A. The Most Common Item Upgrades Debate Actually Isn't As Black And White As You Might Think

item upgrade  of Exile Item Upgrades

The performance of a variety of Path of Exile items can be enhanced by upgrading them. They can be a good source of extra damage or more AD or even more affixes.

Rare-grade equipment is usually superior to upgraded Common or Magic gear because of their high requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They boost the effectiveness of the item they are connected to. Armor upgrades are available in the world of games and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at bonfires. Alternately, they can be rescued from items with upgrade components inside 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 absorb. The ability to absorb damage of an item 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, therefore it must be more heavy.

There are several types of armor upgrades available in the game, and they all have distinct effects. Certain upgrades give armor a greater amount of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The type of armor upgrade that an item can get is indicated by the name of the upgrade, as illustrated in the table below.

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

Iron Ore is the cheapest option to improve your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, however it is obtainable through 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 significant improvement in performance and are worth the investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.

The player must be aware that upgrading a piece up to the maximum upgrade level can increase its defense value. However, it will also decrease its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The added defense typically isn't worth the weight and power expenses of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players to enhance certain aspects of their weapon. For example, an upgrade may enhance the damage caused by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of a rifle that snipes. Some weapons have special upgrades to improve their inherent capabilities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, and reduces the risk of overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's velocity to cause more damage) are two examples.

Most upgrades for weapons require one of three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons and a whetblade for applying. These can be gained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain amount of monsters and bosses.

Upgrades to 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 required to complete an upgrade, the more advanced the level. If you have multiple upgrade materials, the cost of upgrading will be less.

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed a bit. Prior to Chapter 2: Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon or equipment by paying a certain number of Bars. You could continue to do this until you reached a max upgrade level of the equipment or weapon, after which 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 with low upgrade levels, but excellent base scores and stat distributions. These will then have a better chance of bringing you the highest tier benefits and blessings.

Most players will want to make the most of upgrades to weapons they use most frequently to help them level up quicker. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates utilize to increase their power. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R, which will enhance its effectiveness when accompanied by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to boost the stats of a character or to provide additional effects on weapons and armor. They can be created through a process called jewelry crafting, where you combine a gem with a number of specific reagents at a jewelry table. The higher the level of the gemstone has, the more powerful its secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The Jeweler can boost the quality of gemstones in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. The boosts to stats will differ according to the tier that the jewel is at when it's inserted into weapons, jewelry, or gear.

The Jeweler can create all tiers of gems, apart from the rare and legendary ones which you must attain a certain level to get. Unlike other upgrade components, jewels can be swapped by a different identical jewel without damaging the original one. You are able to replace the jewel once within an item of equipment.

The use of more jewels in a move will make it feel smoother and is usually used to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. In addition to improving performance, the jewels also create a surface that is harder than steel, so the repeated friction from pivots doesn't cause damage as easily.

In addition to the above upgrades, the player can also obtain glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs offer a small boost in power and can be swapped, but they're not guaranteed to appear as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded, 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 aren't swappable and are only recoverable by using an Upgrade Extractor, or by salvaging them using a Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets are a great way to provide your hero with many small, but beneficial advantages. They can be obtained in the areas of starting as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, and through performing road interactions. They can also be made by jewelers and later found or purchased at the Trading Post.

The first trinket that a player will unlock is the cloak. It gives a small, but useful bonus in speed of movement and the ability to evade. After that, they'll be able to get amulets, rings, and necklaces in the same fashion to how the player obtains armor and weapons. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that can accept either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades offer smaller bonuses and can be put into any kind of equipment while jewelry cannot be changed or upgraded and only works with certain kinds of trinkets.

item upgrades  can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This enables the hero to perform better when they are not active, and can also help make up for a lack of a solid team or the absence of any slots from the talent tree that normally are filled with hero's ideal statistics.

A good guideline 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 that is being upgraded. This is especially true when an item has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade since it's generally better to upgrade a single important stat than two sub-optimal ones.

In the beginning of the game, players in the jungle are likely to upgrade their trinket to a red, while top and mid players usually choose the pink or green ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a major impact on the hero's map control abilities.

In addition to the items mentioned above, players will find other trinkets that form of rewards and trophies throughout the game. These can be obtained through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. They can be viewed by selecting the appropriate achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.