World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to increase the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade, it can increase the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level and boost additional stats.
Upgrades to gear in The War Within requires a set number of Flightstones and Crests, and each item comes with an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the cost of the following one by a set amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increases as it is upgraded. This value is the total of all of its upgraded advantages (attack, magic attack and defense). Upgrading items can be expensive, depending on the upgrader you choose and what kind of upgrade you decide to make. This is due to the number of perks that need to be changed in order to upgrade an item.
The level of an item is a popular measure of power, and can be seen on all tooltips of items. It is also used as a gating requirement when queueing for dungeons, raids and scenarios, and to limit the amount of PvP gear a player can wear (since PvP is capped at a lower level). The average level of an item can be found in the character sheet.
The level of an item can help players compare the potency of gear when deciding to purchase or sell. It's a measure of the damage and its quality. The level of an item can be used to compare items when looking at a vendor's inventory.
On your PC, you can check the level of the
item upgrader kit using ALT, or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the item's full description, including ilvl. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing in /itemlevel chat.
There are several theories about how the calculation of an
item level upgrade's level is carried out. One theory suggests that the item level is calculated by a formula that calculates how valuable the stats of an item really are. It takes into consideration the fact that different perks have different values and gems in sockets increase the overall value of the item. This can result in an item's ilvl which is calculated and is often very close to Blizzard's real item level.
However, this isn't the only factor which affects an item's ilvl, since the level of the area the item dropped in can change the value of its stats, for example by adding an additional level to its crit rating or haste rating. Items that drop in higher-level instances will have a higher value.
item upgrading Stats
The stats of an item are a major part of what makes or breaks an item for players. The game uses a variety of them in various ways to encourage players to use multiple weapons, and also to stop one weapon from being "the most effective." The stat mods on weapons boost base stats. These stat mods are then enhanced by the player's level.
Upgrades to an item may boost its stats. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. An item that is white or grey for instance, will only be upgraded once however, items with rare tiers can be upgraded several times at more expensive costs.
Affixes are another way to change an item's stats. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and they come in all sizes and shapes. The affixes can do things like give the item extra damage, or add a unique capability to the item (such as reviving the dead or cutting down cooldowns) or make the item unique by giving a special name to the item.
All affixes are re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade window and pressing the green button. This procedure will cost the player a certain amount of gold and other items that can be used to add to the
upgrade item gauge in the same way as the other options for rerolling.
Players can upgrade an
item upgrading to a specific stat or reroll the affixes. The possible stat ranges for an item are determined by the level of the item, but all items are guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within the range, unless it's an item that is unique or a God roll from a raid boss.
Another thing that can be modified by adding an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to enhance. However, as with the base equipment, this would have to be performed on a per-item basis and the interface for item comparison would not display all the possible stats gained or lost at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the likelihood of finding items, the properties spawned on loot drops and the strength of those properties. It does not, however, directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives players the chance to acquire better equipment earlier in the game and is therefore more valuable in the early game than in later ones, as most players prioritize more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over the raw damage gain.
Luck can also increase the chances of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade chance which increases with each item level and can be further enhanced by using an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons can be made or spawn using the Luck property, which has the default value of 40. These items can be enhanced with golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the material of the item) to grant a further +40 Luck or to boost the luck of an item, up to 140.
Furthermore, certain items, like the Hollow weapon that is infused with hollow can be used to increase the damage dealt by any damage-dealing skill by five percent. These items can be purchased in the shop, or they can be crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Item upgrades are a costly process and not all upgrades will succeed. However, there are cash shop items that allow players to boost their chances of success or even prevent themselves from losing an item in the event that the upgrade fails.
The rate of success of an upgrade can be seen in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the chance of successfully upgrading the item, and can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The percentage of success can only be increased by so much, and the likelihood that an upgrade will fail cannot be greater than 100%..
The performance of an upgrade is also affected by the luck of the item. Each item has a base success rate of 25% and each item with Luck increases the chance of success by 5%.
The upgrade overlays of the item are rendered above the items in the inventory. This may obscure enchantment effects and other effects. If you wish to disable the upgrade overlays, the config option decoration.renderUpgradeOverlays can be set to False in the
Item Upgrader CORE client config.