World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a method to increase the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade it could increase an item's Mark Level or Rarity, and also boost other stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a specific amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's base stats increase when it is upgraded. This is the sum of the perks that are leveled up (attack magic attack and defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high depending on the upgrader and the kind of upgrade you decide to make. This is because of how many perks need to be replaced to allow the item to get upgraded.
It can also be used as a gating requirement while waiting for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It also serves to determine a gating condition when queueing for dungeons, scenarios and raids, and to limit the amount of PvP gear players can wear (since PvP is capped at an lower level). The average item level can be found on the character sheet.
When deciding whether to buy or sell equipment, players can compare the level of an item. It's an excellent gauge of an item's worth and the amount of damage it is capable of dealing with. The item level can also be used to evaluate items when looking at the inventory of a vendor.
The level of the item can be viewed by pressing the ALT key on your PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will show the full item description, including its value. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are various theories on how the calculation of the item's level is made. One theory suggests that the item level is calculated by an equation that determines the value of the stats of an item really are. It takes into account the fact that different perks have different worth and that gems in sockets add to the value of the item overall. This could result in an item's ilvl calculated, which is typically very close to Blizzard's actual item level.
However, this is not the only factor which can affect an item's ilvl as the size of the area the item was dropped in could alter the value of its stats, for example by adding a level to its haste rating or crit rating. This means that items dropped at higher levels will have higher value than items dropped in lower-level instances.
Item Stats
Item stats are a big part of what determines the value of an item for players. The game makes use of them in many ways to encourage players not to limit themselves to a single weapon and to motivate players to experiment with other weapons. The base stats of a weapon are increased by the weapon's stat modification that are in turn boosted by the player's level.
Upgrades to an item may increase its stats. The upgrade costs are determined by the rarity of the item. An item that is white or grey, for example, will only be upgraded once, while an item with rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times with higher prices.
Affixes are another way to alter the stats of an item. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. The affixes are used to give items additional damage or special capabilities (such as reviving dead or reducing cooling downs), or to distinguish them by putting a name on them.
Currently, all affixes can be modified by selecting them in the upgrade window and pressing the green button with circling arrows. This procedure will cost the player a certain amount of gold and items that can be added to the upgrade gauge in the same manner as other options for rerolling.
In addition to Rerolling affixes and rerolls, players can select which of the available stats to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The possible ranges of stats for an item are determined by the level of the item, however every item is guaranteed to have at least one stat within the specified range, unless it's an exclusive item or the result of a God roll from a boss in a raid.
Another thing that could change is the option to upgrade equipment without having to reroll affixes, or choose which stats to boost. But as with base equipment, this would need to be carried out on a per-item basis and the item compare interface will not show all the stats that could be either lost or gained at the same time.
Item Luck
A player's Luck stat stacks up to increase the chances of item discoveries as well as the properties that appear on loot drops, and the intensity of the properties. However, it does not directly affect damage or ability to upgrade items. It gives the player the chance to upgrade gear earlier in the game. This is especially beneficial for early game runs, because players tend to put 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 chance, which increases with each level and can be further increased 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 by using the Luck property, which has a default value of 40. These items can be augmented with golden ingots or spined leather (depending on the material they are made of) to increase the value of 40 luck, or to increase an item's existing Luck up to 140.
Furthermore, certain items, like the Hollow infused weapon, can be equipped to increase the damage dealt by any damage-dealing skill by 5%. item upgrading are available in the shop or crafted by using the appropriate ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items are expensive and not every upgrade will be successful. Cash shop items can be used to increase the success rate of an upgrade, or to protect players from losing their item in the event that it is not successful.
When you upgrade an item, the rate of success is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the probability of successfully upgrading an item. This can be increased by using Additional Materials or Special materials. The probability of success can only be increased so much, and the likelihood that the upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%..
The success of an upgrade is also affected by the luck of the item. All items have an average success rate of 25% and every item with Luck increases the chance of success by 5percent.
The upgrade overlays for items are rendered above items in the inventory. This may block enchantment effects as well as 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.