Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a frequent and important way to improve the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can also provide additional damage, AD or even affixes.
Rare-grade equipment is often superior to modernized Common or Magic gear because of their high 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 they are connected to. Upgrades to armor can be found in the world of the game and are available from Blacksmiths on bonfires. Alternately, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components in them using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it can take on. The upgrade of an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will increase its damage absorption. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, so it must be more heavy.
There are several kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game and they all have different effects. Some upgrades give armor an additional amount of health points while others make it more powerful and lighter. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade the item can receive, as shown below.
A few of the upgrades are also magic or a hybrid of technology and magic, which is shown by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require charges to use, and are indicated by the "Charges" entry in the table below. The charges for these upgrades change every day or never expire, dependent on 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 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 give players a significant increases in stats and are definitely worth the investment.
The player should be aware that upgrading a piece up to the max upgrade level will increase its defense value. However, it can also affect the speed and agility of the piece. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The added defense usually isn't worth the weight and power expenses of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of the weapon. For instance, an upgrade may enhance the damage caused by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of the rifle sniper. Certain firearms also have enhancements that enhance their intrinsic qualities. 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 upgrades to weapons require three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons, and a whetblade for applying. These are obtained through either completing Side Quests, killing a certain number 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 price of a set number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the more bars are required to complete it. If you have multiple upgrade materials the cost of upgrading will be less.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your equipment and weapon sets has changed a bit. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5, you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a specific amount of Bars. You could continue doing this until you reached a maximum upgrade level for your equipment or weapon, following which the upgrades would be reset.
You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. It is better to purchase gear that has low upgrade levels and high base scores and stat distributions. These gears have a greater likelihood of granting you highest level of advantages and benefits.
To increase their level quicker, players usually be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. Additionally, players should 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 to enhance its effectiveness when accompanied by experts in biotics like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to increase a stat or provide secondary effects in weapons and armor. They can be created through a process called jewelry crafting, in which you combine a gemstone and a number of specific chemicals at a table. The higher the tier of the gemstone is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents can be found around the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and sometimes by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The Jeweler can enhance the quality of gemstones in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Based on the level of the jewel, it will provide a different stat boosts when it is inserted into weapons, gear and jewelry.
All kinds of jewels are crafted at the Jeweler and Jeweler's Workshop, with the exception of the rare and legendary jewels which require you to be at a high enough level to be able to get the privilege of having them. Jewels can be substituted with another jewel without damaging the original. However, you can only replace a jewel in an equipment piece once.
It is typical to use more jewelry to enhance the appearance of. In upgrade item to improving performance, the diamonds create a surface that is harder than steel, so the repeated friction from pivots doesn't cause harm as easily.
A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs to enhance the appearance of your weapons and shields. These glyphs give a slight boost and can be freely traded, but they're not guaranteed to show up as loot. Glyphs are like jewelry and can be upgraded at the Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as traits or aegis cannot be swapped, and can only be found through an upgrade extractor or salvaging with the Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage.
Trinkets
Trinkets can provide your hero with various small, but useful, advantages. They are available in the start-up area as loot or personal story rewards. They are also available from vendors and by completing road interaction. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket a player is able to unlock is the cloak, which gives an unimportant but beneficial boost in speed of movement and evasion. The player can then acquire necklaces, rings, and amulets, in a similar way similar to how they obtained weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that can accommodate either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be used in any type of equipment, while jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and is only compatible with certain types of trinkets.
These trinkets can also grant bonuses and abilities that are active whenever the hero is not in combat. This lets a hero become more efficient even when not in combat. It can also compensate for the lack of a excellent team or talent tree slots which are usually filled by a hero's top stats.
A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you won't be replacing soon, followed by any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is especially true if you're looking to upgrade several statistics on an item. It is more beneficial to upgrade a single important stat instead of two subpar ones.
Jungle players will often upgrade their yellow trinket to a red one at the beginning of the game. Mid and top players however they will select either a pink or green ward, depending on the matchup. These choices will have an impact on a hero's ability to control the map.
In addition to the things mentioned above, players can also find other trinkets in the game in the form of awards and trophies. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones within the story, for instance completing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. These can be viewed by selecting the appropriate achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.