World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to increase the stats of a particular item. Depending on the type of upgrade, it can increase an item's Rarity or Mark Level and boost additional stats.
Upgrades to gear in The War Within requires a set number of Flightstones and Crests, and each item has an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a specific amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's basic stats increases when it is upgraded. This value is the total of all the leveled up benefits (attack, magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be expensive, depending on who you hire and what you decide to do. This is due to the fact that many perks need to be replaced to allow the item to be upgraded.
It is also used to enforce gating requirements when queueing for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It is also used to limit how much PvP gear players can wear since PvP is not available at lower levels. The average item level can be found on the character sheet.
When deciding to purchase or sell gear, players can compare the levels of the item. It's an indicator of the item's condition and quality. Comparing items from a vendor's stock can be done using the item level.
The level of the item can be viewed by pressing the ALT key on your PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will show the full item description, including its ilvl. It is also accessible by hovering over an item using the mouse cursor, and then entering /itemlevel into chat.
There are several theories about how the level of an item is determined. One theory is that the item level is a number derived from a formula which calculates how much an item's stats are worth. It takes into consideration the fact that various perks have different value and sockets have gems that increase the overall value of the item. This can result in an item's ilvl which is calculated and is usually very close to Blizzards actual item level.
However, this isn't the only factor which affects an item's ilvl, as the level of the area the item dropped in can alter the value of its stats, for instance by adding a level to its haste or crit rating. This means that items that drop at higher levels will have more value than items dropped in lower-level instances.
Item Stats
Item stats are a big component of what determines the value of an item for players. The game uses a variety of them in different ways to encourage players to use multiple weapons, and to prevent one weapon from being "the most effective." The stats of a base weapon are enhanced by the weapon's stat modifications, which are themselves increased by the player's skill.
Upgrades to an item may increase the stats of an item. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. For instance, a grey or white item can only be upgraded once, while an item with the rare tiers will be upgraded several times, at higher costs.
Another way to change the stats on an item is through affixes. 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 are used to give items extra damage, special capabilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs) or to differentiate them by putting a name on them.
Currently, all affixes can be rerolled by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button with the arrows that circle. item upgrade will cost the player a certain amount of gold and other items which can be added to the upgrade gauge in the same manner as the other options for rerolling.
In addition to Rerolling affixes and rerolls, players can select which stats to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The possible stat ranges of an item are determined by the level of the item, but all items are guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within that range, unless it is an item that is unique or the result of a God roll from a raid boss.
Another thing that can be modified by introducing an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to enhance. Like base equipment, it will have to be done per item and the interface for item comparison will not show all possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player stacks up to increase the odds of item discoveries, the properties spawned on loot drops, and the intensity of the properties. It does not, however directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It gives the player an opportunity to get better equipment earlier in the game. This is more beneficial in the early game, because players tend to put the scaling of weapons and defenses over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing the discovery of items, Luck also increases the chances of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading, which increases with each level and can be further enhanced through the use of an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons come with the default Luck value of 40. These items can be improved by using golden ingots or spined leather (depending on the material they are made of) for a further +40 luck or to boost the Luck of an item up to 140.
Certain items, such as the weapon that is infused with hollow can also be outfitted to increase the damage of any skill that deals damage by 5%. These items can be purchased from the shop, or they can be constructed using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades are successful. However, there are cash shop items that allow players to boost their chance of success or stop them from losing an item in the event that the upgrade fails.
The rate of success of an upgrade is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the probability of successfully upgrading the item. This can be increased by using Additional Materials or Special materials. The probability of success can only be increased by so much, and the chance that an upgrade will fail cannot be greater than 100%..
The success of an item can be affected by the luck of the item. Each item has an initial success rate of 25% and each item with Luck increases the chance of success by 5percent.
Note that upgrades to items are rendered above the inventory items which means that enchantment glints and other effects can be masked by them. 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.