World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
The upgrade of an item can be used to improve the stats of a particular item. Depending on the type of upgrade, it can increase the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level, and also boost other stats.
Each item has a track to upgrade it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a specified amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increases as it is upgraded. The value is the sum of all the leveled up advantages (attack, magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be expensive, depending on the person you hire and what you do. This is due to the number of perks that must be modified to upgrade an item.
The level of an item is a popular measure of power, and can be found on all item tooltips. It also serves to limit the amount of PvP gear players are able to wear as PvP is restricted at a lower level. Players can view their average item level in their character sheet.
The level of an item can help players compare the strength of equipment when choosing to buy or sell. It's an excellent indicator of an item's quality and the amount of damage it's able to deal. Comparing items from a vendor's stock can be done by using the item level.
On PC, you can check the level of the item by pressing ALT or using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. The item will be displayed with its full description, including the ilvl. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are various theories about how the calculation of an item's level is done. One theory states that the item level is calculated by formulas that determine 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 process can result in a calculated amount for the item's level, which is usually close to the actual Blizzard level of the item.
However, this is not the only factor that affects an item's ilvl, since the size of the area the item dropped in can alter the value of its stats, for example by adding an amount to its haste rating or crit rating. This means that items dropped at higher levels will have more value than items dropped in lower-level instances.
Item Stats
Item stats can be the difference between a good or bad item for players. The game utilizes them in many ways to encourage players to not limit themselves to one weapon and to encourage players to explore other weapons. The stats of a base weapon are enhanced by the weapon's stat modifications, which are themselves boosted by the player's level.
Item upgrades add to that by boosting certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. An item that is white or grey for instance, can only be upgraded one time and items with rare tiers may be upgraded multiple times with more expensive costs.
Affixes are a different method to alter the stats of an item. They are stat boosters that can be added by the player to an item. The affixes are used to provide items with extra damage or special abilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs), or to differentiate them by putting a name on them.
Currently, all affixes can be rerolled by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button, which is accompanied by circling arrows. This will cost a specific amount of gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges, similar to other methods of rerolling.
Players can choose to upgrade an item by a specific stat, or reroll affixes. item upgrader of an item are determined by the level of the item, however every item is guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within the range, unless it is an item that is unique or the result of a God roll from a boss of a raid.
Another thing that could be changed is the possibility of upgrading equipment without having to reroll the attachments, or pick which stats to enhance. Similar to the base equipment, it will have to be done per item and the interface for item comparison will not show all possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player increases the chance of finding items and the properties that are generated by loot, and the strength of these properties. However, it does not directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives players the possibility to obtain better gear in earlier waves and is thus more useful in early game runs than later ones as most players prioritize greater weapon scaling and defense over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing item discovery, Luck also increases the chances of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This isn't to be confused with the Blacksmith’s overall chances of upgrading that increase with each level of the item. These can also be enhanced by using anti-materials like a Scroll of Strength and a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons can be created or spawned with the Luck property, which has the default value of 40. These items can be upgraded with golden ingots, spined leather, or oak boards (depending on the type of material used) to grant an additional +40 Luck, or to increase the Luck of an item, up to 140.
Additionally some items, like the Hollow infused weapon can be outfitted to increase the damage dealt by any damage-dealing skill by 5%. These items can be purchased in the shops or made by using the appropriate ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. Cash shop items can be used to increase the success rate of an upgrade, or to protect players from losing their item if it fails.
The success rate of an upgrade is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of successfully upgrading that item and can be enhanced by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The percentage of success can only be increased as much, and the chance that the upgrade will fail cannot be greater than 100%..
The success of an upgrades is also influenced by the Luck of that item. Every item has an initial success rate of 25%, and every item that has Luck increases the chance of success by five percent.
It is important to note that upgrade items are rendered above the inventory items, so enchantment glint and other effects could be obscured 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.