World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades can be used to improve the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade it could boost an item's Mark Level or Rarity, as well as boost other stats.
Each item has a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a certain amount.
Item Level
When an item gets upgraded, its stats improve in value. This value is the sum of an item's upgraded perks (attack magic attack and defense). Upgrades can be costly, depending on the person you hire and what you do. This is due to the sheer number of perks that need to be changed in order 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 players can wear (since PvP is capped at a lower level). Players can see their average level of items on their character sheet.
When deciding whether to buy or sell equipment players can evaluate the item level. It's a useful gauge of an item's worth and how much damage it's able to deal. Comparing items from the inventory of a vendor can be done by using the item level.
On PC, you can check the level of the item using ALT, or by using the left stick on XB1 or PS4. This will show the full item description, including its level. You can also locate it by hovering over an item and typing in /itemlevel chat.
There are many theories about how the level of an item is calculated. One theory says that the item level is determined by an equation that determines how valuable an item's stats actually are. It is based on the fact that different perks are valued differently, and that gems in sockets boost the value of the item. This can result in a calculated item's ilvl that is often very close to Blizzard's actual level of the item.
This is not the only factor that influences the level of an item. The level of the area where the item was dropped may alter its stats. For instance it can increase the item's haste or crit rating. Items that drop in higher-level situations will have higher ilvl.
Item Stats
The item's stats can make or break an item for players. The game utilizes them in many ways to encourage players to not limit themselves to one weapon and to encourage players to explore other weapons. The stat mods on an weapon increase the base stats. These stat mods are then increased by the player's level.
Upgrades to an item may increase its stats. The cost of upgrades is determined by the rarity of the item. A grey or white item for instance, will only be upgraded once however, items with rare tiers can be upgraded several times at more expensive costs.
Affixes are a different method to change an item's stats. They are stat boosters that can be added by the player to an item. Affixes are used to provide items with extra damage or other special capabilities (such as the ability to revive dead or reduce cooling downs), or to differentiate them by naming them.
All affixes are re-rolled at the moment by selecting them in the upgrade window, pressing the green button. This process will cost the player a specific amount of gold and other items, which can be added to the upgrade gauge in the same way as other rerolling options.
In addition to the possibility of rerolling affixes, players may 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 each item will include at least one stat in that range unless they are an item that is unique or a God Roll from a boss in a raid.
Another thing that could be altered by adding the option to upgrade the equipment without having to reroll the affixes or choosing which stats to increase. But as with base equipment, this would need to be done on a per-item basis and the interface for item comparison wouldn't show all possible stats that were gained or lost at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat of a player boosts the probability of obtaining items, the properties that are generated by loot, and the intensity of these properties. It doesn't, however directly impact damage or the ability to upgrade items. It simply gives the player a chance to acquire better equipment in earlier waves and is thus more valuable in the initial game run than later ones since most players prefer more powerful weapon scaling and defenses over the raw damage gain.
Luck can also boost the chances of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading that increases with each level of the item and can be further increased by using an anti-material, such as a Scroll of Strength or a Jewel of Blessing.
Armor, shields and weapons have a default Luck value of 40. These items can then be upgraded with golden ingots, spined leather, or oak boards (depending on the type of material used) to give +40 Luck or to increase the existing Luck of the item up to 140.
Certain items, like the Hollow-infused weapon, can also be equipped to increase the damage of any skill that causes damage by 5%. These items are available in the shop or crafted by using the appropriate ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades are successful. Cash shop items can be used to increase the success rate of an upgrade or to stop players from losing their item in the event that it fails.
When you upgrade an item the rate of success is displayed 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 chance that the upgrade will fail cannot exceed 100%..
The success of an upgrade is also affected by the Luck of that item. All items have a base success rate of 25% and every item that has Luck increases that chance by 5%.
item upgrades overlays for items are displayed above items in the inventory. This can 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.