World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a method to increase the stats of an item. Depending on the upgrade type, it may increase 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 following one by a set amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its stats improve in value. This value is the total of all its upgraded benefits (attack magic attack, attack defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high, depending on the upgrader and what type of upgrade you choose to perform. This is due to the sheer number of perks that must be modified to upgrade an item.
Item level is a popular measurement of power and is visible on all tooltips for items. It can also be used to limit how much PvP gear players can use, since PvP is limited at lower levels. Players can view their average level of item on their character sheet.
When deciding whether to buy or sell gear players can look at the level of an item. It's a useful indicator of the quality of an item and how much damage it's capable of causing. The level of an item can be used to evaluate items when evaluating the inventory of a vendor.
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. It can also be located by hovering an item with the mouse cursor, and then typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are a variety of theories on how the level of an item is calculated. One theory suggests that the level of an item is calculated by formulas that determine the value of the stats of an item really are. It takes into consideration the fact that different perks have different worth and gems in sockets increase the overall value of the item. This can lead to a calculated item's ilvl that is often very close to Blizzard's actual item level.
However, this isn't the only factor which affects an item's ilvl, because 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. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The item's stats can determine the fate of an item for players. The game makes use of a lot of them in different ways to encourage players to play with a variety of weapons, and to prevent one weapon from being "the best." The stat mods of a weapon boost the base stats. These stat mods are then increased by the player's level.
Upgrades to an item can increase the stats of an item. The rarity of an item determines its cost of upgrading. A grey or white item for instance, can only be upgraded once, while an item that has rare tiers can be upgraded several times at higher costs.
Another method to alter the stats on an item is by affixing it. They are stat boosters that can be added by the player to an item. The affixes can be used to provide items with extra damage, special capabilities (such as revitalizing dead or reducing cooling downs) or to differentiate them by putting a name on them.
All affixes can be re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade menu pressing the green button. It will cost a set amount in gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges, as with other rerolling methods.
In addition to the possibility of rerolling affixes, players may also choose which of the available stats they want to keep on an item when it is upgraded. The stat ranges are determined by the item's level. However each item will include at least one stat within the same range, unless it's an exclusive item, or the item is a God Roll from a raid boss.
This is another aspect that could be altered by adding an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes or deciding which stats to enhance. As with the base equipment, this will have to be done per item and the item comparison interface would not display all the possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the chances of finding items as well as the properties that appear on loot drops and the strength of those properties. However, it does not directly impact damage or the ability to upgrade item s. It gives players a possibility to obtain better gear in earlier waves and is thus more valuable in early game runs than later ones as most players prioritize higher weapon scaling and defenses over damage gains.
Luck can also boost the chance of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade probability that increases with each item 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 be created or spawned using the Luck property, with an initial 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 increase the luck of the item up to 140.
Additionally there are certain items, such as the Hollow infused weapon can be outfitted to increase the damage dealt by any damage-dealing skill by 5%. These items are available in the shop or made using the correct ingredients.
Item Failure
Item upgrades are expensive and not every upgrade will be successful. However, there are some cash shop items which allow players to increase their chances of success or even prevent themselves from losing an item in the event that the upgrade is unsuccessful.
When you upgrade an item the rate of success is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage indicates the probability of successfully upgrading an item. This can be increased by using Additional Materials or Special materials. The probability of success can only be increased as much, and the likelihood that an upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%.
The success of an can be affected by the Luck of that item. All items have an initial success rate of 25% and each item with Luck increases that chance by an additional 5%.
Note that item upgrade s are rendered above the items in the inventory which means that enchantment glints and other effects may be obscured 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.