World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items can be used to improve the stats of an item. Depending on the type of upgrade you choose, it can increase the rarity of an item or mark Level, and also boost other stats.
Upgrading equipment in The War Within requires a certain number of Flightstones and Crests and each item comes with an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's base stats increases as it is upgraded. This is the sum of all of its upgraded benefits (attack magic attack, attack defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high depending on the upgrader and the kind of upgrade you decide to make. This is due to the variety of perks that must be modified to upgrade an item.
Item level is a widely used measurement of power and can be seen on all tooltips of items. item upgrades serves to limit how much PvP gear players are able to wear since PvP is not available at lower levels. The average item level can be found on the character sheet.
Utilizing the level of an item will allow players to compare the power of equipment when choosing to buy or sell. It's a measure of the damage and quality. Comparing items from the inventory of a seller is possible using the level of the item.
On PC, you are able to view the item level by pressing ALT or using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the full item description, including its value. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing in /itemlevel chat.
There are several theories about how the level of an item is determined. One theory suggests that the item level is calculated by an equation that determines how valuable an item's stats actually are. It takes into consideration the fact that different perks have different values and gems in sockets increase the overall value of the item. This can result in a calculated value for the item's ilvl which is typically close to Blizzard's actual level of the item.
It's not the only factor that affects the level of an item. The location of where the item was dropped may change its stats. For example it can add a level to the item's haste or crit score. Items dropped in higher-level instances will have higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The item's stats can make or break an item for players. The game uses a variety of them in a variety of ways to encourage players to use multiple weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the best." The stats of a base weapon are boosted by the weapon's stat modifications, which are themselves increased by the player's skill.
The upgrades to an item can boost its stats. The rarity of an item determines the cost of upgrading. A grey or white item for instance, will only be upgraded one time, while an item with rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times at more expensive costs.
Another method to alter the stats of an item is through affixes. They are stat boosts that can be added by the player to an item. Affixes are used to provide items with extra damage, special capabilities (such as revitalizing dead or reducing cooling downs) or to make them unique by putting a name on them.
All affixes are re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade menu and pressing the green button. This process will cost the player a specific amount of gold and other items that can be used to add to the upgrade gauge in the same manner as other rerolling options.
In addition to Rerolling affixes and rerolls, players can also choose which of the available stats they want to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The range of stats is determined by the item's level. However every item will have at least one stat within the range, unless they are an item that is unique or an item that has a God Roll from a boss in a raid.
This is another thing that could be altered by introducing an option to upgrade the equipment without having to reroll the affixes, or selecting which stats to enhance. But as with base equipment, this would need to be done on a per-item basis, and the item compare interface would not display all the possible stats that were gained or lost at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player boosts the chance of finding items, the properties that are created by loot and the intensity of these properties. It doesn't, however, directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It provides players with an opportunity to get better gear earlier in the game. This is particularly advantageous in early game runs because players tend to put the scaling of weapons and defenses over raw damage gains.
Luck can also boost the chances of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade chance that increases with each level of the item and can be further enhanced through the use of an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Weapons, shields, and armor can be created or spawned with the Luck property, with an initial 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 a further +40 Luck, or to increase the Luck of the item up to 140.
Certain items, such as the weapon with Hollow-infused components, can also be equipped to increase the damage dealt by any skill that causes damage by 5%. These items can be bought in the shop or crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items are expensive and not all upgrades will succeed. However, there are cash shop items which allow players to increase their success rate or prevent themselves from losing an item in the event that the upgrade is unsuccessful.
The success rate of an upgrade is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the likelihood of successful upgrading an item. This can be increased with Additional Materials or Special materials. There are limitations to how much success rates can be increased and the probability of a failed upgrade cannot be greater than 100%..
The success of an upgrade is also affected by the Luck of that item. All items have an overall success rate of 25%, and each item with Luck increases this chance by 5%.
The item upgrade overlays are rendered above items in the inventory. This can 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.