World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to an item are a way to boost the stats of an item. Depending on the type of upgrade you choose, it can increase the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level and increase other stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next one by a specific amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's stats base increases when it is upgraded. This value is the sum of all of an item's leveled-up perks (attack magic attack and defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high, depending on the upgrader and what kind of upgrade you decide to do. This is due to the number of perks that must be altered to upgrade an item.
The level of an item is a commonly used measure of power, and can be seen on all tooltips for items. It is also used as a gating requirement while waiting to queue for dungeons and scenarios and raids, and to limit the amount of PvP gear a player can wear (since PvP is limited to an lower level). Players can view their average item level in their character sheet.
The level of an item will allow players to compare the power of equipment when deciding to purchase or sell. It's a measure of the item's damage and its quality. Comparing items from a vendor's stock is possible using the level of the item.
The item level can be checked by pressing the ALT key on your PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will display the complete item description, including its level. It can also be found by hovering an item with the mouse cursor, and then entering /itemlevel into chat.
There are many theories about the method by which the level of an item is calculated. One theory suggests that the level of an item is determined by a formula that calculates the worth of an item's stats really are. It is based on the fact that different advantages are valued differently and that gems found in sockets increase the item's value. This can result in a calculated value for the item's level, which is typically close to Blizzard's real item level.
However, this isn't the only factor that can affect an item's ilvl since the level of the area the item is dropped into can alter the value of its stats, for instance by adding a level to its haste or crit rating. This means that items dropped at higher levels will have more the ilvl than items from lower level instances.
Item Stats
The item's 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 multiple 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.
Item upgrades add to that by increasing certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines the cost of upgrading. A white or grey item, for example, will only be upgraded once and items with rare tiers can be upgraded several times at more expensive costs.
Affixes can also be used to change an item's stats. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and they come in all sizes and shapes. The affixes can be used to give the item extra damage, or give a specific ability to the item (such as reviving the dead or cutting down cooldowns) or make the item unique by adding an additional name to the item.
Currently, all affixes can be modified by selecting them in the upgrade window and pressing the green button with circles arrows. It will cost a set amount in gold and other items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges as with other methods of rerolling.
In addition to Rerolling affixes and rerolls, players can also choose which of the available stats to keep on an item after it is upgraded. The range of stats is determined by the item's level. However, all items will contain at least one stat within the range, unless they are an exclusive item or a God Roll from a raid boss.
This is another aspect that could be altered by adding the option to upgrade the equipment without rolling the affixes or choosing which stats to enhance. Similar to base equipment, it would have to be done per item, and the item comparison interface wouldn't display all possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player boosts the probability of obtaining items and the properties that are spawned by loot and the intensity of these properties. However, it does not directly affect damage or ability to upgrade items. It merely gives the player a chance to acquire better equipment earlier in the game, and is therefore more beneficial in the initial game run than later ones since most players prefer greater weapon scaling and defense over damage gains.
Luck can also increase the chance of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade chance which increases with each level of the item and can be further increased by using an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Weapons, armor, and shields can spawn or be crafted with the Luck property, with the default value of 40. These items can be augmented with golden ingots, or spined leather (depending on the type of material) to add another 40 luck or to increase the luck of the item to 140.
Certain items, like the Hollow-infused weapon can also be crafted to increase the damage of any skill that deals damage by five percent. These items can be bought from the shop or made using the correct ingredients.
Item Failure
Item upgrades are a costly process and not every upgrade will be successful. Cash shop items can be used to boost the chances of success for an upgrade or to prevent players from losing their item if it fails.
The success rate of an upgrade is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage indicates the probability of successful upgrading an item. item upgrades can be increased by using 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 success of an upgrades is also influenced by the Luck of that item. All items have an overall success rate of 25 percent, and each item that has Luck increases this chance by five percent.
Note that upgrades to items are rendered above the items in the inventory therefore 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.