Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a frequent and crucial method to enhance the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can be a great source of extra damage and more AD or even more attaches.
In most cases, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade equipment due to their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They increase the effectiveness of the item they are connected to. Armor upgrades are available in the world of games and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at bonfires. Alternatively, they can also be salvaged from items with upgrade components within them by using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.
The amount of damage that an armored item or weapon can absorb depends on the extent of its upgrades. The damage absorption of an item of armor will increase when it's upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. It is important to note that this will increase the weight of the armor, therefore it must be heavier.
There are a variety of armor upgrades that are available in the game. Each has a different impact. Certain upgrades give armor an extra number of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an item will receive is indicated by the name of the upgrade as illustrated in the table below.
Some of the upgrades are also magic or a hybrid of technology and magic which is identified by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Additionally, some upgrades require a fee to use, and are indicated by a "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are either constantly updated or never expire based on the upgrade.
The cheapest way to upgrade armor is to use Iron Ore, which can be obtained by exploring the environment and looting chests of minor loot. Titanium is more expensive, however it is obtainable through smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high level armor pieces. These upgrades can give significant improvements in stats and are a worthwhile cost, especially for single-handed weapons.
The player should be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to its maximum upgrade level will boost its defense. However, it can also reduce its agility and its speed. This is why it is typically not recommended to upgrade armor pieces beyond +9, because the increase in defense is usually not worth the weight and power costs of the improvements required.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to improve the effectiveness of certain aspects of an weapon. For example an upgrade could increase the damage dealt by shotgun shells or the accuracy of the rifle that snipes. Certain firearms have upgrades that enhance their inherent characteristics. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes weapon overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).
The majority of upgrades for weapons require the use of a whetblade, or one of the three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These can be obtained by doing side quests, or killing a certain amount of monsters or bosses or by contacting the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.
To upgrade an equipment set, weapon piece, or Whetblade you need to visit the NPC [Armor] Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee that is a certain amount of bars. The higher the upgrade level, the more bars required to complete it. The cost of upgrading will be lower if have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the ways to upgrade your equipment and weapon sets changed a little. In the past, you could seek out an Upgrade Bench and pay for a specific number of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased rarity. You could continue to do this until you reached the max upgrade level of the weapon or equipment, after which the upgrades would be reset.
This is still possible, but it relies heavily on RNG. You should consider buying equipment with low levels of upgrade but with high base scores and stat distributions. These items will have a greater likelihood of granting you highest tier advantages and benefits.
Most players will want to make the most of upgrades to weapons they are most likely to use to allow them to progress quicker. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates utilize to increase their power. For item upgrading , Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to enhance its effectiveness when paired with experts in biotics like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels are placed in the armor's sockets and weapons, enhancing a stat and providing secondary effects. They can be created through the process of jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gem and a number of specific ingredients at a table for jewelry. The higher the level of the jewel, the better its secondary effect. These reagents can be gotten from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses around the world, or through salvaging Legendary Gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The quality of a jewel can be improved by the Jeweler, in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts will vary depending on the tier the jewel is at when it is inserted into weapons, jewelry, or other gear.
The Jeweler can create all kinds of gems, apart from the rare and legendary ones, which you must be at an appropriate level to obtain. Jewels can be substituted with another one without damaging the original. However, you can only replace one jewel in an item of equipment only once.
Using more jewels in a move will make it more smooth, and is often performed to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. In addition to enhancing performance, the jewels create a surface that is harder than steel, so the repeated friction from pivots doesn't cause damage as easily.
A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the look of your weapons and shields. These glyphs give a slight boost and can be swapped, but they are not guaranteed to show up as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold, and also Scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be taken out, which returns them to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits or aegis cannot be swapped, and can only be recovered through an upgrade extractor, or salvaging with a Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage.
Trinkets
Trinkets can provide your hero with a variety of small, but useful, benefits. They can be obtained in the beginning areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, and by doing road interactions. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket a player will unlock is the cloak. It gives a small but beneficial boost in speed of movement and the ability to evade. The player can then collect necklaces, rings, and amulets in a similar manner to how they acquired weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that can accommodate either a universal or jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be put into any kind of equipment however, jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded and is only compatible with certain types of trinkets.
These trinkets provide additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't fighting. This allows the hero to be more effective while inactive, and can also help to compensate for the absence of a solid team or the absence of any slots in the talent tree that would normally be filled with the hero's ideal stats.
A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is especially true if an item has multiple stats that you wish to upgrade, as it's often more beneficial to upgrade one important stat than two sub-optimal ones.
Jungle players often upgrade their yellow trinket to a red one prior to the beginning of the game. Mid and top players however they will select either a pink or green ward, depending on the matchup. These choices will have an impact on the hero's ability to manage the map.
In addition to the items mentioned above, players will find other trinkets that form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. These can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance finishing a chapter's main quest or destroying a boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the relevant achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.