Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a common and essential way to boost the performance of a variety of items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.
Rare-grade equipment is usually superior to the more modernized Common or Magic gear due to their higher requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a form of upgrade that can be used on weapon and armor items. They boost the stats of whatever item they are attached to. Upgrades to armor are available in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. They can also be salvaged by using a professional or higher salvage kit to retrieve upgrades from the items.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it is able to absorb. The ability to absorb damage of an item of armor will increase when it is upgraded to its maximum upgrade level. However, it's important to note that this will also increase its weight, causing it to be heavier than it was before.
There are a variety of armor upgrades that are available in the game. Each one has a distinct effect. Certain upgrades grant armor an additional number of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The type of armor upgrade that an item can get will be indicated by the name of the upgrade, as shown in the table below.
Certain upgrades require magic or a combination of technology and magic, which are identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Certain upgrades require charges in order to be used. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. These charges are either updated daily or never expire, depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest way to upgrade your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive but it can be obtained 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 provide significant improvement in stats and are worth the cost, especially for single-handed weapons.
The player must be aware that upgrading a piece up to the maximum upgrade level will increase its defense value. However, it can also reduce the speed and agility of the piece. 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 needed.
upgrade item allow players to enhance 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 upgrades that enhance their inherent qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and decreases the chance of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).
The majority of upgrades to weapons require a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These are obtained through either doing side quests, or killing 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 cost that is based on a specific number of Bars. The more bars required to complete an upgrade the more advanced the level. The cost of the upgrades will be less 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. Before, you could seek out an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain amount of Bars to upgrade your equipment or weapon to an increased rarity. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which point the upgrades would reset.
It's still possible, but it relies heavily on RNG. It is better to purchase gear with low upgrade levels, but high base scores and stat distributions. These will have a chance at gaining you the highest tier benefits and blessings.
The majority of players will make the most of upgrades to weapons they most often use to help them level up quicker. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates use to make them stronger. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to enhance its effectiveness when accompanied by biotech specialists such as Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels are utilized in the armor's sockets and weapons, enhancing the stats of a weapon and providing additional effects. Jewelry crafting is the process of creating them. You combine a gemstone with a number specific reagents on a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the gemstone, the better the secondary effect. These reagents can be gotten from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses around the world, or through collecting Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The quality of a diamond can be improved upon by the Jeweler, in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. Based on the tier of the jewel it can provide different stat boosts when inserted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.
The Jeweler can craft all kinds of gems, with the exception of rare and legendary ones, which require certain levels to gain. Jewels can be replaced with another jewel without destroying the original. However you can only swap out a jewel in an equipment piece once.
It is typical to use more gems to enhance the appearance of. Jewels also enhance performance and create a harder surface than steel so that repeated friction from pivots does not cause damage to the movement.
A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs that can enhance the look of your shields and weapons. These provide a small bonus and can be swapped freely, but are not guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are upgradeable, as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Crystal. Glyphs are also removed, which returns them to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as aegis or traits cannot be swapped, and can only be retrieved by using an Upgrade extractor or salvaging using the Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets can be used to provide your hero with many small, but useful, benefits. They are available in the starter area as loot or personal story rewards. They can also be obtained through vendors and after completing road interaction. They may also be crafted by jewelers, and then found or purchased on the Trading Post.
The first trinket a player can unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny but beneficial boost in movement speed and evasion. The player will then be able to acquire necklaces, rings, and amulets in a similar fashion as they did with 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 put into any kind of equipment while jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and is only compatible with certain kinds of trinkets.
These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This enables the hero to be more effective while inactive and also helps fill in the void of a solid team or any slots in the talent tree that normally are filled with the hero's ideal stats.
A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you will not replace in the near future, then any items with desirable stats that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is especially true when you want to upgrade multiple statistics on an item. It's better to upgrade one important stat than two less important ones.
Jungle players will often upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red trinket at the start of the game. Mid and top players on the other hand will pick either a pink or green ward, based on the game's matchup. These choices can affect the ability of a hero to control the map.
In addition to the items mentioned above, players will discover other trinkets in form trophies and rewards throughout the game. They can be obtained by completing certain milestones within the story. For example, completing the main quest for a chapter or beating an opponent. These can be viewed by selecting the relevant achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.