World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a way to increase the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade you choose, it may increase the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level and increase other stats.
Upgrades to equipment in The War Within requires a set number of Flightstones and Crests and each item comes with an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next one by a set amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its basic stats increase in value. This value is the sum of all of the perks that are leveled up (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades to items can be costly, depending on the upgrader you choose and what kind of upgrade you decide to do. This is due to the variety of perks that have to be altered to upgrade an item.
It is also used to enforce gating requirements when queueing for dungeons, raids and scenarios. It is also used as a gating requirement while waiting for dungeons, raids and scenarios, and to limit the amount of PvP gear players can wear (since PvP is restricted to a lower level). Players can see their average item level in their character sheet.
When deciding whether to buy or sell gear players can evaluate the levels of the item. It's a measure of the item's condition and quality. Comparing items in a vendor's stock is possible using the level of the item.
On PC, you are able to view the item level by pressing ALT or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the complete item description, including its level. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are many theories about the method by which the level of an item is calculated. One theory is that the level is a numerical value derived from a formula which calculates how much an item's stats are worth. It takes into consideration the fact that different perks have different worth and gems in sockets increase the value of the item overall. This could result in an item's ilvl which is calculated and is often very close to Blizzards actual item level.
However, this is not the only factor that can affect an item's ilvl because the size of the area the item was dropped in could alter the value of its stats, such as by adding an additional level to its crit rating or haste rating. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
Item stats can be the difference between a good or bad item for players. The game makes use of a lot of them in different ways to encourage players to play with a variety of weapons, and to prevent one weapon from being "the best." The stat mods on a weapon boost the base stats. These stat mods are then increased by a player's skill.
The upgrades to items add by increasing certain stats of the item. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. An item that is white or grey for instance, will only be upgraded once, while an item with rare tiers can be upgraded several times at higher costs.
Affixes are another way to change an item's stats. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. The affixes can be used to give items extra damage, special abilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs), or to differentiate them by naming them.
All affixes can be currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade window and pressing the green button. It will cost a set amount of gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges, just like the other rerolling methods.
In web page to Rerolling affixes and rerolls, players can also choose which of the available stats to be kept on an item after it is upgraded. The range of stats determined by the item's level. However every item will include at least one stat within the same range, unless it's a unique item, or an item that has a God Roll from a boss in a raid.
Another thing that could be changed is the possibility to upgrade equipment without having to roll the attachments, or pick which stats to enhance. As with the base equipment, this must be done per item and the item comparison interface wouldn't display all possible stats simultaneously.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player stacks up to increase the odds of item discoveries and the properties that are spawned from loot drops, and the intensity of these properties. However, it doesn't directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It gives the player the chance to upgrade their equipment earlier in the game. This is more beneficial for early game runs, because players tend to put weapon scaling and defenses above raw damage gains.
Luck can also increase the likelihood of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to confuse with the Blacksmith’s overall chances of upgrading, which increase with each level of the item. These can also be enhanced by using anti-materials, such as a Scroll of Strength and a Jewel of Blessing.
The shields, armor and weapons come with a default Luck value of 40. These items can be enhanced with golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the item's material type) to give +40 Luck or to increase the luck of an item up to 140.
Certain items, such as the Hollow-infused weapon can also be outfitted to increase the damage dealt by any ability that deals damage by 5%. These items are available at the store or crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items are costly and not all upgrades will succeed. However, there are cash shop items that allow players to increase their chance of success or stop themselves from losing an item if the upgrade fails.
When you upgrade an item, the success rate is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of completing the upgrade successfully and can be enhanced by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The percentage of success can only be increased as much, and the likelihood that an upgrade will fail can't be greater than 100%..
The performance of an can be affected by the Luck of that item. Every item has an average success rate of 25%, and each item with Luck increases the chance of success by an additional 5%.
Note that item upgrade s are rendered above the inventory items which means that enchantment glints and other effects could be masked by the overlays. 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.