Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide On Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and important way to improve the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can be a great source of extra damage, more AD or even more attaches.

In most cases, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is outclassed by Rare-grade gear due to their higher requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a type of upgrade that can be applied to weapon and armor items. They improve the stats of the item that they are attached to. Armor upgrades are available in the world of games and purchased from Blacksmiths on bonfires. Alternatively, they can also be salvaged from items that have upgrade item components in 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. Upgrading a piece of armor to the highest upgrade level will boost the damage it absorbs. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, therefore it must be more heavy.

There are a few different types of armor upgrades that are available in the game and they all have different effects. For instance, some upgrades will grant the armor a certain number of health points while others make it lighter and stronger. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade the Item upgrade can receive, as shown below.

A few upgrades are magical or a combination of technology and magic, which is shown by the "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Additionally, some upgrades require charges to use, and are indicated by the "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges associated with these upgrades change daily or never expire dependent on the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest option to improve your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small treasure chests. Titanium is more expensive, but is readily available in the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be used on armor pieces that are of high-level. These upgrades can provide significant boost to stats and are a worthwhile investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.

A piece of armor upgraded to its maximum upgrade level will significantly increase its defense capabilities but the wearer must be aware that putting more weight on it will drastically reduce its speed and agility. For this reason, it is generally not recommended to upgrade the majority of armor pieces beyond +9, because the increase in defense is usually not worth the extra weight and power costs of the upgrades needed.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of a weapon. Upgrades can improve the accuracy of a rifle or the damage that shotgun shells cause. Some weapons also have special enhancements that enhance their intrinsic characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, minimizes the risk of overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's velocity for greater damage) are two examples.

Most upgrades for weapons require one of three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade for applying. These can be gained by completing Side Quests or killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.

Upgrades to a weapon, equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade price of a set number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the more bars are required to complete it. The cost of upgrades will be lower if have more than one of the upgrade materials.

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 or equipment by paying a certain number of Bars. You could do this until you reached a maximum upgrade level for the weapon or equipment, after which the upgrades would be reset.

You can still do this but the process is high on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're much better off going to stores and buying equipment that has low upgrade levels but good base scores and stat distributions. These will then have a chance at gaining you the best tier of bonuses and blessings.

Most players will want to prioritize weapon upgrades for the weapons they use most frequently to make sure they are able to level up faster. In addition players, they should think about upgrading the weapons they use with their teammates to increase their power as well. Shepard, for example, should upgrade the M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more useful when used in conjunction with biotic specialists such as Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels are utilized in the sockets of armor and weapons, enhancing a stat and providing secondary effects. They can be created through the process of jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gemstone and several chemicals at a table. The higher the quality of the gemstone, the better the secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The quality of a jewel can be improved upon by the Jeweler in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. Depending on the tier of the jewel it can provide different stat boost when slotted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.

The Jeweler can create all tiers of gems, with the exception of rare and legendary ones, which you must attain an appropriate level to obtain. Jewels can be replaced by another jewel without destroying the original. However, you can only replace one jewel in a piece of equipment once.

Utilizing more jewels in the movement will make it feel smoother and is usually used to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. In addition to improving performance, the jewels also create an outer layer that is more durable than metal, so repeated friction from pivots won't cause harm as easily.

A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs to enhance the appearance of your shields and weapons. These provide a small bonus and are able to be swapped easily but aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are upgradeable, as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Crystal. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components like traits or aegis cannot be exchanged, and can only be recovered by using an Upgrade extractor, or salvaging with the Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are items of equipment that bestow many small but useful advantages to your hero. You can find them in the starter area as loot or as personal story rewards. They are also available from vendors as well as through the completion of road interactions. They can also be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.

The first trinket a player can unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny, but useful bonus in speed of movement and evasion. Then, they can acquire rings, amulets, and necklaces in a similar manner to the way a player acquires weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade slot that can accommodate either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades offer smaller bonuses and can be placed in any type of equipment while jewelry cannot be changed or upgraded and is only compatible with specific types of trinkets.

These trinkets grant additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't fighting. This enables the hero to be more effective when not active, and can also help to compensate for the absence of a solid team or any slots from the talent tree that normally are filled with hero's ideal stats.

A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader-in-Slot) items that you will not replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item to be upgraded. This is especially true if you want to upgrade multiple stats on an item. It is more beneficial to upgrade a single important stat rather than two suboptimal ones.

Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinket to a red trinket at the beginning of the game. Mid and top players however, will choose either a pink or green ward, depending on the matchup. These choices can impact a hero's ability to control the map.

In addition to the items listed above, players can also find other trinkets that form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. They can be obtained by completing certain milestones within the story. For example, completing a chapter’s main quest or defeating a boss. They can be viewed by selecting the appropriate achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.