WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades give you an increase in specific statistics. Each upgrade increases the item level by +3. Each upgrade also increases an unspecified substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless it has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a large variance in stats (like Eth Titan weapons). Upgrades aren't as useful for those with lower requirements due to the need to roll a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The item upgrader lets players upgrade their gear by giving the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any kind of armor or weapons. The item used to upgrade the item will be consumed and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be used to create enchantments.
The upgrader is located in all major cities, and is accessible anytime to upgrade your gear. To keep your gear current it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every couple of weeks.
Upgrades will cost more, based on the level of the item, however they'll always be cheaper than purchasing new equipment. Upgrades such as upgrading a Benthic chest up to the level of ilvl385 will cost you 20 recycle points. Buying a similar item will cost you 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are useful items that are used to upgrade weapons tools, armor, and other items. 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 applied to any tool, weapon, or armor. button, which will display an item's preview when it is upgraded if the player has sufficient materials.
The cost of upgrading is based on the item slot and current item level and the weapon's price is higher than gloves or bracers for instance. Each upgrade costs 15 Flightstones and a number of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to lower the cost of the Flightstones or crests used. Once an item is upgraded to a certain degree, it can be downgraded and sold to the upgrader for a lower price.
Resource for items can be found at many locations, including the main island and some outposts. The NPCs offer both an upgrade discount and the chance to obtain a new upgrade recipe. The upgrade discount increases with the number of items that are being upgraded. It can also be boosted by having players complete specific achievements or quests.
Icewind Dale does not have an item upgrader at start unlike Cromwell from Baldur's gate II. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only accessible via a variety of ways. This is both a benefit as well as a drawback.
In Season 3 the upgrade system was altered a bit, with some new features added. Once a player obtains an upgrade to a certain item level for a particular armor slot, upgrading additional items to that level will cost less even if they belong to a different gear set.
The amount of Valorstones required for upgrades is decreased, and the discount is available across all accounts. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed to upgrade is also reduced and is not available until players achieve certain achievement milestones.
Crests
Players have a variety of options when it comes to upgrading their gear in WoW. They can choose to use Flightstones that are a general upgrade currency that is available to everyone players, or crests that are more specific and used to upgrade specific levels of the item. Crests are the main component of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1 and are available in 4 ranks.
The first thing to remember is that Crests are only available to gear of a certain rank. Each rank has distinct upgrade paths. The simplest and simplest upgrade path costs 15 crests, while the most complex may require as many as 20 crests based on the type of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests by working through content that is of the appropriate level, which means walking around and doing outdoor activities to get lower-tier gear, dungeons or raids of any difficulty 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, such as Cuzolth in Dornogal or Vaskarn in Valdrakken to get the appropriate upgrade routes and steps.
The new currency system isn't too difficult to use, however it will bring some changes to the upgrade process. For instance, once a piece of equipment reaches the highest level of upgrade for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't require Flightstones to be upgraded. This change lets players upgrade their equipment to the highest possible ilvl on all their characters instead of relying on seasonal loot.
Another notable modification is that crests have one use therefore it's essential to use them wisely. For instance it's best to make use of all your Whelpling-rank crests on the top gear you have available and keep Drake and Wyrm crests to use for the next set of upgrades you plan on making. This is particularly applicable to items like trinkets and rings that take up several slots. The account-wide discount is only applicable when all slots on the character are filled with high-quality gear.