This Is The Ultimate Guide To Item Upgrade
WoW Upgrades - The Item Upgrader
Upgrades will give you a boosts in specific stats. Each upgrade increases the level of the item by +3. Each upgrade also boosts a random substat.
Upgraded gear is generally more valuable, unless the item has low requirements by nature (like FB sorc shields) or has a high variance in stats (like the eth Titan weapons). The latter are less valuable from upgrading due to the requirement to roll to get a perfect version.
Recycle Points
The
item upgrader allows players to upgrade their gear by offering the currency to an NPC. Upgrades can be applied on any type of weapon or armor. The item used to upgrade the item is discarded and cannot be used again. Upgrades can be applied to the enchantments.
The upgrader is located in every major city, and is accessible anytime to upgrade your gear. To ensure that your equipment is up-to-date, it is recommended that you visit the upgrader every couple of weeks.
The cost of upgrades will vary based on the current item level of the item being upgraded however, they will always be cheaper than buying new gear from other sources. For example upgrading a Benthic chest piece to ilvl 385 will cost 20 recycle points, purchasing a similar piece from another player will cost 105.
Valorstones
Upgrades are items that can be used to upgrade tools, armor, weapon and accessory upgrades. They can be purchased by players through NPCs that sell upgrades to items in exchange for various currencies, and can also be found in random treasure lists. Once an upgrade has been purchased, it can be used on any weapon or tool using an button, which will display an item's preview when it is upgraded if the player has sufficient materials.
Upgrade costs vary depending on the slot for the item and the current level of the item. For example, weapons will cost more than gloves, bracers, or bracers. Each upgrade cost 15 Flightstones and a variety of crests, with certain upgrades having a discount to reduce the cost of the Flightstones or the crests used. After an item has been upgraded to a certain degree it can be re-downgraded and sold to the upgrader at a lower price.
Item upgraders can be found at many locations, including the main island, as well as a few outposts. The NPCs provide both an upgrade coupon and the chance to obtain an entirely new recipe. The discount for upgrading increases as more items are upgraded. It can also be increased by having players complete certain achievements or quests.
Unlike Cromwell in Baldur's Gate II, there is no item upgrader available at the start of Icewind Dale. The NPCs who can facilitate upgrades are only available through a variety of methods. This is both a positive and a disadvantage.

In Season 3, a number of new features were added to the upgrade system. Once the player has upgraded to a certain level of item for an armor slot, upgrading other items to the same item level will cost less. This is true regardless of whether the items are from an entirely different set of equipment.
The amount of Valorstones needed for upgrades is reduced, and the discount is account-wide. The amount of Harbinger Crests needed for upgrades is reduced also, but is only available when certain milestones are reached.
Crests
When upgrading gear in WoW players have a few options. They can make use of Flightstones which are a general upgrade currency available to everyone players, or crests, which are more specific and consumed during upgrades on specific levels of items. Crests are an essential part of the Dragonflight gear progression system introduced in 10.1, and come in four ranks.
The first thing to remember is that crests are only available for gear with a certain rank. Each rank has a different upgrade path. The simplest and simplest upgrade is 15 crests. The most complicated upgrade can require up to 20 crests, based on the type of gear being upgraded.
Players can earn crests through finishing content at the appropriate level, whether that means walking around and doing outdoor activities for gear of lower tiers, raids or dungeons of any difficulty for higher-tier items or Mythic+ heroic raid bosses and dungeons for endgame gear. The crests can then be exchanged with an upgrader for the item such as Cuzolth or Vaskarn in Valdrakken for the appropriate upgrade steps and routes.
Using these new currencies isn't too difficult however, the system does introduce some changes to the overall upgrade process. For instance, once an item is at the highest level of upgrading for any rank (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, or Mythic) it won't need Flightstones to be upgraded. This allows players to upgrade their gear to the highest level possible on all their characters rather than relying on seasonal loot.
It's also important to use crests with care, since they are only used for one purpose. It's best to put your Whelpling-rank Crests on the highest-quality gear that you can find and save Drake and Wyrm Crests for the next set of upgrades. This is especially true for items like trinkets and rings that occupy multiple slots on the character which will only be able to avail the account-wide discount if all of the slots are filled with top-quality gear.