15 Terms Everyone Is In The Item Upgrades Industry Should Know

Path of Exile item upgrade Upgrades

The performance of many Path of Exile items can be enhanced by upgrading the performance of them. They can be a great source of extra damage and more AD or even more attachments.

Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade gear because of their high requirements.

Armor

Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They boost the performance of the item they are connected to. Armor upgrades are found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged by using an expert or higher salvage kits to recover upgrade components from other items.

The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it will absorb. Upgrading a piece of armor to the highest upgrade level will increase its damage absorption. But, it's important to note that this will also raise its weight, requiring it to be heavier than before.

There are a variety of armor upgrades that are available in the game. Each one has a distinct impact. For instance, certain upgrades give the armor a certain number of health points while others will make it stronger and lighter. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade the item can receive, as shown below.

Some upgrades are magical or a combination of magic and technology, which is shown by the "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees in order to be used. These are identified as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges associated with these upgrades refresh daily or never expire, depending on the upgrade.

Iron Ore is the cheapest option to upgrade your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive but it can be obtained from the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to higher level armor pieces. These upgrades can give significant improvement in stats and are worth the investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.

A piece of armor upgraded to its maximum upgrade level will significantly boost its defense however, the user must be aware that putting on weight will drastically reduce its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The boost in defense generally isn't worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades.

Weapons

Weapon upgrades allow players the ability to improve certain aspects of their weapon. Upgrades can improve the accuracy of a rifle or the damage that shotgun shells do. Certain weapons come with special enhancements to enhance their intrinsic capabilities. They include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and reduces the risk of weapon overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases projectile acceleration for more damage).

The majority of upgrades for weapons require a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount Minerals and Erons. These are obtained through either doing side quests, or taking out a certain number of monsters or bosses, or through 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 certain number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars required to complete it. The cost of upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the upgrade materials.

In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets has changed a bit. Before you could search for an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased rarity. You could do this until the weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level, at which point the upgrades would reset.

You can still do this but the process is based on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're much better off going to stores and purchasing equipment with low upgrade levels but good base scores and stat distributions. These will have a chance at gaining you the best tier of benefits and blessings.

To level up faster, many players prioritize upgrading their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates use to boost their strength. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R, which will enhance its effectiveness when paired with biotech specialists such as Grunt and Tali.

Jewels

Jewels can be used to boost a stat or provide secondary effects in armor and weapons. They can be made through an process known as jewelry crafting, where you combine a gem with several 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 occasionally by salvaging Legendary gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.

The quality of a gem can be improved by the Jeweler, in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the level the jewel is in when it's slotted into jewelry, weapons or gear.

All levels of jewels can be crafted 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 qualify for these. Unlike other upgrade items components, jewels can be swapped out with another jewel of the same kind without damaging it. However you can only swap out one jewel in a piece of equipment once.

Using more jewels in the movement will make it more smooth, and is often done to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. The jewels also improve performance and create a harder surface than metal so that repeated friction from pivots does not cause damage to them.

In addition to the above upgrades, the player can also acquire glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These provide a small bonus and are able to be swapped easily, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold, and also scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, like traits and aegis are not swappable, and are only recoverable by using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them with the Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.

Trinkets

Trinkets can give your character a variety of small, but useful, benefits. They can be obtained in the beginning areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, or by performing road interactions. They can also be crafted by jewelers and later found or purchased on the Trading Post.

The first trinket that a player will be able to unlock is the cloak. It gives a small but valuable boost in speed of movement and the ability to escape. Then, they can get amulets, rings, and necklaces in a similar fashion to how the player can acquire weapons and armor. Every piece of equipment has a slot for an upgrade that is either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be used on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.

These trinkets provide additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This lets a hero become more efficient even when not in combat. It can also make up for the lack of a good slots in the team or talent tree which would normally be filled by the hero's Best item upgrader stats.

A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item level upgrade being upgraded. This is true especially if you are looking to upgrade multiple statistics on an item upgrader mod (more..). It is best to upgrade just one crucial stat instead of two subpar ones.

Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red trinket at the beginning of the game. Top and mid players however they will select either a pink or green ward, depending on the game's matchup. These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's abilities to control maps.

Apart from the things mentioned above, players can also find a number of other items in the form of awards and trophies. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones in the story. For instance, completing the main quest for a chapter or beating the boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the appropriate achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.