dragonflight Gear Progression System that was introduced in version 10.1. They come in four ranks.
The first thing to be aware of is that crests can only be spent on equipment that is of a particular rank, and that each rank has different requirements for its upgrade path. The simplest and most straightforward upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complicated requires as many as 20 crests based on the kind of gear that is being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through working through content that is of the appropriate level, which involves walking around and performing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, dungeons or raids of all difficulties for higher-tier items, or Mythic+ dungeons or heroic raid bosses for endgame gear. These crests can then be exchanged at an item upgrader NPC like Cuzolth in Dornogal, or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade paths and steps.
Utilizing these new currencies isn't too difficult however, the system introduces some modifications to the upgrade process. Once a piece of gear attains the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer or Adventurer), it will no longer require Flightstones. This change lets players upgrade their equipment to the highest possible ilvl for all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another important change is that crests have one usage therefore it's essential to make use of them in a responsible manner. It is recommended to use your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear you can locate, and save Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is particularly relevant for rings and trinkets that take up multiple slots on the character, which will only be able to avail the account-wide discount if all of the slots are full of high-quality gear.