Path of Exile Item Upgrades
The performance of a variety of Path of Exile items can be improved by upgrading their performance. They can be a good source of additional damage or more AD or even more attachments.
Rare-grade equipment can be superior to upgraded Common or Magic gear due to their high demands.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a type of upgrade that can be applied to armor and weapon items. They increase the effectiveness of the item they are attached to. Upgrades to armor are available in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Alternately, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components in them with a professional or higher salvage kit.
The amount of damage an armored piece or weapon will absorb is contingent on the level of its upgrades. The upgrade of an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will boost its damage absorption. But, it's important to note that this will also increase its weight, causing it to weigh more than before.
There are a few different types of armor upgrades that are available in the game and each one has distinct effects. Certain upgrades give armor an extra number of health points, while others make it stronger and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an item can receive is indicated by the name of the upgrade, as shown in the table below.
Some of the upgrades are also magic or a hybrid of technology and magic which is indicated by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees in order to be used. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. These charges are either updated daily or never expire based on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest way to improve your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available through smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to higher level armor pieces. These upgrades can give a significant improvements in stats and are well worth the investment.
Upgrading a piece of armor to its maximum upgrade level will dramatically increase its defense capabilities but the wearer must be aware that putting on weight will dramatically reduce its speed and agility. For this reason, it is typically not recommended to upgrade most armor pieces that are higher than +9 since the added defense is typically not worth the weight and power costs of the upgrades required.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades give players the ability to improve certain aspects of their weapon. For instance an upgrade can enhance the damage caused by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Certain weapons also come with upgrades that improve their innate characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, reduces the risk of weapon overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's velocity to cause more damage) are two examples.
The majority of weapon upgrades require a whetblade, one of three Power Dices and a different amount Minerals and Erons. These can be obtained by completing side quests or by killing a certain number of monsters and bosses.
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 price of a certain number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars are required to complete it. The cost of upgrading will be lower if you have more than one of the relevant upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets was a bit different. Previously, you could seek out an Upgrade Bench and pay a set amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to a higher quality. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which point the upgrades would be reset.
You can still do this, however, the process is high on RNG and low on agency. You should consider buying equipment with low upgrade levels, but high base scores and stat distributions. These will be able to give you the highest tier bonuses and blessings.
To increase their level faster, most players will prioritise upgrading their weapons. In addition, players should consider upgrading the weapons that are most popular with their teammates to increase their power and effective. Shepard, for example should upgrade his M92F so that he can 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 the stats of a character or to provide additional effects on weapons and armor. They can be created using an process known as jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gem with several ingredients at a table for jewelry. The higher the level of the gemstone, the better the secondary effect. These reagents are available from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses around the world, or by collecting Legendary Gear. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The Jeweler can improve 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 slotted into jewelry, weapons or equipment.
All kinds of jewels can be made at the Jeweler and Jeweler's Workshop, with the exception of the rare and legendary jewels which require you to be at a sufficient level to be able to get these. Jewels can be substituted with another jewel without damaging the original. However item upgrades can only swap out one jewel in a piece of equipment once.
Using more jewels in a movement can make it feel more comfortable and is typically performed to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. The jewels can also enhance performance and create a harder surface than steel, so that the repeated friction caused by pivots does not cause damage to them.
A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs that can enhance the look of your weapons and shields. These glyphs offer a small boost and can be swapped, but they're not guaranteed to appear as loot. Glyphs are like jewelry and can be upgraded by the Jeweler to exchange gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be taken out and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components like traits or aegis can't be exchanged and can only be retrieved by using an Upgrade extractor or salvaging with the Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that bestow an array of small, but beneficial advantages to your hero. They can be obtained in the areas of starting as loot, personal story rewards, from vendors, and by performing road interactions. They may also be crafted by jewelers, and then found or purchased at the Trading Post.
The first trinkets that a player unlocks will be the cloak, which grants an unimportant but beneficial boost to speed of movement and the ability to escape. The player can then acquire rings, amulets and necklaces, in a similar way to how they acquired weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal upgrade or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be placed in any kind of equipment however, jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded and only works with specific types of trinkets.
These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This lets a hero be more efficient while inactive. It can also compensate for the lack of a excellent slots in the team or talent tree which would normally be filled by a hero's top stats.
As a general rule trinket upgrades should be a priority BiS (Best in Slot) items that you will not replace in the near future. Also, consider items with desirable stats that aren't as significant as the iLevel for the item that is to be upgraded. upgrade item is especially true when you want to upgrade multiple statistics on an item. It is better to upgrade one important stat rather than two suboptimal ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinket to a red one at the start of the game. Mid and top players on the other hand, will choose either a pink or green ward, based on the game's matchup. These choices will have a major impact on the hero's abilities to control maps.
In addition to the items mentioned above, players will find other trinkets that form trophies and rewards throughout the game. They can be earned by completing certain milestones within the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a certain boss. You can view them by selecting the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.