World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to improve the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade, it can boost the rarity of an item or mark Level and boost additional stats.
Each item has a track to upgrade it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its basic stats are increased in value. This is the sum of all its upgraded advantages (attack, magic attack and defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high, depending on the upgrader and what kind of upgrade you decide to perform. This is due to how many perks need to be replaced to allow the item to be upgraded.
The level of an item is a widely used measurement of power and can be seen on all item tooltips. It also serves to limit the amount of PvP gear players are able to wear as PvP is restricted at lower levels. Players can see their average level of item on their character sheet.
When deciding whether to purchase or sell equipment players can look at the levels of the item. It's a good indicator of an item's quality and the amount of damage it is capable of dealing with. item upgrading can also be used to evaluate items when looking at the inventory of a vendor.
The item level can be viewed by pressing the ALT key on PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will display the complete description of the item, including its value. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing in /itemlevel chat.
There are various theories on how the calculation of the item's level is made. One theory is that the level is a numerical value derived from a formula which calculates the value of an item's stats are worth. It considers that different advantages are valued differently and that gems found in sockets increase the item's value. This can result in a calculated amount for the item's level, which is usually close to the actual Blizzard level of the item.
This is not the only thing that affects the level of an item. The degree of the area in which the item dropped can also change its stats. For example it can increase the item's haste, or crit rating. This means that items that drop at higher levels will have more the ilvl than items from lower level instances.
Item Stats
Item stats can be the difference between a good or bad item for players. item upgrading uses them in a variety of ways to encourage players to not restrict themselves to a particular weapon and to motivate players to explore other weapons. The base stats of a weapon are boosted by the weapon's stat mods that are in turn increased by the player's skill.
Upgrades to an item can increase the stats of an item. The rarity of an item determines its cost of upgrading. For instance, a grey or white item will only be upgraded once, whereas items with rare tiers will be upgraded several times at higher prices.
Another way to change the stats of an item is to use affixes. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and are available in all shapes and sizes. The affixes are used to give items additional damage, special capabilities (such as reviving dead or reducing cooling downs) or to distinguish them by putting a name on them.
All affixes can be currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade window and pressing the green button. This will cost a certain amount in gold and items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges just like the other methods of rerolling.
Players can upgrade an item by specific stats or reroll the affixes. The stat ranges are determined by the item's level. However every item will include at least one stat within that range unless they are an item that is unique or an item that has a God Roll from a boss in a raid.
Another thing that could be changed is the possibility of upgrading equipment without having to reroll the affixes, or choose which stats to increase. But as with base equipment, this would need to be carried out on a per-item basis, and the interface for comparing items wouldn't show all possible stats gained or lost at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player can increase the chance of finding items and the properties that are generated by loot, and the strength of these properties. However, it does not directly impact damage or the ability to upgrade items. It merely gives players a chance to upgrade their gear in earlier waves and is therefore more beneficial in the early game than later ones since most players prefer more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over damage gains.
Luck can also increase the likelihood of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade probability, 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 have the default Luck value of 40. These items can be augmented with golden ingots or spined leather (depending on their material type) to increase the value of 40 luck, or to increase the luck of the item to 140.
Additionally, certain items, like the Hollow weapon that is infused with hollow can be outfitted to increase the damage of any damage-dealing skill by 5percent. These items can be purchased at the store, or they can be crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items can be a costly process and not all upgrades will be successful. Cash shop items can be used to boost the chance of success of an upgrade or to prevent players from losing their item if it does not work.
The rate of success of an upgrade can be seen in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of completing the upgrade successfully, and can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The chance of success can only be increased so much, and the chance that an upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%.
The Luck of an item can also influence the success of an upgrade. All items have an average success rate of 25 percent, and every item with Luck increases this chance by 5%.
It is important to note that upgrade items are rendered above the items in the inventory, so enchantment glint and other effects may be obstructed 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.