World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Upgrades to an item are a way to increase the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade it could raise an item's Mark level or Rarity and boost additional stats.
Each item comes with a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the following one by a certain amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its stats are increased in value. This value is the sum of all of the perks that are leveled up (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be expensive, depending on who you hire and what you do. This is due to the sheer number of perks that have to be altered to upgrade an item.
It can also be used as a gating requirement when queueing for raids, dungeons and scenarios. It also serves to limit the amount of PvP gear players can use since PvP is not available at lower levels. Players can view their average level of item on their character sheet.
The level of an item can help players compare the power of equipment when deciding to purchase or sell. It's a useful indicator of an item's quality and the amount of damage it's capable of dealing with. Comparing items in the inventory of a vendor can be done using the item level.
On PC, you are able to view the item level by pressing ALT or using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will display the complete description of the item, as well as its ilvl. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing in /itemlevel chat.
There are several theories about how the item level is determined. One theory suggests that the level of an item is calculated using formulas that determine the worth of the stats of an item really are. It takes into consideration the fact that different perks have different worth and that sockets have gems that increase the overall value of the item. This can lead to an item's ilvl calculated, which is typically very close to Blizzard's real level of the item.
This isn't the only factor that influences the ilvl of an item. The location of where the item was dropped may change its stats. For instance, it could increase the item's haste, or crit rating. Items dropped in higher-level instances will have a higher value.
Item Stats
Stats on an item are a significant part of what makes or breaks an item for players. The game uses them in various ways to encourage players not to restrict themselves to a particular weapon and to motivate players to experiment with other weapons. The base stats of a weapon are increased by the weapon's stat mods, which are themselves enhanced by the player's level.
Upgrades to the item add by boosting certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines its cost of upgrading. For instance, a grey or white item can only be upgraded once, whereas items with rare tiers can be upgraded many times at higher prices.
Affixes are another way to change an item's stats. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and are available in all sizes and shapes. Affixes can do things like give the item additional damage, add a special ability to the item (such as reviving dead or cutting down the cooldowns), or make the item unique by adding an exclusive name to the item.
All affixes are being re-rolled right now by selecting them in the upgrade window, pressing the green button. This will cost a certain amount in gold and other items. These can be used as upgrade gauges just like the other methods of rerolling.
In addition to rerolling affixes, players can also choose which of the available stats to be kept on an item after it is upgraded. The range of stats determined by the item's level. However, all items will have at least one stat within that range unless they are an item that is unique, or the item is a God Roll from a boss in a raid.
Another thing that could be altered by adding an option to upgrade the equipment without rolling the affixes or choosing which stats to boost. However, as with the base equipment, this would have to be done on a per-item basis, and the interface for comparing items wouldn't show all possible stats that were gained or lost at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player can increase the probability of obtaining items, the properties that are spawned by loot and the intensity of these properties. However, it does not directly affect damage or ability to upgrade item s. It gives the player an opportunity to get better gear earlier in the game. This is particularly useful in the early game, since players tend to prioritize the scaling of weapons and defenses over raw damage gains.
Luck can also increase the chance of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to confuse with the Blacksmith's overall upgrade chances that increase with each new level of item. They can also be enhanced by using anti-materials such as the Scroll of Strength and a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons come with an initial Luck value of 40. These items can then be enhanced by golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the item's material type) to give +40 Luck, or to increase the existing Luck of an item up to 140.
Additionally some 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 5%. These items can be found in the shop or crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Upgrades to items are costly and not all upgrades will succeed. However, there are some cash shop items that allow players to boost their success rate or prevent them from losing an item if the upgrade is unsuccessful.
When you upgrade an item, the success rate is shown in the Honing UI. The percentage represents the probability of successfully upgrading the item and can be increased by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The probability of success can only be increased so much, and the likelihood that the upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%.
The luck of an item can influence the success of an upgrade. Each item has an overall success rate of 25%, and each item with Luck increases the chance of success by 5percent.
The upgrade overlays for items are rendered above the 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.