World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
The upgrade of an item can be used to improve the stats of an item. Depending on the upgrade type, it may raise an item's Mark level or Rarity and boost additional stats.
Upgrading gear in The War Within requires a set number of Flightstones and Crests and each item has an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the cost of the following one by a set amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its basic stats are increased in value. This is the sum of all its leveled up advantages (attack, magic attack and defense). Upgrading items can be expensive, dependent on the upgrader and the type of upgrade you choose to perform. This is due to the variety of perks that have to be changed in order to upgrade an item.
It is also used as a gating requirement while waiting for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It is also used as a gating requirement when queueing for dungeons, scenarios and raids, and to limit the amount of PvP gear that a player can wear (since PvP is limited to the lower levels). Players can view their average item level in their character sheet.
When deciding to purchase or sell equipment players can look at the levels of the item. It's an excellent indicator of the quality of an item and how much damage it is capable of causing. The item level can also be used to compare items when evaluating the inventory of a seller.
The level of the item can be checked by pressing the ALT key on a PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. The item will be displayed with its full description, including the ilvl. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are a variety of theories on how the item level is determined. One theory is that the level is a numerical value derived from a formula which calculates how much an item's stats are worth. It takes into consideration that different benefits are valued differently and that gems found in sockets increase the value of the item. This can lead to an item's ilvl which is calculated and is typically very close to Blizzards actual item level.
However, this is not the only factor which affects an item's ilvl, as the size of the area the item is dropped into can change the value of its stats, such as by adding an amount to its crit rating or haste rating. This means that items dropped at higher levels will have higher value than items dropped in lower-level instances.
Item Stats
The stats of an item are a major element in what determines the value of an item for players. The game makes use of a lot of them in various ways to encourage players to play with multiple weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the most effective." The stat mods on weapons boost base stats. These stat mods are then increased by a player's skill.
Upgrades to an item can increase its stats. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. For instance, a gray or white item can only be upgraded once, whereas an item with rare tiers can be upgraded many times with higher prices.
Affixes are another way to alter the stats of an item. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. The affixes can be used to give items extra damage, special abilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs) or to differentiate them by naming them.
Currently, all affixes can be rerolled by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button, which is accompanied by circling arrows. This will cost a specific amount of gold and other items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges similar to other methods of rerolling.
In addition to the possibility of rerolling affixes, players may select which stats they want to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The possible ranges of stats for an item are determined by the level of the item, however all items are guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within the specified range, unless it's an exclusive item or the result of a God roll from a boss of a raid.
Another thing that could be changed is the possibility to upgrade equipment without having to roll the affixes, or choose which stats to increase. However, as with the base equipment, this would need to be performed on a per-item basis and the interface for comparing items would not display all the possible stats either lost or gained at the same time.
item upgrader for a player adds up to increase the likelihood of item discoveries and the properties that are spawned from loot drops and the strength of these properties. It doesn't, however directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It merely gives players a possibility to obtain better equipment earlier in the game and is thus more beneficial in the initial game run than in later ones, because most players value more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over 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 upgrade chance, which increases with each item level and can be further increased through the use of an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons come with a default Luck value of 40. These items can then be upgraded with golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the material of the item) to give +40 Luck or to boost the luck of the item up to 140.
Certain items, such as the weapon that is infused with hollow can also be crafted to increase the damage of any skill that is able to deal damage by 5%. These items can be found in the shop or crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items can be expensive and not all upgrades will succeed. Cash shop items can be used to boost the success rate of an upgrade, or to protect players from losing their item if it is not successful.
When you upgrade an item, the rate of success is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the likelihood of successful upgrading an item. This can be increased by using Additional Materials or Special materials. There are limitations on the extent to which success rates can be increased, and the overall chance of an upgrade failing can't exceed 100%..
The luck of an item can also affect the success of an upgrade. Every item has a base success rate of 25% and each item with Luck increases that chance by 5%.
The upgrade overlays of the item are rendered above the items in the inventory. This could block enchantment effects as well as 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.