Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide On Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and crucial method to enhance the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can be a fantastic source of damage and more AD or even more attachments.

Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is beaten out by Rare-grade equipment due to their high requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They increase the effectiveness of the item level upgrade they are attached to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged using a professional or higher salvage kits to recover upgrades from the items.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it is able to absorb. The absorption of damage by a piece armor will increase when it's upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. It is important to keep in mind that this will increase the weight of the armor, which means it must be heavier.

There are a few different kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game, and each one has distinct effects. Certain upgrades grant armor an extra number of health points, while others make it stronger and lighter. The name of the armor upgrade will tell you the kind of upgrade the item can be given, as illustrated below.

A few of the upgrades are also magical or a combination of technology and magic which is indicated by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades require charges to use. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades are updated daily 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 treasure chests. Titanium is more costly, but is readily available at the smelters of 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 give significant improvement in stats and are worth the investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.

The player must be aware that upgrading a piece up to the maximum upgrade level will increase its defense value. However, it will also decrease the speed and agility of the piece. Therefore, it is generally not recommended to upgrade most armor pieces above +9, since the added defense is generally not worth the weight and power costs of the improvements required.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of an weapon. Upgrades can boost the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage caused by shotgun shells. Certain weapons also come with upgrades that improve their innate qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and reduces the risk of weapon overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases the velocity of projectiles for greater damage).

Most upgrades for weapons require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons and a whetblade. These are obtained through either doing side quests, or killing a certain amount of monsters or bosses or by contacting the Weapon upgrade item NPC located in Central Flarine.

Upgrades to a weapon, equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade price that is based on a specific number of Bars. The more bars required 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 changed a little. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a certain amount of Bars. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which 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 the stores and purchasing equipment with low upgrade items levels, but good base scores and stat distributions. These will then be able to give you the most prestigious perks and blessings.

Most players will want to prioritize weapon upgrades for the weapons they are most likely to use to allow them to progress faster. Players should also upgrade the weapons their teammates use to boost their strength. Shepard, for example, should upgrade the M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when accompanied by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels are utilized in the armor's sockets and weapons, increasing the stats of a weapon and providing additional effects. Jewelry crafting is the process of creating them. You combine the gemstone with specific reagents on a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents can be gotten from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses in the world, or through collecting Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The Jeweler can enhance the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Based on the tier of the gem it can provide different stat boosts when inserted into gear, weapons and jewelry.

All levels of jewels can be made at the Jeweler however, there are some exceptions to this, such as the rare and legendary jewels that require you to be at a high enough level to obtain them. Jewels can be substituted with another jewel without destroying the original. You are able to replace the jewel only once in a piece of equipment.

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

In addition to the above-mentioned upgrades, the player can also obtain glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. They offer a small benefit and can be swapped out at any time however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs, just like jewelry, can be upgraded by the Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Crystals and gold. Glyphs can also be taken out and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as aegis and traits, are not swappable, and are only recoverable by using an Upgrade Extractor, or by salvaging them using Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are pieces of equipment that provide many small, but beneficial advantages to your hero. You can find them in the start-up area as loot or as personal story rewards. They can also be obtained from vendors as well as through completing road interaction. They can also be made by jewelers, and then found or purchased at the Trading Post.

The first trinket that a player will unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny but valuable boost in speed of movement and the ability to evade. The player can then collect necklaces, rings, and amulets in a similar fashion to how they acquired weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that can accept 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 replaced or upgraded, and only works with certain kinds of trinkets.

These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't fighting. This allows a hero to be more efficient while inactive. It also helps compensate for the absence of strong slot in the talent tree or team that are normally filled by the hero's best 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 items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is particularly true if an item has multiple stats you wish to upgrade, as it's often better to upgrade just one important stat rather than two sub-optimal ones.

In the beginning of the game players in the jungle are likely to upgrade their yellow trinket to a red, while top and mid players will usually opt for 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 also discover other trinkets in form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. These can be earned by completing certain milestones in the story. For instance, completing the main quest for a chapter or beating the boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the relevant achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.