A Time-Travelling Journey How People Talked About Item Upgrades 20 Years Ago Path of Exile Item Upgrades

The performance of a variety of Path of Exile items can be improved by upgrading them. They can provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.

Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is beaten out by Rare-grade equipment due to their higher requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a kind of upgrade that can be used on weapons and armor items. They increase the effectiveness of the item that they're connected to. Armor upgrades are found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged by using a professional or higher salvage kit to recover upgrade components from items.

The amount of damage an armored item or weapon is able to absorb is dependent on the extent of its upgrades. The damage absorption of an armor piece will increase when it is upgraded to the highest upgrade level. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, so it must be more heavy.

There are a few different kinds of armor upgrades that are that are available in the game and they all have different effects. Certain upgrades give armor an extra amount of health points while others make it lighter and more powerful. The type of armor upgrade that an item will receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade as shown in the table below.

Some of the upgrades also require magic or a combination of technology and magic, which are indicated by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Some upgrades also require charges to use, which are identified by a "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges associated with these upgrades are updated every day or never expire, according to the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest method to upgrade your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available from the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to higher level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant increases in stats and are definitely worth the cost.

A piece of armor upgraded to its maximum upgrade level will greatly boost its defense but the wearer must be aware that putting on weight will dramatically reduce its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The defensive boost gained usually isn't worth the weight and power costs of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades give players the ability to improve certain aspects of their weapon. For instance an upgrade can increase the damage dealt by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of a rifle that snipes. Certain weapons come with special upgrades that enhance their inherent characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, reduces the risk of the possibility of overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's velocity to cause more damage) are two examples.

Most weapon upgrades require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade for applying. These can be obtained by completing side quests or killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.

Upgrading a Weapon, Equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade cost of a set number of Bars. The more bars required to complete an upgrade the more expensive the upgrade. If you have multiple upgrade materials The cost of upgrading will be lower.

In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets changed a little. Before item upgrading could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to a higher level of rarity. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level and at that point, the upgrades would reset.

You can still do this, but the process is high on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're better off visiting stores and buying equipment with low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These gears have a higher likelihood of granting you highest tier benefits and blessings.

To increase their level faster, most players will be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their teammates use to boost their strength. Shepard, for example, should upgrade the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when accompanied with biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to increase the stats of a character or to provide additional effects in weapons and armor. Jewelry crafting is a method for creating them. You combine a gemstone with a number specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the level of the gemstone, the better the secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and occasionally by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The quality of a diamond can be improved by the Jeweler, in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. Based on the level of the gem, it will provide a different stat boosts when it is inserted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.

All kinds of jewels are crafted at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels that require you to be at a certain level to be able to get the privilege of having them. Unlike other upgrade components, jewels are able to be swapped by a different identical jewel without damaging it. You are able to replace the jewel only once in a piece of equipment.

The use of more jewels in a movement will make it feel smoother and is usually performed for aesthetic reasons. Jewels also enhance performance and make a surface harder than steel, so that the repeated friction from pivots do not damage them.

A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the appearance of your weapons and shields. These glyphs give a slight boost and can be traded, but they are not guaranteed to show up as loot. Glyphs are upgradeable, as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold and scattered Crystal. Glyphs are also removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as aegis or traits cannot be exchanged, and can only be retrieved through an upgrade extractor or salvaging using a Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are pieces of equipment that provide many small but useful advantages to your hero. They are available in the start-up area as loot or personal story rewards. They are also available through vendors and after the completion of road interactions. item upgrading can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinket that a player can unlock is the cloak. It grants a small but valuable boost in movement speed and the ability to escape. After that, they'll be able to purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in the same manner to the way a player can acquire weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that can accept either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be utilized on any device. Jewels cannot be upgraded or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.


These trinkets also grant additional bonuses and abilities that are active whenever the hero is not in combat. This allows the hero to become more efficient even when not in combat. It can also compensate for the absence of excellent slots in the team or talent tree that are normally filled by a hero's top stats.

A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you will not replace soon, followed by items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is especially true when you are looking to upgrade multiple stats on an item. It's more beneficial to upgrade a single important stat than two less important ones.

Jungle players will often upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red trinket at the beginning of the game. Mid and top players on the other hand will pick a green or a pink ward, based on the matchup. These choices will have an impact on the hero's ability to manage the map.

Apart from the items listed above, players can find other trinkets throughout the game in the form of trophies and awards. These can be earned by completing certain milestones in the story. For instance, completing the main quest of a chapter or defeating the boss. They can be viewed by selecting the appropriate achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.