World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to increase the stats of a particular item. Depending on the upgrade type, it may boost an item's Mark Level or Rarity and boost additional stats.
Each item has a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a specified amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's basic stats increase when it is upgraded. This value is the total of all of its leveled up perks (attack, magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be costly, depending on the person you hire and what you decide to do. This is because of how many perks must be replaced in order for the item to be upgraded.
item upgrading is a commonly used measurement of power and can be seen on all item tooltips. It can also be used as a gating requirement while waiting for dungeons, scenarios and raids, and to limit the amount of PvP gear a player can wear (since PvP is limited to a lower level). The average level of an item is listed on the character sheet.
When deciding to purchase or sell equipment, players can compare the item level. It's an indicator of the item's damage and its quality. The item level can also be used to compare items when examining the inventory of a vendor.
On PC, you are able to view the item level by pressing ALT or using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the complete description of the item, as well as its level. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are a few theories about how the calculation of an item's level is made. One theory says that the item level is determined by a formula that calculates the value of an item's stats really are. It considers that different benefits are valued differently and that gems found in sockets boost the value of the item. This can result in an item's ilvl calculated, which is often very close to Blizzard's real level of the item.
This isn't the only thing that affects the value of an item. The degree of the area in which the item was dropped may alter its stats. For instance it can add a level to the item's haste or crit score. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher value.
Item Stats
The stats of an item are a major part of what makes or breaks an item for players. The game makes use of a lot of them in a variety of ways to encourage players to play with multiple weapons, and also to stop one weapon from being "the most effective." The base stats of a weapon are increased by the weapon's stat modification which are then increased by the player's skill.
Upgrades to an item may increase its stats. The cost of upgrades is determined by the rarity of the item. An item that is white or grey for instance, will only be upgraded once and items that has rare tiers can be upgraded multiple times at more expensive costs.
Affixes are another way to change an item's stats. They are stat boosters that can be added by the player to an item. The affixes can be used to give items additional damage or special capabilities (such as revitalizing dead or reducing cooling downs) or to differentiate them by putting a name on them.
All affixes are currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade window, and pressing the green button. It will cost a set amount in gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges, similar to other rerolling methods.
In addition to rerolling affixes, players can select which stats to keep on an item when it is upgraded. The range of stats is determined by the item's level. However every item will have at least one stat within the same range, unless it's an item that is unique or a God Roll from a boss in a raid.
Another thing that could change is the possibility of upgrading equipment without having to reroll the affixes, or choose which stats to boost. Similar to the base equipment, it would have to be done per item and the item comparison interface will not show all possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player stacks up to increase the odds of finding items as well as the properties that appear on loot drops and the intensity of those properties. It does not, however directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It merely gives the player a possibility to obtain better equipment in earlier waves and is thus more useful in early game runs as opposed to later ones, because most players value greater weapon scaling and defense over raw damage gains.
Luck can also increase the chance of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade probability, which increases with each item level and can be further increased by using an anti-material, such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
The shields, armor and weapons have the default Luck value of 40. These items can be enhanced by golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the material of the item) to grant an additional +40 Luck or to boost the luck of the item up to 140.
Furthermore, certain items, such as the Hollow infused weapon can be outfitted to increase the damage of any damage-dealing skill by 5%. These items are available in the shop or crafted with the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. However, there are some cash shop items which allow players to increase their success rate or prevent them from losing an item if the upgrade fails.
The rate of success of an upgrade is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of successfully upgrading the item, and can be enhanced by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. There are limitations on how much success rates can be increased and the chance of a failed upgrade cannot exceed 100%.
The performance of an can be affected by the Luck of that item. All items have an initial success rate of 25% and every item with Luck increases the chance of success by an additional 5percent.
It is important to note that upgrade items are rendered above the items in the inventory therefore enchantment glints and other effects can 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.