World of Warcraft Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a way to boost the stats of an item. Based on the type of upgrade it can increase an item's Mark Level or Rarity and boost additional stats.
Each item has a track for upgrading it. Each upgrade increases the cost of the next item by a specified amount.
Item Level
The value of an item's basic stats increases when it is upgraded. This is the sum of all its upgraded advantages (attack magic attack, attack defense). Upgrades to items can be costly, depending on the upgrader you choose and what kind of upgrade you decide to perform. 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 when queueing for raids, dungeons and scenarios. It also serves to limit how much PvP gear players are able to wear since PvP is not available at a lower level. Players can see their average level of item on their character sheet.
When deciding whether to purchase or sell gear players can evaluate the item level. It's an indicator of the item's damage and its quality. Comparing items in the inventory of a seller can be done using the item level.
The level of the item can be viewed by pressing the ALT key on PC or using the left stick (L3) on XB1 and PS4. This will show the item's full description, including the ilvl. It can also be found by hovering an item with the mouse cursor and entering /itemlevel into chat.
There are several theories about how the calculation of an item's level is carried out. One theory states that the item level is determined by a formula that calculates how valuable an item's stats actually are. It considers that different benefits are valued differently and that gems found in sockets increase the value of the item. This process could result in a calculated value for the item's ilvl which is typically close to Blizzard's actual item level.
It's not the only thing that affects the ilvl of an item. The degree of the area in which the item was dropped may change its stats. For instance, it could increase the item's haste or crit rating. This means that items that drop at higher levels will have more ilvl than those from lower-level instances.
Item Stats
The stats of an item are a major part of what makes or breaks an item for players. The game makes use of them in a variety of ways to encourage players not to restrict themselves to a particular weapon and to encourage players to explore other weapons. The stats of a base weapon are increased by the weapon's stat mods, which are themselves boosted by the player's level.
The upgrades to items add by boosting certain stats on the item. The rarity of an item determines the cost of upgrading. For item upgrading , a grey or white item can only be upgraded once, while an item with the rare tiers can be upgraded many times with higher prices.
Affixes are a different method to alter the stats of an item. These are special stat boosts that can be added to an item by the player, and are available in all sizes and shapes. The affixes could be used to give the item additional damage, or give a specific ability to the item (such as reviving the dead or cutting down cooldowns), or make the item unique by giving a special name to the item.
All affixes can be currently re-rolled by selecting them in the upgrade window, and pressing the green button. This will cost a certain amount of gold and other items. They can also be used as upgrade gauges similar to other methods of rerolling.
In addition to rerolling affixes, players can also choose which stats they want to keep on an item when it is upgraded. The range of stats is determined by the item's level. However every item will have at least one stat in the same range, unless it's an item that is unique or a God Roll from a raid boss.
Another thing that could be changed is the possibility of upgrading equipment without having to reroll the affixes, or choose which stats to boost. But as with base equipment, this would have to be performed on a per-item basis and the interface for comparing items will not show all the stats that could be that were gained or lost at the same time.
Item Luck
The Luck stat for a player adds up to increase the chances of finding items and the properties that are spawned from loot drops and the intensity of these properties. It doesn't, however directly affect damage or the ability to upgrade items. It merely gives players a chance to acquire better equipment earlier in the game and is therefore more valuable in early game runs than in later ones, because most players value greater weapon scaling and defense over damage gains.
Luck can also boost the likelihood of upgrading items at the Blacksmith. This is not to be confused with the Blacksmith's overall chance of upgrading that increases with each item level 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 an initial Luck value of 40. These items can then be enhanced by golden ingots, spined leather or oak boards (depending on the type of material used) to grant a further +40 Luck or to boost the Luck of an item up to 140.
Moreover some items, like the Hollow weapon, which is infused with Hollow can be used to boost the damage of any damage-dealing skill by 5%. These items can be purchased at the store, or they can be crafted using the right ingredients.
Item Failure
Not all upgrades are successful. Cash shop items can be used to boost the success rate of an upgrade, or to protect players from losing their item in the event that it does not work.
The success rate of an upgrade can be seen in the Honing UI. The percentage is the chances of completing the upgrade successfully, and can be enhanced by adding Additional Materials or Special Materials. The percentage 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 can influence the success of an upgrade. All items have an initial success rate of 25% and each item with Luck increases the chance of success by five percent.
The item upgrade overlays are rendered above the items in the inventory. This could 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.