Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a frequent and essential way to boost the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.
Sometimes, however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is beaten out by Rare-grade gear because of their requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a form of upgrade that can be used on armor and weapon items. They improve the stats of the item they are attached to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged using a specialist or higher salvage kit to recover upgrade components from items.
The amount of damage that an armored item or weapon will absorb is contingent on the degree of upgrades. The ability to absorb damage of an item of armor will increase as it is upgraded to its maximum upgrade level. But, it's important to note that this will also increase its weight, which will cause it to weigh more than before.
There are several kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game, and they all have different effects. Certain upgrades grant armor an extra number of health points while others make it more powerful and lighter. The name of the upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade the item can receive, as shown below.
Some of the upgrades also require magic or a combination of technology and magic, as identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Certain upgrades require charges for use. These are identified as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades refresh daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest way to improve your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small treasure chests. Titanium is more expensive however, it is available from the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, such as the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be applied on armor pieces of the highest level. These upgrades can give significant boost to stats and are worth the investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.
The player must be aware, however, that upgrading a piece up to the maximum upgrade level can increase its defense value. However, it can also affect its agility and its speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The defensive boost gained typically isn't worth the weight and power costs of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of the weapon. For instance an upgrade could increase the damage dealt by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Certain firearms also have upgrades that enhance their inherent qualities. They include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).
The majority of weapon upgrades require the use of a whetblade, or one of the three Power Dices and a different amount Minerals and Erons. These can be obtained by completing side quests or killing a certain amount of monsters and bosses.
To upgrade an equipment set, weapon piece or Whetblade You must go to the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a certain number of Bars. The more bars required to complete an upgrade the higher the level. If you have multiple upgrade materials, the cost of upgrading will be lower.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the ways to upgrade your weapon and equipment sets was a bit different. Previously you could search for an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain number of Bars to upgrade your equipment or weapon to a higher level of rarity. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level, at which point the upgrades would be reset.
You can still do this but the process is high on RNG and low on agency. You're better off buying gear that has low levels of upgrade but with high base scores and stat distributions. These items will have a higher chance of granting you the highest tier blessings and perks.
Most players will want to prioritize weapon upgrades for the weapons they most often use to allow them to progress quicker. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates use to boost their strength. Shepard, for example should upgrade his M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used in conjunction with biotic specialists such as Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to increase the stats of a character or to provide additional effects in armor and weapons. Jewelry crafting is a method for making them, where you combine a gemstone with a number specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents are available from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses in the world, or by finding Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.
The Jeweler can boost the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Based on the tier of the jewel, it will provide a different stat boosts when it is inserted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.
The Jeweler can craft all tiers of gems, except for the rare and legendary ones that require an appropriate level to obtain. In contrast to other upgrade components, jewels can be swapped with another jewel of the same kind without damaging it. item upgrade are able to replace the jewel once in an item of equipment.
It is common to use more jewels for aesthetic reasons. Apart from improving performance, the diamonds create an area that is stronger than metal, which means that repeated friction from pivots won't damage them as easily.
In addition to the above upgrades, the player can also get glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs provide a small boost in power and can be traded, but they are not guaranteed to appear as loot. Glyphs, like jewelry, can be upgraded by the Jeweler to exchange gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as traits or aegis cannot be swapped, and can only be retrieved by using an Upgrade extractor or salvaging with Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage.
Trinkets
Trinkets can be used to give your character a variety of small, but valuable, benefits. You can find them in the starting area as loot or personal story rewards. They can also be obtained from vendors and by doing road interaction. They may also be crafted by jewelers and later found or purchased on the Trading Post.
The first trinkets a player unlocks will be the cloak. It grants an unimportant but beneficial boost in speed of movement and evasion. After that, they'll be able to purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in a similar manner to the way a player can acquire weapons and armor. Each piece of gear comes with one upgrade slot that can accept either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades offer smaller bonuses and can be put into any type of equipment, however, jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and only works with certain kinds of trinkets.
These trinkets also provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the character is not in combat. This allows a hero to be more efficient when they are not active. It can also make up for the absence of excellent team or talent tree slots which would normally be 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 will not replace soon, followed by any items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item being upgraded. This is especially true when an item has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade as it's usually better to upgrade a single important stat rather than two sub-optimal ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red one prior to the beginning of the game. Mid and top players on the other hand, will choose either a pink or green ward, depending on the matchup. These choices can affect a hero's ability to control the map.
Aside from the things mentioned above, players may also find other items in the form of trophies and awards. These can be obtained by 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 in the reward tab of the hero menu.