World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items can be used to increase the stats of an item. Depending on the type of upgrade, it can boost the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level, and also boost other stats.
The process of upgrading equipment in The War Within requires a set number of Flightstones and Crests Each item comes with an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the cost of the following one by a specific amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its base stats increase in value. The value is the sum of all of an item's leveled-up perks (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrading items can be expensive depending on the upgrader you choose and what kind of upgrade you decide to do. This is due to how many perks need to be replaced to allow the item to get upgraded.
Item level is a commonly used measure of power, and can be found on all item tooltips. It also serves to determine a gating condition when waiting to queue for dungeons and scenarios, and raids, as well as to limit the amount of PvP gear a player can wear (since PvP is capped at an lower level). Players can see their average level of item on their character sheet.
The level of an item can help players compare the potency of gear when they decide to buy or sell. It's an indicator of the damage and its quality. Comparing items in the inventory of a seller can be done by using the item level.
On your PC, you can see the level of the item by pressing ALT or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. The item will be displayed with its full description, including ilvl. It can also be located by hovering an item with the mouse cursor, and then typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are a few theories about how the calculation of an item's level is made. One theory is that the item level is a numerical value derived from a formula that calculates the value of an item's stats are worth. It considers that different advantages are valued differently and that gems in sockets increase the value of the item. This can result in an item's ilvl calculated, which is typically very close to Blizzard's real level of the item.
It's not the only thing that affects the ilvl 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 rating. Items that drop in higher-level instances will have a higher value.
Item Stats
The item's stats can make or break an item for players. The game uses a lot of them in various ways to encourage players to use multiple weapons, and also to stop one weapon from being "the most effective." The base stats on a weapon are enhanced by the weapon's stat mods which are then increased by the player's skill.
The upgrades to items add by increasing certain stats of the item. The rarity of an item determines its cost of upgrading. For example, a grey or white item will only be upgraded once, while an item with rare tiers will be upgraded several times at higher prices.
Affixes are a different method to alter the stats of an item. They are stat boosts that can be added by the player to an item. The affixes can provide the item additional damage, add a special capability to the item (such as reviving the dead or reducing the duration of cooldowns) or make the item unique by giving a special name to the item.
All affixes are currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade menu and pressing the green button. This will cost a certain amount in gold and items. These can be used as upgrade gauges as with other methods of rerolling.
In addition to the possibility of rerolling affixes, players may select which stats they want to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The possible stat ranges of an item are determined by the level of the item, however every item is guaranteed to have at least 1 stat within the specified range, unless it's an exclusive item or a God roll from a boss of a raid.
This is another thing that can be modified by adding the option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to increase. But, like base equipment, this would have to be performed on a per-item level, and the item compare interface would not display all the possible stats either lost or gained at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player boosts the probability of obtaining items, the properties that are spawned by loot and the intensity of these properties. It doesn't, however directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade item s. It gives players a chance to upgrade their equipment in earlier waves and is thus more valuable in the initial game run as opposed to later ones, because most players value higher weapon scaling and defenses over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing the discovery of items, Luck also increases the chances of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading, 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.
The shields, armor and weapons have a default Luck value of 40. These items can be improved with golden ingots, or spined leather (depending on the material they are made of) to increase the value of 40 luck or to boost the luck of the item to 140.
Moreover there are certain items, such as the Hollow infused weapon, can be equipped to increase the damage dealt by any damage-dealing skill by 5percent. These items are available in the shop or crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. Cash shop items can be used to boost the chance of success of an upgrade or to stop players from losing their items if it fails.
When you upgrade an item the success rate is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage indicates the probability of successfully upgrading the item. This can be increased with Additional Materials or Special materials. There are limits to the extent to which the success rates can be improved, and the overall chance of an upgrade failing cannot exceed 100%..
The luck of an item can also influence the success of an upgrade. Each item has an average success rate of 25%, and every item with Luck increases the chance of success by an additional five percent.
The item upgrade overlays are rendered above items in the inventory. This may cause obscurity to enchantment effects or 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.