Guide To Item Upgrades: The Intermediate Guide For Item Upgrades
From Shiapedia
Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a common and crucial method to enhance the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can be a great source of damage or more AD or even more attachments.
Often times however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is beaten out by Rare-grade gear due to their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a type of upgrade that can be used on armor and weapon items. They increase the performance of the item they are connected to. Armor upgrades are available in the world of games and are available from Blacksmiths on bonfires. Additionally, they can be salvaged from items with upgrade components in them using an expert or greater salvage kit.
The amount of damage that an armored item or weapon is able to absorb is dependent on the degree of upgrades. The ability to absorb damage of a piece armor will increase as it is upgraded to the highest upgrade level. It is important to keep in mind that this will increase the weight of the armor, which means it must be more heavy.
There are several different types of armor upgrade available in the game. Each has a different effect. Certain upgrades grant armor an additional number of health points while others make it lighter and more powerful. The name of the armor upgrade item will indicate the type of upgrade the item can receive, as shown below.
Some upgrades are magic or a hybrid of magic and technology, which is identified by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees for use. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. These charges are updated daily or never expire based on the upgrade.
The cheapest method to upgrade armor is to use Iron Ore, which can be found through exploring the surroundings and looting minor loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, but can be found at the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be applied to armor pieces of the highest level. These upgrades can provide significant improvement in stats and are worth the investment, particularly for one-handed weapons.
The process of upgrading an armor piece to its maximum upgrade level will dramatically boost its defense, but the player should be aware that putting more weight on it can drastically decrease its agility and speed. For this reason, it is not recommended to upgrade most armor pieces beyond +9, since the added defense is usually not worth the additional weight and power costs of the upgrades needed.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to improve the effectiveness of certain aspects of the weapon. For example, an upgrade may improve the damage that is caused by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of a rifle sniper. Certain firearms also have upgrades that improve their innate characteristics. They include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes weapon overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases projectile acceleration for more damage).
The majority of upgrades to weapons require one of three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade to apply. These can be gained by completing Side Quests or killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.
To upgrade a weapon, equipment set piece, or Whetblade you need to visit the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee that is a certain amount of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the more bars required to complete it. If you have multiple upgrade materials the cost of upgrading will be lower.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets changed a little. In the past, you could seek out an Upgrade Bench and pay for a specific number of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased rarity. You could continue doing this until you reach a maximum upgrade level for your weapon or equipment, after which the upgrades would be reset.
You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. You should consider buying equipment with low upgrade levels and high base scores and stat distributions. These gears have a better chance of granting you the highest level of blessings and perks.
Most players will want to prioritize upgrades to the weapons they use most frequently to help them level up faster. Additionally players, they should also consider upgrading the weapons they use with their teammates to make them more powerful as well. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used in conjunction by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to increase a stat or provide secondary effects in armor and weapons. Jewelry crafting is the process of making them, in which you combine gemstones with specific reagents on a table. The higher the grade of the gem is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents can be found around the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and sometimes by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The Jeweler can enhance 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 jewelry, weapons or equipment.
The Jeweler can craft all tiers of gems, with the exception of rare and legendary ones which you must attain an appropriate level to obtain. In contrast to other upgrade components, jewels are able to be swapped with a identical jewel without damaging the original one. You are able to replace the jewel once in an item upgrade of equipment.
It is normal to use more jewelry for aesthetic reasons. In addition to improving performance, the jewels create a surface that is harder than steel, so the repeated friction from pivots doesn't cause harm as easily.
In addition to the above-mentioned upgrades, the player can also get glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. These provide a small bonus and can be swapped out at any time however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are upgradeable, as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold, and also scattered Crystal. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits and aegis are not swappable, and can only be retrieved using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them using Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are pieces of equipment that bestow many small but useful advantages to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the beginning 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 be able to unlock is the cloak. It gives a small, but useful bonus in speed of movement and evasion. The player will then be able to acquire necklaces, rings, and amulets in a similar fashion similar to how they obtained weapons and armor. Every piece of equipment has a slot for an upgrade which can be universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and are able to be used on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and are only compatible with certain trinkets.
These trinkets also provide additional buffs and skills that remain active when the hero is not in combat. This allows the hero to perform better when they are not active and may also help to compensate for the absence of a strong team or the absence of any slots in the talent tree that would normally be filled with the hero's best stats.
A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is particularly true if an item has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade, since it's generally more beneficial to upgrade one crucial stat than two subpar ones.
In the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their yellow trinket to a red in the middle and top players usually choose either a pink or green ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's ability to control his map.
Apart from the things mentioned above, players can also find a number of other trinkets throughout the game in the form of awards and trophies. These can be earned through completing certain milestones within the story. For example, completing the main quest of a chapter or defeating an opponent. You can see them by selecting the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.
