Watch Out: How Item Upgrading Is Gaining Ground, And What We Can Do About It
World of Warcraft Upgrades and Item Upgrading
Upgrades can boost the value of weapons, armors and rings. Upgrades also increase bonuses such as crit chance and PvE Damage.
For instance a weapon that has the upgrade template that is ending in % will suffer an attack damage of 3% each time it upgrades (relative to its previous value).
The cost of upgrading an item increases as it reaches the item's current level. The cost increases with the item's level.
Components
Upgrade components are items that can be slotted into weapons, armor, and trinkets in order to provide a stat bonus or extra impact while they're being used. They can be obtained through making crafts, buying from vendors or trading with other players or looting. Certain upgrades have unique cosmetic effects.
Upgrade components can be inserted into equipment with a slot for them; the item must be at the very least upgraded to blue level for a component to be applied. Unlike other mods, upgrade components can only be used once and cannot be applied repeatedly or replaced by new upgrades. Infusions and Enrichments are type of upgrade component that is used to upgrade non-amulet legendary and ascending equipment, as as some non-ascended items. Enrichments and Infusions can be obtained by salvaging equipment from the ascended state or by completing a mission within the Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall campaigns.
An upgrade may be prefixed or a suffix changing the name of the equipment with the upgrade (for examplethe "Canthan Armor Insignia' becomes Canthan Armor of Minor Vigor). Some upgrades increase the Mark Level or Rarity of an item, which lets players create stronger versions with the smallest amount of Upgrade crystals than they require to achieve the same level using normal methods.
A 'boost upgrade' can modify the attack or defense properties of a weapon, or armor. These upgrades are available to be made from the Portative Forging Station once the player has completed the cutscene, and defeats the Crazed Mechanical. These upgrades can be purchased by purchasing them in the cash shop or by obtaining them from enemies when upgrading other gear.
Each upgrade increases the probability that a higher-tier version of an item will be dropped during the next reset. This gives players an incentive to upgrade their equipment even when they're not sure what will be improved after the reset.
The process of upgrading an item could be costly and it is likely that the item will be obsolete, or even break, when the upgrade fails. Upgrade Crystals and assist powder are also destroyed when the upgrade fails. This is mitigated by the availability of cash shop items that can increase or even eliminate the chance of failure, as well as some upgrades that provide an additional benefit when they are inserted into an item.
Glyphs
Glyphs are upgrade components that can be placed in special sockets on the Paragon Board. Glyphs can boost the performance of nodes within a radius, including any existing attaches. Glyphs can be upgraded in a variety of ways. We suggest upgrading them as soon as possible to level 15.
You'll often see in the endgame that putting Glyphs is a great way to upgrade your gear. They are the only upgrade component that can be upgraded directly to level 15 and provide significant boosts to your power and radius on the Paragon Board, enabling you to get higher nodes much faster.
Glyphs, the sole upgrade component which can be removed without restriction and then replaced again are the most popular. Only legendary equipment can be salvaged and replaced with a Black Lion Salvage Kit.
Each Glyph has a specific range of values that it can improve a stat by. The value is shown when you choose the Glyph in your inventory. You can replace it with another Glyph that is the same or higher rank to increase the value of the Glyph.
You can find Glyphs in the Black Lion Trading Post, as part of the Gem Store purchase or bundle with certain tools for gathering unlimited use and also through Faction Crypt raids. Each Faction Crypt can drop one of these Glyphs. There are also some rare glyphs that you can find in any of the Faction Crypts.
When you have the desired Glyphs then you have to put them on your gear. Each Glyph unlocks a bonus that will boost the stats of a specific set of nodes within a radius around the Glyph. It can be +40 for one of your primary stats or +25 for two of your secondary stats depending on the Glyph.
Glyphs will boost all nodes that are connected to them, therefore it is best to put Glyphs in key spots on the Graph. This will increase the impact. Druids, for example should put their Glyphs close to their primary damage nodes. They might also want to consider placing them near their critical damage nodes.
Leveling
The system of upgrading items lets players increase the stats of certain items by placing upgraded components inside them. This is commonly known as "upping". Every upgradeable item is assigned an amount that determines the final stats. Upgraded items can be upgraded up to a maximum of 385. Each item level requires a different amount of components to be reached and the cost of upgrading increase as the item is upgraded.
Certain upgrades require a specific ingredient to activate. This ingredient is obtained by completing Upgrade Recipes. These recipes can be found in the upgrade tab of a crafting table, or obtained from NPCs. Each Upgrade Recipe completed yields a certain number of Technology points. These points can be used for leveling up an item. When enough points have been earned you will be eligible to claim the upgrade and get its extra bonuses.
When an individual player upgrade an item the original item will be replaced with a new item. This means that the same piece of armor will be transformed into a weapon or shield when upgraded. The new item also has its own set bonus. This could be a disadvantage in that the item could be more expensive even if you don't need it.
The upgrades to items can be rerolled, if the player has enough tokens in order to do this. This causes the item to be exchanged for a new one, which will come with the level 1 base, and a different set of bonus bonuses. This can be beneficial but it shouldn't be done often as it could waste resources.
Certain upgrades can increase their value and allow players to personalize their gear. Dolphin's Gift is a good example, as it gives a buff if the player continuously enters or exits the water. It can be upgraded multiple times, each time raising the maximum roll by 10 points. This item can be very valuable in PvP as a perfectly rolled version of it could be worth between 20 and 50 times its value without being upgraded.
Requirements
The upgrader for items lets players increase the level of their equipment (armor weapons, armor trinkets, and weapons) above ilvl 385 by providing the appropriate currency to the NPC. Upgrades to armor set pieces also boost the defense of the base set and upgrades to weapon items increase their base damage as well as their strength and dexterity.
Each item can be upgraded up to five times, except for hero gear which can be upgraded with eight upgrades. Each time you upgrade an object, it is at risk of failing. The rate of failure increases as you go over the maximum number. Failures will cause the item to revert to its initial state, requiring the player to spend more materials than they would had they stopped upgrading at the maximum amount of upgrades.
If an item is not upgraded, the experience bar in its growth bar will be reset to zero. In addition the item will lose any bonus it earned such as crit chance and attack damage, as well as all other effects that are associated with that effect (for instance, an increase in heal over time or speed of reload). The player is able to use their weapon or armor after the failure.
If an item is upgraded, the upgrades are applied in order from lowest to highest. This means that, if a weapon gains an increase in crit chance the increase is applied before any increase in attack damage. A new attribute called Slots is now added to the item definition and the value is recomputed each time an upgrade is applied.
The amount of resources needed to upgrade an item are determined by its rarity rating and upgrade slot count. The cost of upgrading non-premium items is the same as the base value of the upgrade--for instance, a typical equipment item might have 5 upgrades with a cost of 25600 Technology Points 4x Quality Improvement Chance. Hero quality items have a lower cost per upgrade.
Premium items have different requirements for upgrading than standard gear--for instance, they might require fewer sowels, but more minerals and erons. Whatever the case, players must visit the NPC [ArmorBoboko in Central Flarine. item upgrade in Central Flarine with each piece of equipment they want to upgrade. Each upgrade of equipment requires different amounts of the ingredients needed to upgrade, in addition to the cost mentioned above.