World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to an item are a way to increase the stats of an item. Depending on the type of upgrade, it can boost the rarity of an item or mark Level and increase 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
When an item gets upgraded, its base stats improve in value. This is the sum of the perks that are leveled up (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be expensive, depending on the person you hire and what you do. This is due to the fact that many perks must be replaced to allow the item to get upgraded.
Item level is a popular measurement of power and can be found on all tooltips for items. It also serves to limit the amount of PvP gear players are able to wear, since PvP is limited at a lower level. The average level of an item can be found on the character sheet.
Utilizing the level of an item can help players compare the power of equipment when choosing to buy or sell. It's an excellent indicator of the quality of an item and the amount of damage it is capable of dealing with. The level of an item can be used to compare items when looking at the inventory of a vendor.
The level of the item can be seen by pressing the ALT key on PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will display the full item description, including its level. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are many theories about how the level of an item is calculated. One theory is that the level is a number derived from a formula that calculates the value of an item's stats are worth. It takes into consideration that different advantages are valued differently and that gems in the sockets increase the item's value. This can result in a calculated value for the item's ilvl which is typically close to Blizzard's real level of the item.
However, this isn't the only factor that can affect an item's ilvl since the size of the area the item is dropped into can change the value of its stats, for example by adding a level to its crit rating or haste rating. This means that items that drop at higher levels will have higher value than items dropped in lower-level instances.
Item Stats
Item stats can make or break an item for players. The game makes use of a lot of them in a variety of ways to encourage players to play with a variety of weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the most effective." The stat mods of weapons boost base stats. These stat mods are then enhanced by the player's level.
Item upgrades add to that by increasing certain stats of the item. The cost of upgrades is determined by the rarity of the item. An item that is white or grey for instance, can only be upgraded one time and items with rare tiers may be upgraded several times at more expensive costs.
Another method to alter the stats on an item is through affixes. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Affixes can provide the item extra damage, add a special capability to the item (such as reviving dead or decreasing the cooldowns) or make the item unique by adding an additional name to the item.
Currently, all affixes can be rerolled by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button, which is accompanied by circles arrows. This process will cost the player a certain amount of gold and other items which can be added to the upgrade gauge in the same manner as other rerolling options.
Players can choose to upgrade an item to specific stats, or reroll the affixes. The possible ranges of stats for an item are based on the level of the item, but every item is guaranteed to have at minimum one stat within that range, unless it is an item that is unique or a God roll from a boss of a raid.
This is another aspect that could be changed by introducing an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes or deciding which stats to enhance. However, as with the base equipment, this would need to be performed on a per-item level, and the interface for item comparison wouldn't show all possible stats gained or lost at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player stacks up to increase the likelihood of finding items and the properties that are spawned from loot drops and the intensity of the properties. However, it does not, directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives players a possibility to obtain better equipment in earlier waves and is therefore more beneficial in the initial game run than later ones as most players prioritize more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing item discovery, Luck also increases the probability of success when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade chance, which increases with each level and can be further increased through the use of an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons can spawn or be crafted using the Luck property, with an initial value of 40. These items can be enhanced with golden ingots or spined leather (depending on the material they are made of) to add another 40 luck, or to increase an item's existing Luck up to 140.
Furthermore, certain items, like the Hollow weapon that is infused with hollow, can be equipped to increase the damage of any damage-dealing skill by 5%. These items can be found in the shop or created with the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades are successful. However, there are some cash shop items that allow players to boost their chances of success or even prevent themselves from losing an item if the upgrade is unsuccessful.
The success rate of an upgrade can be seen in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of successfully upgrading the item and can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. item upgrade of success can only be increased as high, and the probability that an upgrade will fail cannot be greater than 100%..
The luck of an item can influence the effectiveness of an upgrade. All items have an average success rate of 25%, and each item with Luck increases that chance by 5%.
The upgrade overlays of the item are rendered above the items in the inventory. This could cause obscurity to enchantment effects or 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.