World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to an item are a way to boost the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade, it may increase an item's Rarity or Mark Level, and also boost other stats.
Upgrades to equipment in The War Within requires a set number of Flightstones and Crests, and each item comes with an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a specified amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increases as it is upgraded. This value is the sum of all of an item's leveled-up perks (attack magic attack and defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high, depending on the upgrader you choose and the kind of upgrade you decide to perform. This is due to the number of perks that need to be altered to upgrade an item.
It can also be used to enforce gating requirements when queueing for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It can also be used to limit how much PvP gear players are able to wear since PvP is not available at a lower level. The average level of an item can be found on the character sheet.
When deciding to purchase or sell equipment players can evaluate the item level. It's an indicator of the damage and its quality. Comparing items from a vendor's stock can be done by using the level of the item.
The level of the item can be seen by pressing the ALT key on your 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 find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are a variety of theories on the method by which the level of an item is calculated. One theory is that the level is a number that comes from a formula that determines the value of an item's stats are worth. 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 an item's ilvl calculated, which is typically very close to Blizzard's actual item level.
This isn't the only factor that influences the value of an item. The location of where the item dropped can also change its stats. For example it can add a level to the item's haste or crit rating. Items dropped in higher-level instances will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The stats of an item can make or break an item for players. The game makes use of a lot of them in different ways to encourage players to use multiple weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the best." The base stats on a weapon are boosted by the weapon's stat modification that are in turn boosted by the player's level.
The upgrades to items add by increasing certain stats of the item. The cost of upgrades is determined by the rarity of the item. A white or grey item for instance, can only be upgraded one time however, items with rare tiers may be upgraded multiple times at higher costs.
Another method of altering the stats of an item is through affixes. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. The affixes can be used to give the item additional damage, or add a unique capability to the item (such as reviving dead or cutting down the duration of cooldowns) or make the item unique by adding a special name to the item.
All affixes can be being re-rolled right now by selecting them in the upgrade window and pressing the green button. This procedure will cost the player a specific amount of gold as well as items, which can be added to the upgrade gauge in the same manner as other rerolling options.
In addition to rerolling affixes, players can select which of the available stats to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The possible stat ranges for an item are determined by the level of the item, but every item is guaranteed to have at least 1 stat within the range, unless it is an exclusive item or an item that is a God roll from a raid boss.
This is another aspect that could be changed by adding the option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to enhance. However, as with the base equipment, this would need to be performed on a per-item basis and the interface for item comparison would not display all the possible stats gained or lost at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the likelihood of finding items as well as the properties that appear on loot drops, and the intensity of these properties. However, it doesn't directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade item s. It provides players with an opportunity to get better equipment earlier in the game. This is particularly advantageous for early game runs, because players tend to put the scaling of weapons and defenses over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing item discovery, Luck also increases the chance of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This is not to confuse with the Blacksmith’s overall upgrade chances that increase with each item level. They can also be increased with the use of anti-materials, such as the Scroll of Strength and a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields, and weapons have a default Luck value of 40. These items can 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 existing Luck of the item up to 140.
Furthermore there are certain items, like the Hollow weapon, which is infused with Hollow, can be equipped to increase the damage of any damage-dealing skill by 5%. These items are available in the shops or made using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items can be a costly process and not every upgrade will be successful. However, there are some cash shop items that allow players to boost their chance of success or stop them from losing an item if the upgrade is unsuccessful.
When you upgrade an item the success rate is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of successfully upgrading that item, 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 chance of an upgrade failing can't exceed 100%..
The success of an upgrade is also affected by the Luck of that item. Every item has an overall success rate of 25 percent and every item with Luck increases the chance of success by 5%.
The item upgrade overlays 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.