World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to increase the stats of a particular item. Based on the type of upgrade, it can increase the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level, and also boost other stats.
Upgrading gear in The War Within requires a specified number of Flightstones and Crests Each item has an upgrade track. item upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its basic stats improve in value. This is the sum of all of the perks that are leveled up (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be expensive, depending on the person you hire and what you do. This is because of how many perks have to be replaced to allow the item to be upgraded.
It is also used as a gating requirement when waiting for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It also serves as a gating requirement while waiting to queue for dungeons and raids and scenarios, and to limit the amount of PvP gear that a player can wear (since PvP is capped at the lower levels). Players can see their average level of item on their character sheet.
Utilizing the level of an item can help players evaluate the power of equipment when they decide to buy or sell. It's an indicator of the item's damage and its quality. The level of the item can be used to evaluate items when looking at a vendor's inventory.
On PC, you can check the level of the item by pressing ALT or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will show the item's full description, including the ilvl. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are many theories about how the item level is calculated. One theory is that the level is a numerical value derived from a formula which calculates the amount an item's stats are worth. It takes into account the fact that various perks have different value and that sockets have gems that increase the value of the item overall. This process could result in a calculated amount for the item's level, which is usually quite close to the actual Blizzard item level.
This isn't the only factor that affects the level of an item. The degree of the area in which the item was dropped can alter its stats. For example it can add a level to the item's haste or crit score. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
Item stats are a big element in what determines the value of an item for players. The game uses a lot of them in different ways to encourage players to play with a variety of weapons, and also to stop one weapon from being "the most effective." The base stats on a weapon are boosted by the weapon's stat mods, which are themselves boosted by the player's level.
Item upgrades add to that by boosting certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. A white or grey item for instance, can only be upgraded one time and items that has rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times with higher prices.
Another way to change 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 can provide the item extra damage, add a special ability to the item (such as reviving dead or decreasing cooldowns) or make the item unique by putting an additional name to the item.
All affixes can be re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade menu and pressing the green button. item upgrading will cost the player a specific amount of gold as well as items which can be used to add to the upgrade gauge in the same way as the other rerolling options.
Players can upgrade an item with specific stats, or reroll the affixes. The possible stat ranges of an item are based on the level of the item, however all items are guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within that range, unless it is a unique item or an item that is a God roll from a raid boss.
Another thing that could be changed is the option to upgrade equipment without having to reroll attaches, or select which stats to increase. 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 gained or lost at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player increases the chance of finding items and the properties that are created by loot and the strength of these properties. It doesn't, however, directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives players the chance to upgrade their equipment in earlier waves, and is therefore more valuable in early game runs as opposed to later ones, because most players value more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing item discovery, Luck also increases the chance of success when upgrading items with the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading, which increases with each level of the item 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 have a default Luck value of 40. These items can then be enhanced by golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the material of the item) to give +40 Luck, or to increase the Luck of an item, up to 140.
Certain items, such as the Hollow-infused weapon can also be crafted to increase the damage dealt by any skill that is able to deal damage by 5%. These items are available in the shop or created by using the appropriate ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. However, there are some cash shop items that allow players to boost their chance of success or stop themselves from losing an item in the event that the upgrade fails.
The success rate of an upgrade is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of completing the upgrade successfully and it can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. There are limitations to how much the success rates can be improved, and the overall chance of an upgrade failing cannot exceed 100%..
The luck of an item can influence the success of an upgrade. Each item has a base success rate of 25% and every item with Luck increases the chance of success by five percent.
It is important to note that upgrade items are rendered above the items in the inventory therefore 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.