Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a common and important way to improve the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can be a good source of extra damage and more AD or even more attaches.
Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade gear because of their requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They increase the performance of the item they are attached to. Armor upgrades are found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged by using a specialist or higher salvage kits to recover upgrade components from items.
The amount of damage that an armored piece or weapon can absorb depends on the degree of upgrades. The ability to absorb damage of an armor piece will increase when it's upgraded to the highest upgrade level. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, so it should be heavier.
There are a few different kinds of armor upgrades available in the game and they all have distinct effects. For instance, some upgrades will give the armor a certain number of additional health points, while others make it stronger and lighter. The name of the upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade the item can be given, as illustrated below.
Some of the upgrades also require magic or a hybrid technology and magic, which is indicated by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees in order to be used. These are indicated as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges associated with these upgrades change daily or never expire, according to the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest method to upgrade your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small treasure chests. Titanium is more expensive, but it can be obtained through smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to higher level armor pieces. These upgrades can give significant boost to performance and are worth the cost, especially for single-handed weapons.
A piece of armor upgraded to its maximum upgrade level will significantly increase its defense values, but the player should be aware that putting on weight can drastically decrease its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor above +9. The added defense generally isn't worth the weight and power expenses of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of an weapon. For example, an upgrade may enhance the damage caused by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of the rifle sniper. Certain firearms have upgrades that enhance their inherent qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and reduces the risk of weapon overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).
The majority of upgrades for weapons require the use of a whetblade, or one of the three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These can be obtained by completing side quests or killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.
The process of 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 set number of Bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade the higher the level. If you have multiple upgrade materials The cost of upgrading will be lower.
In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade weapon and equipment sets has changed. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a specific amount of Bars. You could do this until the 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 better off going to the stores and buying equipment that has low upgrade levels but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These items have a greater likelihood of granting you highest tier advantages and benefits.
The majority of players will prioritize weapon upgrades for the weapons they most often use to make sure they are able to level up faster. In addition players, they should also consider upgrading the weapons that are most popular with their squadmates to make them more powerful and effective. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R, which will make it more useful when paired with experts in biotics like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to boost the effectiveness of a skill or provide additional effects in weapons and armor. They can be created through a process called jewelry crafting, where you combine a gemstone and a number of specific chemicals at a table. The higher the level of the gem has, the more powerful its secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses in the world, or through finding Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The quality of a gem can be improved upon by the Jeweler, with stages that range from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts will vary depending on the level the jewel is at when it is inserted into jewelry, weapons or gear.
All kinds of jewels can be made at the Jeweler, with the exception of the rare and legendary jewels that require you to be at a high enough level to qualify for them. Like other upgrade components jewels can be swapped out by a different jewel of the same kind without damaging the original one. However, you can only replace the jewels in an item of equipment once.
It is normal to use more gems to enhance the appearance of. Jewels also enhance performance and make a harder surface than metal so that repeated friction caused by pivots does not cause damage to the movement.
In addition to the above upgrades, the player can also obtain glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. These are a small perk and are able to be swapped easily, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. upgrade item can be upgraded as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold, and also a scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed from the inventory, and they are returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits or aegis cannot be swapped, and can only be retrieved by using an Upgrade extractor or salvaging with Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage.
Trinkets
Trinkets are a great way to provide your hero with many small, but useful, advantages. 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 completing road interaction. They can also be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinkets that a player unlocks will be the cloak, which grants a small but useful bonus in speed of movement and evasion. The player will then be able to acquire necklaces, amulets, and rings in a similar manner to how they acquired weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade slot that can accept either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and are able to be used on any equipment. Jewels cannot be upgraded or replaced, and can only be used with certain trinkets.
These trinkets grant additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This allows the hero to be more effective when not active and may also help fill in the void of a solid team or the absence of any talent tree slots that normally are filled with the hero's best statistics.
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 items with desirable stats, but less important than the iLevel of the item to be upgraded. This is particularly true if an item has multiple stats that you wish to upgrade, as it's often better to upgrade just one crucial stat than two subpar ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red trinket at the start of the game. Top and mid players, on the other hand, will choose a green or a pink ward, depending on the matchup. These choices can affect the ability of a hero to control the map.
In addition to the items listed above, players can also discover other trinkets in form trophies and rewards throughout the game. These can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance finishing a chapter's main quest or destroying a boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the relevant achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.