World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
The upgrade of an item can be used to improve the stats of a particular item. Depending on the upgrade type, it may boost an item's Mark Level or Rarity, and also boost other stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. item upgrade increases the cost of the following one by a specific amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's basic stats increases as it is upgraded. This is the sum of all the upgraded benefits (attack, magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be costly, depending on who you hire and what you do. This is due to how many perks must be replaced in order for the item to get upgraded.
Item level is a popular measurement of power and can be seen on all tooltips of items. It also serves to limit the amount of PvP gear players can use, since PvP is limited at a lower level. Players can see their average level of items on their character sheet.
Utilizing the level of an item can help players evaluate the power of equipment when choosing to buy or sell. It's a useful gauge of an item's worth and how much damage it is capable of dealing with. Comparing items from the inventory of a vendor can be done by using the item's level.
The item level can be seen by pressing the ALT key on 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 locate it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are various theories about how the calculation of an item's level is made. One theory states that the level of an item is calculated using a formula that calculates how valuable an item's stats really are. It takes into consideration that different benefits are valued differently and that gems found in sockets increase the value of the item. This could result in an item's ilvl calculated, which is typically very close to Blizzard's actual item level.
It's not the only thing that affects the value of an item. The location of where the item was dropped can change its stats. For example, it could increase the item's haste or crit rating. This means that items that drop at higher levels will have higher ilvl than those from lower-level instances.
Item Stats
The stats of an item can determine the fate of an item for players. The game uses them in many ways to encourage players to not restrict themselves to a particular weapon and to motivate players to experiment with other weapons. The stat mods of a weapon boost the base stats. These stat mods are then boosted by a player's level.
Upgrades to the item add by increasing certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines its upgrade cost. A grey or white item, for example, will only be upgraded once however, items with rare tiers may be upgraded several times at more expensive costs.
Affixes are a different method to change an item's stats. They are stat boosts that can be added by the player to an item. Affixes can provide the item additional damage, add a special ability to the item (such as reviving dead or decreasing cooldowns), or make the item unique by giving a special name to the item.
All affixes can be currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade window pressing the green button. 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.
Players can upgrade an item by a specific stat, or reroll the affixes. The range of stats determined by the item's level. However each item will contain at least one stat in that range unless they are a unique item or a God Roll from a raid boss.
Another thing that could be altered by introducing an option to upgrade the equipment without rerolling the affixes, or selecting which stats to increase. But, like base equipment, this would have to be done on a per-item basis, and the interface for item comparison will not show all the stats that could be that were gained or lost at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the likelihood of item discoveries and the properties that are spawned from loot drops, and the intensity of those properties. However, it does not directly affect damage or ability to upgrade items. It merely gives players a possibility to obtain better equipment in earlier waves and is therefore more useful in the initial game run than later ones since most players prefer more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over damage gains.
Luck can also increase the chance of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This should not be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade probability that 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.
Armor, shields, and weapons have an initial Luck value of 40. These items can be improved with golden ingots, or spined leather (depending on their material type) to increase the value of 40 luck or to boost the Luck of an item up to 140.
Additionally, certain items, such as the Hollow weapon, which is infused with Hollow can be outfitted to increase the damage dealt by any damage-dealing skill by five percent. These items are available at the store or crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades are successful. Cash shop items can be used to increase the success rate of an upgrade or to stop players from losing their item in the event that it is not successful.
When you upgrade an item, the success rate is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the probability of successfully upgrading that item, and can be enhanced by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The chance of success can only be increased as much, and the likelihood that the upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%.
The Luck of an item can influence the effectiveness of an upgrade. Each item has an initial success rate of 25% and each item with Luck increases the chance of success by an additional 5percent.
It is important to note that upgrade items are rendered above the inventory items, so enchantment glint and other effects may 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.