World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items can be used to improve the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade it can boost an item's Mark Level or Rarity and boost additional stats.
The process of upgrading 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 next one by a set amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its base stats improve in value. This value is the total of all its upgraded advantages (attack magic attack, attack defense). Upgrades can be expensive, depending on who you hire and what you decide to do. This is because of how many perks need to be replaced to allow the item to get upgraded.
It is also used as a gating requirement while waiting for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It also serves to limit the amount of PvP gear players are able to wear since PvP is not available at lower levels. item upgrades can view their average level of item on their character sheet.
The level of an item will allow players to compare the potency of gear when they decide to buy or sell. It's a good gauge of an item's worth and how much damage it is capable of dealing with. Comparing item upgrading from the inventory of a vendor can be done using the level of the item.
The level of the item can be seen by pressing the ALT key on a PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will display the item's full description, including the ilvl. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are several theories about how the level of an item is calculated. One theory says that the item level is determined by an equation that determines the worth of an item's stats really are. It considers that different benefits are valued differently and that gems in the sockets increase the value of the item. This can result in a calculated value for the item's ilvl, which is typically close to Blizzard's actual item level.
However, this is not the only factor which determines the ilvl of an item, because the size of the area the item dropped in can change the value of its stats, such as by adding an additional level to its haste rating or crit rating. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher value.
Item Stats
The item's stats can determine the fate of an item for players. The game uses a lot of them in various ways to encourage players to play with a variety of weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the best." The stat modifications of a weapon boost the base stats. These stat mods are then boosted by a player's level.
Item upgrades add to that by boosting certain stats on the item. The costs for upgrades are determined by the rarity of the item. For instance, a grey or white item will only be upgraded once, while an item with rare tiers can be upgraded many times with higher prices.
Another method of altering the stats on an item is to use affixes. They are stat boosters that can be added by the player to an item. The affixes could provide the item extra damage, or add a unique capability to the item (such as reviving the dead or decreasing the duration of cooldowns), or make the item unique by giving an exclusive name to the item.
At present, all affixes can be rerolled by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button using circles arrows. This will cost a specific amount of gold and other items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges similar to other rerolling methods.
Players can choose to upgrade an item to a specific stat or reroll the affixes. The range of stats determined by the item's level. However, all items will include at least one stat within that range unless they are a unique item, or the item is a God Roll from a raid boss.
This is another thing that could be altered by introducing an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to enhance. But, like base equipment, this would need to be done on a per-item basis and the interface for item comparison wouldn't show all possible stats either lost or gained at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the odds of item discoveries and the properties that are spawned from loot drops, and the intensity of the properties. However, it doesn't directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives the player a possibility to obtain better equipment earlier in the game, and is therefore more beneficial in the initial game run than in later ones, as most players prioritize more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over damage gains.
In addition to influencing the discovery of items, Luck also increases the probability of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade chance that increases with each level and can be further increased by using an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
The shields, armor and weapons come with a default Luck value of 40. These items can then be enhanced with golden ingots, spined leather, or oak boards (depending on the type of material used) to grant an additional +40 Luck or to boost the Luck of an item, up to 140.
Moreover, certain items, like the Hollow infused weapon, can be equipped to boost the damage of any damage-dealing skill by five percent. These items are available in the shops or made by using the appropriate ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. However, there are some cash shop items that allow players to increase their chances of success or even prevent them 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 that item and it can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The probability of success can only be increased by so high, and the probability that an upgrade will fail cannot be greater than 100%..
The performance of an can be affected by the Luck of that item. Every item has an average success rate of 25 percent, and every item with Luck increases the chance of success by five percent.
Note that upgrades to items are rendered above the inventory items which means that enchantment glints and other effects may be obstructed by the overlays. 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.