World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to increase the stats of a particular item. Depending on the type of upgrade you choose, it can boost the rarity of an item, or its Mark Level, and also boost other stats.
Each item has a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the price of the next item by a specified amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its basic stats increase in value. The value is the sum of all its leveled up benefits (attack magic attack, attack defense). The cost of upgrading items can be high depending on the upgrader and the kind of upgrade you decide to do. This is due to the variety of perks that have to be modified to upgrade an item.
It is also used as a gating requirement while queueing for raids, dungeons and scenarios. It is also used as a gating requirement while queueing for dungeons, scenarios and raids, and to limit the amount of PvP gear a player can wear (since PvP is limited to the lower levels). Players can view their average level of item on their character sheet.
When deciding to purchase or sell gear players can evaluate the level of an item. It's a measure of the item's condition and its quality. Comparing items from the inventory of a seller can be done using the item level.
On your PC, you can see the level of the item by pressing ALT or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the item's full description, including ilvl. It is also accessible by hovering an item with the mouse cursor and typing /itemlevel in chat.
There are a variety of theories on how the level of an item is determined. One theory is that the item level is a numerical value derived from a formula that calculates the amount an item's stats are worth. It considers the fact that different perks have different values and that gems in sockets increase the item's overall value. This can lead to an item's ilvl which is calculated and is often very close to Blizzards actual level of the item.
However, this isn't 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, for example by adding an additional level to its haste or crit rating. Items that drop in higher-level instances will have a higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The stats of an item can be the difference between a good or bad item for players. The game uses a lot of them in a variety of ways to encourage players to play with a variety of weapons, and prevent one weapon from being "the best." The stat modifications of weapons boost base stats. These stat mods are then boosted by a player's level.
Upgrades to an item can boost its stats. The rarity of an item determines the upgrade cost. A white or grey item for instance, will only be upgraded once, while an item that has rare tiers can be upgraded several times at more expensive costs.
Another way to change the stats on an item is by affixing it. They are stat boosts which can be added by the player to an item. Affixes are used to give items additional damage or special capabilities (such as reviving dead or reducing cooling downs) or to distinguish them by adding a name.
All affixes can be currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade menu pressing the green button. This will cost a specific amount in gold and items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges similar to other rerolling methods.
Players can upgrade an item by specific stats, or reroll affixes. The possible stat ranges of an item are based on the item level, but every item is guaranteed to have at least 1 stat within that range, unless it's a unique item or a God roll from a raid boss.
item upgrades is another thing 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 base equipment, it would have to be done per item and the interface for item comparison wouldn't display all possible stats simultaneously.
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 strength of these properties. However, it doesn't directly affect damage or ability to upgrade items. It provides players with an opportunity to get better equipment earlier in the game. This is more useful in early game runs because players tend to put weapon scaling and defenses above raw damage gains.
In addition to influencing item discovery, Luck also increases the probability of success when upgrading items with the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading which 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, armor, and shields can be made or spawn by using the Luck property, with the default value of 40. These items can be improved with golden ingots or spined leather (depending on their material type) for a further +40 luck, or to increase the Luck of an item up to 140.
Certain items, like the weapon with Hollow-infused components, can also be equipped to increase the damage dealt by any skill that deals damage by 5percent. These items are available at the store or crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items can be expensive and not all upgrades will be successful. However, there are some cash shop items that allow players to increase their chance of success or stop themselves from losing an item in the event that the upgrade fails.
When you upgrade an item the success rate is shown in the Honing UI. item upgrades represents the probability of successfully upgrading the item and it can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The probability of success can only be increased by so high, and the probability that an upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%..
The success of an item upgrade is also affected by the Luck of that item. Each item has a success rate of 25 percent, and each item that has Luck increases the chance of success by five percent.
The upgrade overlays for items are displayed above items in the inventory. This may block enchantment effects as well as 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.