Why You Should Focus On Improving Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

The performance of many Path of Exile items can be enhanced by upgrading their performance. They can be a great source of damage or more AD or even more attaches.

Rare-grade equipment is often superior to upgraded Common or Magic gear because of their high requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a kind of upgrade that can be applied to weapons and armor items. They boost the performance of the item they are attached to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at bonfires. Alternately, they can be salvaged from items with upgrade components within them by with a professional or higher salvage kit.

The amount of damage that a piece of armor or weapon can absorb depends on the degree of upgrades. The damage absorption of an armor piece will increase as it is upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. However, it's important note that this will also increase its weight, causing it to be heavier than it was before.

There are several kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game, and they all have distinct effects. Certain upgrades grant armor an additional amount of health points while others make it more powerful and lighter. The name of the upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade the item can receive, as shown below.

A few upgrades also feature magic or a hybrid of technology and magic, which is indicated by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Furthermore, some upgrades require a fee to use, which are identified by an "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are either updated daily or never expire, depending on the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest option to upgrade your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive, however, it is available in the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high level armor pieces. These upgrades can give players a significant increases in stats and are worth the cost.

The player must be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to the maximum upgrade level can boost its defense. However, it can also affect its agility and its speed. For this reason, it is not recommended to upgrade armor pieces that are higher than +9 since the defensive boost gained is typically not worth the additional weight and power costs of the upgrades needed.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades give players to enhance certain aspects of their weapon. For instance an upgrade can enhance the damage caused by shotgun shells or the accuracy of a rifle that snipes. Some weapons also have special upgrades that improve their innate capabilities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, minimizes the risk of overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed for greater damage) are two examples.

Most weapon upgrades require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade.  item upgrades  are obtained through either finishing side quests, killing a certain number of monsters or bosses, or by contacting the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.

Upgrades to a weapon, equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade price of a certain number of Bars. The more bars needed to complete an upgrade, the higher the level. The cost of upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the upgrade materials.

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and sets has changed a bit. In the past you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain number of Bars to upgrade your equipment or weapon to an increased quality. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level, at which point the upgrades would reset.

It's still possible, but it is dependent heavily on RNG. You should consider buying equipment that has low levels of upgrade but with high base scores and stat distributions. These will be able to give you the best tier of perks and blessings.

To increase their level quicker, players usually be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. In addition, players should consider upgrading the weapons favored by their teammates to increase their power and effective. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to enhance its effectiveness when accompanied by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to boost the effectiveness of a skill or provide additional effects on weapons and armor. They can be created using a process called jewelry crafting, where you combine a gem and various reagents at a jewelry table. The higher the level of the gemstone is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents can be found around the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and sometimes by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.

The Jeweler can enhance the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Based on the level of the gem it will give different stat boosts when inserted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.

The Jeweler can craft all tiers of gems, except for the rare and legendary ones which you must be at certain levels to gain. Unlike other upgrade components, jewels can be swapped out with another jewel of the same type without damaging the original one. However it is only possible to replace one jewel in an item of equipment only once.

It is normal to use more gems for aesthetic reasons. The jewels can also enhance performance and make a harder surface than steel so that repeated friction caused by pivots does not cause damage to the movement.

In addition to the upgrades mentioned above, the player can also obtain glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs provide a small boost and can be traded, but they are not guaranteed to be available as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold, and also a Scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits and aegis are not swappable, and are only recoverable by using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them with Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are pieces of equipment that offer many tiny but valuable advantages to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the beginning areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, and by completing road interactions. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinket a player is able to unlock is the cloak, which grants a small but useful bonus to speed of movement and the ability to escape. The player can then collect necklaces, amulets, and rings, in a similar way as they did with weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and are able to be used on any equipment. Jewels cannot be upgraded or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.

These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active when the hero isn't in combat. This allows a hero to be more efficient when they are not active. It also helps compensate for the lack of a excellent team or talent tree slots which would normally be filled by the hero's best stats.

A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is particularly true if an item has multiple stats you wish to upgrade, as it's usually better to upgrade just one important stat than two sub-optimal ones.

Jungle players will often upgrade their yellow trinket to a red trinket at the start of the game. Mid and top players however will pick a green or a pink ward, based on the game's matchup. These choices will have a major impact on the hero's ability to control his map.

In addition to the items listed above, players will also find other trinkets that form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. These can be earned by completing certain milestones in the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a certain boss. They can be viewed by selecting the appropriate achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.