World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a way to increase the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade, it may raise an item's Mark level or Rarity, as well as boost other stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a specific amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its base stats increase in value. This value is the total of all of its upgraded benefits (attack magic attack, attack defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high, depending on the upgrader and the type of upgrade you choose to perform. This is due to the fact that many perks need to be replaced to allow the item to get upgraded.
Item level is a popular measure of power, and is visible on all item tooltips. It also serves to limit the amount of PvP gear players can wear as PvP is restricted at lower levels. The average level of an item can be found in the character sheet.
When deciding whether to buy or sell equipment players can look at the item level. It's an indicator of the damage and its quality. The item level can also be used to evaluate items when evaluating a vendor's inventory.
On your PC, you can see the level of the item by pressing ALT or using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the item's full description, including ilvl. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing /itemlevel into chat.
There are several theories about how the calculation of an item's level is made. One theory is that the level is a number derived from a formula that calculates how much an item's stats are worth. It takes into account the fact that different perks have different values, and also that gems in sockets add to the item's overall value. This process can result in a calculated value for the item's level, which is usually close to the actual Blizzard level of the item.
However, this is not the only factor that affects an item's ilvl, as the size of the area the item was dropped in could change the value of its stats, such as by adding a level to its haste or crit rating. This means that items dropped at higher levels will have more ilvl than those from lower-level instances.
Item Stats
Item 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 multiple weapons, and to prevent one weapon from being "the best." The stats of a base weapon are enhanced by the weapon's stat mods which are then boosted by the player's level.
Item upgrades add to that by boosting certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines the cost of upgrading. For example, a grey or white item will only be upgraded once, while items with rare levels will be upgraded multiple times, at higher costs.
Affixes are another way to alter the stats of an item. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and they come in all sizes and shapes. Affixes are used to provide items with extra damage, special capabilities (such as revitalizing dead or reducing cooling downs), or to differentiate them by naming them.
At present, all affixes can be changed by selecting them from the upgrade window and pressing the green button, which is accompanied by circles arrows. This will cost a certain amount in gold and items. These can be used as upgrade gauges, similar to other rerolling methods.
Players can choose to upgrade an item with specific stats or reroll affixes. The possible stat ranges of an item are based on the item level, but all items are guaranteed to have at least one stat within the range, unless it is an item that is unique or the result of a God roll from a boss in a raid.
This is another aspect that could be changed by introducing an option to upgrade the equipment without having to reroll the affixes, or selecting which stats to enhance. As with the base equipment, this will have to be done per item and the interface for item comparison wouldn't display all possible stats at once.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player can increase the chance of finding items and the properties that are spawned by loot and the strength of these properties. However, it does not directly affect damage or ability to upgrade item s. It gives players the chance to upgrade their equipment earlier in the game. This is more beneficial in the early game, since players tend to prioritize the scaling of weapons and defenses over raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing item discovery, Luck also increases the chance of being successful when upgrading items using the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade probability that increases with each level 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 be created or spawned by using the Luck property, which has a default value of 40. These items can be enhanced by golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the type of material used) to give +40 Luck or to increase the Luck of the item up to 140.
Additionally some items, like the Hollow weapon that is infused with hollow, can be equipped to boost the damage of any damage-dealing skill by 5%. These items can be purchased in the shop or created with the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades work. However, there are cash shop items that allow players to increase their chances of success or even prevent themselves from losing an item in the event that the upgrade fails.
When you upgrade an item the rate of success is displayed in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the chance of successfully upgrading the item and can be enhanced by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The chance of success can only be increased so much, and the chance that an upgrade will fail can't be greater than 100%..
The Luck of an item may affect the success of an upgrade. Each item has a success rate of 25%, and each item that has Luck increases this chance by 5%.
The item upgrade overlays are rendered above items in the inventory. This can obscure enchantment effects and other effects. 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.