How Item Upgrades Changed Over Time Evolution Of Item Upgrades
Path of Exile Item Upgrades
The performance of many Path of Exile items can be improved by upgrading their performance. They can be a great source of additional damage, more AD or even more attachments.
Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade equipment due to their requirements.
item upgrading can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They improve the stats of the item they are connected to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Additionally, they can be salvaged from items with upgrade components inside them, using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.
The amount of damage an armored piece or weapon can absorb depends on the level of its upgrades. The upgrade of an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will boost its damage absorption. However, it's important to be aware that this upgrade will increase its weight, which will cause it to weigh more than before.
There are several kinds of armor upgrades available in the game, and they all have distinct effects. For instance, certain upgrades will grant the armor a certain number of additional health points, while others make it stronger and lighter. The type of armor upgrade that an item will receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade as illustrated in the table below.
Some of the upgrades also require magic or a combination of technology and magic, as identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Furthermore, some upgrades require a fee to use, which are indicated by a "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges associated with these upgrades are updated daily or never expire, according to the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest way to upgrade your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small treasure chests. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available at the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, such as the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be applied on armor pieces that are of high-level. These upgrades can give a significant increases in stats and are well worth the investment.
The player should be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to the maximum upgrade level will increase its defense value. However, it can also decrease its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The defensive boost gained usually isn't worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to enhance certain aspects of their weapon. For instance an upgrade could increase the damage dealt by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of the rifle sniper. Certain weapons come with special upgrades that enhance their inherent qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and decreases the chance of the risk of overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases projectile acceleration for more damage).
Most upgrades for weapons require one of three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade. They can be gained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain amount of monsters and bosses.
To upgrade a weapon, equipment set piece, or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a specific amount of bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade the more expensive the upgrade. The cost of upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the method of upgrading your weapon and equipment sets has changed a bit. Before, you could seek out an Upgrade Bench and pay a set number of Bars to upgrade your equipment or weapon to a higher level of rarity. You could continue to do this until you reached the max upgrade level of the equipment or weapon, after which upgrades would reset.
This is still possible, but it relies heavily on RNG. You're better off buying gear with minimal upgrade levels but with high base scores and stat distributions. These gears have a higher likelihood of granting you most prestigious tier of advantages and benefits.
To increase their level quicker, players usually be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their teammates utilize to increase their power. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R, which will increase its utility when accompanied by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to boost the effectiveness of a skill or provide additional effects on weapons and armor. They can be made through a process called jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gemstone and a number of specific ingredients at a table for jewelry. The higher the level of the gemstone has, the more powerful its secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.
The Jeweler can enhance the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the level the jewel is at when it's slotted into jewelry, weapons, or gear.
All kinds of jewels can be crafted at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels that require you to be at a certain level to be able to get the privilege of having them. Jewels can be replaced by another jewel without damaging the original. You are able to replace the jewel once in an item of equipment.
It is normal to use more gems to enhance the appearance of. Jewels also enhance performance and make a surface harder than steel so that repeated friction from pivots does not damage them.
In addition to the upgrades mentioned above, the player can also get glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These provide a small bonus and can be swapped freely but aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed, which returns them to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as aegis or traits cannot be exchanged and can only be retrieved through an upgrade extractor or salvaging using a Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage.
Trinkets
Trinkets can be used to provide your hero with a variety of small, but valuable, advantages. They can be acquired starting in the areas of starting as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, and through performing road interactions. They can also be made by jewelers, and then found or purchased on the Trading Post.
upgrade item that a player can unlock is the cloak, which gives a small but useful bonus to speed of movement and the ability to escape. The player can then acquire rings, amulets and necklaces, in a similar way to how they acquired weapons and armor. Every piece of equipment has a slot for an upgrade that is either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be utilized on any device. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced, and can only be used with certain trinkets.
These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't in combat. This lets the hero perform better when they are not active, and can also help make up for a lack of a solid team or any talent tree slots that would normally be filled with the hero's ideal stats.
A good general rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you won't be replacing soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is especially true when an item has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade as it's often better to upgrade just one important stat than two sub-optimal ones.
In the beginning of the game, players who are in the jungle will typically want to upgrade their trinket to a red, while top and middle players usually choose a green or pink ward (depending on the matchup). These choices will have an impact on the ability of a hero to control the map.
In addition to the items listed above, players can discover a variety of other items in the form of awards and trophies. They can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance the main quest of a chapter or killing a certain boss. You can view them by selecting the achievement from the reward section of the hero's menu.