Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide To Item Upgrades

Path of Exile item level upgrade Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and essential way to boost the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.

Often times however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade gear because of their high requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a form of upgrade that can be used on armor and weapon items. They improve the effectiveness of the item upgrader kit they are attached to. Armor upgrades are found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Additionally, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components inside them, with a professional or higher salvage kit.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it is able to take on. The absorption of damage by a piece armor will increase as it is upgraded to the highest upgrade level. It is important to keep in mind that this will increase the weight of the armor, therefore it must be more heavy.

There are many different kinds of armor upgrades available in the game. Each has a different impact. Some upgrades give armor an extra number of health points, while others make it more powerful and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an item can receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade, as illustrated in the table below.

A few of the upgrades are also magic or a mix of magic and technology, which is indicated by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades require charges for use. These are identified as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades refresh every day or never expire, dependent on the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest way to upgrade your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, however, it is available at the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant improvement in stats and are a worthwhile investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.

The player must be aware that upgrading a piece up to the maximum upgrade level will boost its defense. However, it can also affect its agility and its speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The added defense typically isn't worth the weight and power expenses of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of the weapon. Upgrades can boost the accuracy of a rifle or the damage caused by shotgun shells. Some weapons also have special enhancements that enhance their intrinsic qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).

The majority of weapon upgrades require a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These are obtained through either completing Side Quests, killing a certain amount of bosses or monsters, or through the Weapon Upgrade NPC located in Central Flarine.

Upgrading a Weapon, Equipment Set piece, or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade cost of a certain number of Bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade, the more advanced the level. If you have multiple upgrade materials the cost of upgrading will be less.

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a specific number of Bars. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level and at that point, the upgrades would be reset.

You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're much better off going to stores and purchasing equipment with low upgrade levels, but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These will then have a chance at gaining you the Best item upgrader tier of benefits and blessings.

To level up quicker, players usually prioritize upgrading their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their teammates use to boost their strength. Shepard for instance should upgrade his M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used in conjunction with biotic specialists such as Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to increase the stats of a character or to provide additional effects in weapons and armor. Jewelry crafting is a method for making them, where you combine the gemstone with specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the level of the jewel is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses all over the world, or through collecting Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.

The Jeweler can enhance the quality of gemstones in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Depending on the tier of the jewel it will give different stat boosts when inserted into weapons, gear and jewelry.

The Jeweler can create all kinds of gems, except for the rare and legendary ones that you must attain an appropriate level to obtain. Jewels can be replaced by another jewel without damaging the original. You can only replace the gem only once in a piece of equipment.

Utilizing more jewels in the movement can make it feel more comfortable, and is often used to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. Jewels also enhance performance and make a harder surface than metal so that repeated friction caused by pivots does not cause damage to them.

A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs that can enhance the look of your weapons and shields. These are a small perk and can be swapped out at any time, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are like jewelry and can be upgraded at the Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as traits or aegis can't be exchanged, and can only be recovered with an Upgrade extractor or salvaging with the Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage.

Trinkets

Trinkets can be used to give your character many small, but valuable, advantages. You can find them in the starter area as loot or as personal story rewards. They are also available through vendors and after doing road interaction. They can also be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinket a player can unlock is the cloak, which gives an unimportant but beneficial boost to speed of movement and the ability to escape. The player can then acquire rings, amulets and necklaces in a similar fashion as they did with weapons and armor. Each piece of gear comes with one upgrade slot that can accept either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be used on any device. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.

These trinkets provide additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't fighting. This allows the hero to be more efficient when they are not active. It can also make up for the lack of a excellent team or talent tree slots that are normally filled by the hero's optimal stats.

A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you won't be replacing soon, followed by items with desirable stats, but less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is especially true if an item upgrade has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade since it's generally better to upgrade a single crucial stat than two subpar ones.

At the beginning of the game, players in the jungle are likely to upgrade their trinket into a red one, while top and mid players usually choose the pink or green ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a major impact on the hero's ability to control his map.

Apart from the things mentioned above, players can also find other trinkets throughout the game in the form of awards and trophies. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones in the story. For instance, finishing a chapter’s main quest or defeating a boss. You can check them out by selecting the achievement from the reward section of the hero's menu.