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 damage, more AD or even more affixes.
In most cases, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is beaten out by Rare-grade equipment due to their higher requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a type of upgrade that can be used on armor and weapon items. They increase the effectiveness of the
item upgrader kit 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 will take on. The damage absorption of an
Item Upgrade of armor will increase when it's upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, which means it should be heavier.
There are several different types of armor upgrades available in the game. Each has a different impact. For instance, some upgrades give the armor a certain amount of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an
item upgrade can receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade, as indicated in the table below.
Some of the upgrades are also magic or a hybrid of magic and technology, which is identified by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require a charge to use, and are indicated by an "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges associated with these upgrades refresh every day or never expire, according to the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest method to improve your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive, but it can be obtained from 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 boost in stats, and are definitely worth the cost.
The player should be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to its maximum upgrade level can increase its defense value. However, it will also decrease its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor above +9. The defensive boost gained typically isn't worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players the ability to improve certain aspects of their weapon. For instance, an upgrade may enhance the damage caused by shotgun shells or the accuracy of the sniper rifle. Some weapons have special upgrades to improve their inherent characteristics. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes weapon overheating) 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. They can be gained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain number 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 fee of a certain number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars you will need to complete the upgrade. The cost of upgrades will be less if you have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed. In the past, you could seek out an Upgrade Bench and pay a set number of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased rarity. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level and at that point, the upgrades would reset.
It's possible, but it is dependent heavily on RNG. Instead, you're much better off going to stores and purchasing equipment that has low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These items will have a higher chance of granting you the highest tier benefits and blessings.
To increase their level faster, most players will be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their teammates use to boost their strength. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to make it more useful when accompanied by biotech specialists such as Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to increase the stats of a character or to provide additional effects in armor and weapons. Jewelry crafting is a method for making them, in which you combine a gemstone with a number specific reagents on a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The Jeweler can boost the quality of the gem in stages that range from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts can vary according to the tier that the jewel is at when it's inserted into weapons, jewelry, or equipment.
The Jeweler can craft all tiers of gems, except for the rare and legendary ones, which require an appropriate level to obtain. In contrast to other upgrade components, jewels can be swapped with a jewel of the same type without damaging the original one. You can only replace the jewel once in an
item upgrader kit of equipment.
It is common to use more jewelry to enhance the appearance of. Jewels also enhance performance and create a surface harder than metal so that repeated friction from pivots does not cause damage to them.
A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs that can enhance the look of your shields and weapons. These are a small perk and can be swapped out at any time, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded, like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold and Scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as aegis or traits cannot be exchanged, and can only be found by using an Upgrade extractor or salvaging using Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage.
Trinkets
Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that provide an array of small but useful advantages to your hero. They can be obtained in the starter areas as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, and through doing road interactions. They can also be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket a player will unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny, but useful bonus in movement speed and the ability to evade. The player can then collect rings, amulets and necklaces in a similar fashion similar to how they obtained weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades offer fewer benefits and can be put into any type of equipment, however, jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and only works with certain types of trinkets.
These trinkets provide additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This lets the hero be more effective while inactive and may also help make up for a lack of a solid team or any slots from the talent tree which would normally be filled with hero's ideal statistics.
In general trinket upgrades should be a priority BiS (
Best item upgrader in Slot) items you won't replace anytime soon. Then, you should consider any items with desirable statistics that are less significant than the iLevel for the
item upgrading to be upgraded. This is particularly true if an item has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade as it's often better to upgrade a single crucial stat than two subpar ones.