Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide In Item Upgrades

Path of Exile Item Upgrades

Item upgrades are a common and crucial method to enhance the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can be a good source of additional damage and more AD or even more attaches.

Sometimes, however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade equipment due to their higher requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades are a form of upgrade that can be applied to armor and weapon items. They increase the performance of the item level upgrade they are attached to. Armor upgrades can be found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Additionally, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components inside them, using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.

The amount of damage that a piece of armor or weapon can absorb depends on the extent of its upgrades. The upgrade of an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will boost the damage it absorbs. However, it's important note that this will also increase its weight, causing it to weigh more than it was before.

There are many different kinds of armor upgrade available in the game. Each one has a distinct impact. Certain upgrades grant armor an additional number of health points while others make it more powerful and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an item can get will be identified by the name of the upgrade as indicated in the table below.

Certain upgrades require magic or a hybrid technology and magic, as shown by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Additionally, some upgrades require a charge to use, which is indicated by the "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges for these upgrades refresh daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.

The cheapest way to upgrade armor is with Iron Ore, which can be obtained by exploring the environment and looting minor loot chests. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available from smelters located 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 a significant improvements in stats and are a worthwhile investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.

The process of upgrading an armor piece to its maximum upgrade items level will greatly boost its defense however, the user must be aware that putting more weight on it can drastically decrease its speed and agility. For this reason, it is generally not recommended to upgrade armor pieces above +9, since the defensive boost gained is typically not worth the additional weight and power costs of the upgrades required.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of a weapon. For instance, an upgrade may enhance the damage caused by shotgun shells or the accuracy of the sniper rifle. Certain firearms have upgrades to improve their inherent qualities. They include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and decreases the chance of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).

The majority of upgrades to weapons require a whetblade, one of three Power Dices and a different amount Minerals and Erons. These are obtained through either doing side quests, or killing a certain amount of monsters or bosses, or by contacting 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 fee that is based on a specific number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars you will need to complete the upgrade. The cost of upgrading will be less if you have more than one of the relevant upgrade materials.

In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your equipment and weapon sets has changed a bit. Before you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay for a specific amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased quality. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level, at which point the upgrades would reset.

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

The majority of players will make the most of upgrades to weapons they most often use to make sure they are able to level up faster. Players should also upgrade the weapons their squadmates utilize to increase their power. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will increase the effectiveness of the weapon when accompanied with biotic specialists such as Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels are placed in the sockets of armor and weapons, enhancing the power of a character and bringing about secondary effects. They can be created using the process of jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gemstone and various ingredients at a table for jewelry. The higher the quality of the gem, the greater the secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained around the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.

The quality of a gem can be improved at the Jeweler, with stages that range from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the level the jewel is at when it's slotted into weapons, jewelry, or equipment.

The Jeweler can create all tiers of gems, with the exception of rare and legendary ones which you must be at certain levels to gain. Like other upgrade components jewels are able to be swapped with a jewel of the same type without damaging the original one. However it is only possible to replace the jewels in an item upgrader of equipment once.

It is typical to use more gems for aesthetic reasons. In addition to enhancing performance, the jewels create an outer layer that is more durable than steel, so the repeated friction with pivots doesn't damage them as easily.

In addition to the above upgrades, the player can also acquire glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. They offer a small benefit and are able to be swapped easily however they aren't 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, like traits and aegis cannot be swapped out, and can only be recovered using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them using the Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that offer an array of tiny but valuable benefits to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the beginning areas as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, or by doing road interactions. They may also be crafted by jewelers, and then found or purchased from the Trading Post.

The first trinket a player will be able to unlock is the cloak. It grants a small but valuable boost in speed of movement and the ability to evade. After that, they'll be able to acquire rings, amulets, and necklaces in the same manner to the way a player can acquire weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade item slot that can accommodate either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be placed in 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 fighting. This allows the hero to become more efficient even when not in combat. It also helps compensate for the absence of good team or talent tree slots that are normally filled by the hero's optimal stats.

A good general rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is especially true when you are looking to upgrade multiple statistics on an item. It is best to upgrade just one crucial stat rather than two suboptimal ones.

Jungle players will often upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red trinket at the beginning of the game. Top and mid players however, will choose a pink or green ward, based on the game's matchup. These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's map control abilities.

Apart from the items mentioned above, players can find a number of other trinkets in the game in the form of awards and trophies. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones within the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or destroying a boss. You can view them by clicking on the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.