World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items can be used to boost the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade, it may increase an item's Mark Level or Rarity, as well as boost other stats.
Upgrading gear 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 next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
When an item is upgraded, its basic stats improve in value. This value is the sum of an item's upgraded perks (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades to items can be costly, depending on the upgrader you choose and what type of upgrade you choose to do. This is due to the number of perks that must be changed in order to upgrade an item.
Item level is a commonly used measure of power, and is visible on all tooltips of items. It also serves as a gating requirement while queueing for dungeons, scenarios and raids, and to limit the amount of PvP gear that a player can wear (since PvP is capped at a lower level). The average level of an item is listed on the character sheet.
Using the item level can help players compare the potency of gear when choosing to buy or sell. It's a measure of the damage and its quality. The level of an item can be used to compare items when evaluating the inventory of a seller.
The level of the item can be checked by pressing the ALT key on a PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will display the item's full description, including ilvl. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing in /itemlevel chat.
There are several theories about how the item level is calculated. One theory says that the level of an item is calculated using an equation that determines the value of an item's stats really are. It takes into consideration that different advantages are valued differently and that gems found in sockets boost the value of the item. This can result in a calculated value for the item's ilvl which is typically close to the actual Blizzard level of the item.
It's not the only factor that influences the value of an item. The level of the area where the item was dropped may change its stats. For example it can increase the item's haste or crit score. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
Item stats are a big element in what makes or breaks an item for players. The game utilizes them in a variety of ways to encourage players to not limit themselves to one weapon and to motivate players to explore other weapons. The base stats of a weapon are boosted by the weapon's stat modifications that are in turn increased by the player's skill.
Upgrades to an item may increase the stats of an item. Home of an item determines the cost of upgrading. An item that is white or grey for instance, will only be upgraded once however, items that has rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times with higher costs.
Another method of altering the stats on an item is by affixing it. They are stat boosts that can be added by the player to an item. Affixes are used to provide items with extra damage or other special capabilities (such as revitalizing dead or reducing cooling downs), or to distinguish them by naming them.
All affixes are re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade menu pressing the green button. It will cost a set amount in gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges as with other rerolling methods.
In addition to Rerolling affixes and rerolls, players can also choose which stats they want to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The possible ranges of stats for an item are based on the level of the item, but all items are guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within the range, unless it is a unique item or a God roll from a boss of a raid.
Another thing that can be modified by adding an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes or deciding which stats to enhance. Like base equipment, it will have to be done per item and the item comparison interface would not display all the possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the likelihood of finding items and the properties that are spawned from loot drops, and the intensity of the properties. It does not, however directly impact damage or the ability to upgrade item s. It gives the player an opportunity to get better gear earlier in the game. This is more useful for early game runs, since players tend to prioritize the scaling of weapons and defenses over raw 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 enhanced by using an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Weapons, shields, and armor can be created or spawned using the Luck property, with an initial value of 40. These items can be improved with golden ingots or spined leather (depending on their material type) for a further +40 luck or to increase the Luck of an item up to 140.
Certain items, such as the weapon that is infused with hollow can also be crafted to increase the damage of any ability that causes damage by five percent. These items can be bought from the shop, or they can be made using the correct ingredients.
Item Failure
Item upgrades are costly and not all upgrades will succeed. Cash shop items can be used to boost the chances of success for an upgrade or to prevent players from losing their items if it is not successful.
The success rate of an upgrade is displayed 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 as much, and the likelihood that an upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%.
The performance of an upgrade is also affected by the luck of that item. Every item has an initial success rate of 25%, and every item that has Luck increases that chance by an additional 5%.
The upgrade overlays for items are displayed above items in the inventory. This could obscure enchantment effects and 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.