Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a common and crucial method to enhance the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can be a great source of damage or more AD or even more attachments.
Sometimes, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is beaten out by Rare-grade equipment due to their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a type of upgrade that can be applied to weapons and armor items. They increase the effectiveness of the item they are connected to. Upgrades to armor can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at bonfires. Additionally, they can be salvaged from items with upgrade components within them by using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it will take on. Upgrading a piece of armor to its highest upgrade level will boost the damage it absorbs. But, it's important to keep in mind that this will raise its weight, requiring it to be heavier than before.
There are many different kinds of armor upgrades that are available in the game. Each has a different effect. Some upgrades give armor an extra amount of health points while others make it lighter and more powerful. The kind of armor upgrade an item can get is indicated by the name of the upgrade as indicated in the table below.
Certain upgrades require magic or a hybrid technology and magic, which is identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Additionally, some upgrades require a fee to use, and are shown by the "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are constantly updated or never expire based 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 available from smelters located in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be used on high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can give significant improvement in stats and are a worthwhile cost, especially for single-handed weapons.
The player must be aware that upgrading a piece to the maximum upgrade level will boost its defense. However, it will also decrease its agility and speed. For this reason, it is typically not recommended to upgrade most armor pieces beyond +9, since the added defense is usually not worth the additional weight and power cost of the upgrades needed.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of an weapon. For instance an upgrade can improve the damage that is caused by a shotgun's shells or the accuracy of the rifle that snipes. Some weapons have special upgrades to improve their inherent characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, and reduces the possibility of overheating), and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's acceleration 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 to apply. They can be obtained by completing Side Quests, killing a certain amount of bosses or monsters, or by contacting the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.
Upgrades to a weapon, equipment Set piece, or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade price of a set number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars are required to complete it. The cost of upgrades will be lower if have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade your weapon and sets has changed. Prior to Chapter 2: Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a specific amount of Bars. You could continue to do this until you reached the maximum upgrade level for the equipment or weapon, following which the upgrades would reset.
You can still do this however, the process is high on RNG and low on agency. It is better to purchase gear with low levels of upgrade, but high base scores and stat distributions. They will also have a better chance of bringing you the best tier of bonuses and blessings.
To improve their skills faster, many players be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons their teammates use to make them stronger. Shepard, for example, should upgrade the M92F so that he can unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when accompanied with biotic specialists like 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 of making them, where you combine a gemstone with a number specific reagents on a jewelry table. The higher the quality of the gem, the greater the secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses around the world, or by collecting Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The Jeweler can boost the quality of gemstones in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts will vary depending on the tier the jewel is in when it is inserted 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 high enough level to be able to get them. Jewels can be replaced by another one without damaging the original. However, you can only replace one jewel in an equipment piece only once.
The use of more jewels in a move will make it feel smoother, and is often used to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. In addition to enhancing performance, the jewels also create an outer layer that is more durable than metal, so repeated friction with pivots doesn't cause harm as easily.
A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs that can enhance the look of your weapons and shields. These glyphs give a slight boost and can be exchanged, however 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 are also removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, like traits and aegis aren't swappable and can only be recovered using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them with Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage Tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets can provide your hero with a variety of small, but beneficial advantages. You can find them in the start-up area as rewards for personal stories or loot. They can also be obtained from vendors as well as through the completion of road interactions. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket players will unlock is the cloak. It gives a small but valuable boost in movement speed and the ability to evade. The player can then collect necklaces, amulets, and rings, in a similar way to how they acquired weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with an upgrade slot that can be either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be utilized on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and are only compatible with certain trinkets.
These trinkets also grant additional buffs and skills that remain active whenever the hero is not fighting. This lets the hero be more effective while inactive and may also help fill in the void of a solid team or any slots in the talent tree which would normally be filled with hero's ideal stats.
item upgrading 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 that you'd like to upgrade, since it's generally better to upgrade a single important stat rather than two sub-optimal ones.
At the beginning of the game, players who are in the jungle will typically want to upgrade their trinket to a red, while top and middle players typically 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 listed above, players can also discover a variety of other trinkets in the game in the form of trophies and awards. These can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. You can see them by selecting the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.