World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
The upgrade of an item can be used to boost the stats of a particular item. Based on the type of upgrade it could boost an item's Mark Level or Rarity, and also boost other stats.
Upgrades to equipment in The War Within requires a set number of Flightstones and Crests, and each item has an upgrade track. Each upgrade increases the cost of the following one by a specific amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its stats are increased in value. This value is the sum of all of an item's leveled-up perks (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be costly, depending on who you hire and what you do. This is due to the sheer number of perks that have to be modified to upgrade an item.
Item level is a commonly used measurement of power and can be found on all tooltips of items. It also serves to limit how much PvP gear players can wear, since PvP is limited at a lower level. Players can view their average item level in their character sheet.
The level of an item can help players evaluate the potency of gear when they decide to buy or sell. It's an excellent indicator of the quality of an item and how much damage it's able to deal. The item level can also be used to compare items when evaluating a vendor's inventory.
The level of the item can be viewed by pressing the ALT key on a PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will show the item's full description, including the ilvl. You can also find it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are a few theories about how the calculation of an item's level is made. One theory suggests that the item level is calculated using an equation that determines the worth of the stats of an item really are. It takes into consideration the fact that different perks have different values, and also that gems in sockets add to the value of the item overall. This process could result in a calculated value for the item's level, which is typically close to Blizzard's actual item level.
However, this isn't the only factor that determines the ilvl of an item, as the level of the region the item was dropped in could change the value of its stats, for example by adding a level to its crit rating or haste rating. Items that drop in higher-level instances will have a higher value.
Item Stats
Item stats are a big element in what determines the value of an item for players. The game uses a variety of them in different ways to encourage players to play with multiple weapons, and to prevent one weapon from being "the most effective." The stat mods of an weapon increase the base stats. These stat mods are then boosted by a player's level.
Item upgrades add to that by increasing certain stats of the item. The rarity of an item determines its upgrade cost. A grey or white item, for example, will only be upgraded once and items with rare tiers may be upgraded several times at more expensive costs.
Another method of altering the stats of an item is by affixing it. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. Affixes can do things like give 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 giving an additional name to the item.
All affixes can be re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade window, pressing the green button. This will cost a certain amount of gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges as with other methods of rerolling.
Players can upgrade an item by a specific stat, or reroll attaches. The stat ranges are determined by the item's level. However, all items will have 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 change is the possibility of upgrading equipment without having to reroll the attachments, or pick which stats to increase. However, as with the base equipment, this would have to be done on a per-item level, and the interface for item comparison would not display all the possible stats that were gained or lost at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player can increase the chance of finding items, the properties that are spawned by loot and the intensity of these properties. It does not, however directly impact damage or the ability to upgrade items . It merely gives players the chance to acquire better equipment earlier in the game and is therefore more useful in the early game than later ones since most players prefer more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over raw damage gains.
Luck can also increase the chances 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 enhanced by using an anti-material such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Weapons, shields, and armor can spawn or be crafted with the Luck property, with an initial value of 40. These items can be enhanced with golden ingots, or spined leather (depending on the type of material) to increase the value of 40 luck or to boost the luck of the item to 140.
Certain items, such as the weapon with Hollow-infused components, can also be equipped to increase the damage dealt by any skill that is able to deal damage by five percent. These items can be purchased in the shop 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 boost their chances of success or even prevent them from losing an item if the upgrade is unsuccessful.
When you upgrade an item the success rate is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the likelihood of successful upgrading an item. This can be increased with Additional Materials or Special materials. The percentage of success can only be increased so much, and the likelihood that an upgrade will fail can't 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 that chance by 5%.
Note that item upgrades are rendered above the items in the inventory therefore enchantment glints and other effects could be obstructed by them. 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.