Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Item upgrades are a common and essential way to boost the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can be a fantastic source of extra damage and more AD or even more affixes.
Rare-grade equipment can be superior to upgraded Common or Magic equipment due to their higher requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both armor and weapon items. They increase the effectiveness of the item they are connected to. item upgrade to armor can be found in the world of games and are available from Blacksmiths on bonfires. They can also be salvaged using a specialist or higher salvage kits to retrieve upgrade components from other items.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it is able to absorb. A piece of armor upgraded to its highest upgrade level will boost its ability to absorb damage. However, it's important to be aware that this upgrade will raise its weight, requiring it to weigh more than it was before.
There are many different kinds of armor upgrade available in the game. Each one has a distinct effect. For instance, certain upgrades give the armor a certain number of additional health points, while others make it lighter and stronger. The type of armor upgrade that an item will receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade as indicated in the table below.
Some of the upgrades also require magic or a combination of technology and magic, which are shown by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Some upgrades also require charges to use, and are identified by the "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are updated daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest method to improve your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive but can be found at the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to higher level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant boost to performance and are worth the cost, especially for single-handed weapons.
Upgrading a piece of armor to max upgrade level will greatly boost its defense however, the user must be aware that putting more weight on it can drastically decrease its speed and agility. This is why it is typically not recommended to upgrade the majority of armor pieces above +9, since the added defense is usually not worth the extra weight and power costs of the upgrades required.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades let players increase the effectiveness of certain aspects of the weapon. For instance an upgrade could improve the damage that is caused by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of a rifle sniper. Some weapons also have special enhancements that enhance their intrinsic characteristics. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and reduces the risk of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the velocity of projectiles for greater damage).
The majority of upgrades to weapons require the use of a whetblade, or one of the three Power Dices and a different amount Minerals and Erons. They can be gained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain number of bosses and monsters.
To upgrade a weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [Armor] Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a specific number of Bars. The higher the upgrade level, the higher the number of bars you will need to complete the upgrade. The cost of upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the method of upgrading your equipment and weapon sets changed a little. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5, you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a specific number of Bars. You could continue doing this until you reached a max upgrade level of the equipment or weapon, following which the upgrades would be 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 then have a chance at gaining you the most prestigious perks and blessings.
The majority of players will prioritize weapon upgrades for the weapons they are most likely to use to help them level up faster. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their teammates use to make them stronger. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to make it more useful when paired with biotech specialists such as Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to improve the effectiveness of a skill or provide additional effects on weapons and armor. Jewelry crafting is a method of making them, in which you combine the gemstone with specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and sometimes by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.
The Jeweler can enhance the quality of the gem in stages that range from Crude up to Royal. The boosts to stats will differ depending on the tier the jewel is in when it's slotted into weapons, jewelry, or gear.
The Jeweler is able to create all kinds of gems, except for the rare and legendary ones, which you must attain an appropriate level to obtain. Jewels can be replaced with another jewel without destroying the original. You can only replace the gem once within an item of equipment.
It is typical to use more jewels for aesthetic reasons. In addition to improving performance, the jewels 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 additionally, players can acquire glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs provide a small boost and can be freely traded, but they're not guaranteed to appear as loot. Glyphs, like jewelry, can be upgraded at the Jeweler to exchange Scattered Crystals and gold. Glyphs are also removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, like traits and aegis cannot be swapped out, and are only recoverable by using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them using Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are items of equipment that provide many tiny but valuable benefits to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the areas of starting as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, or by doing road interactions. They can be purchased from the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket a player is able to unlock is the cloak. It grants a small but useful bonus to movement speed and evasion. Then, they can acquire rings, amulets, and necklaces in a similar way to how a player acquires weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has a slot for an upgrade which can be universal or jewel. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be utilized on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced, and can only be used with certain trinkets.
These trinkets also grant additional buffs and skills that are active when the hero is not fighting. This enables the hero to be more effective when not active and may also help make up for a lack of a solid team or any slots in the talent tree which would normally be filled with the hero's best stats.
A good rule of thumb 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 that is being upgraded. This is especially true if an item has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade, as it's usually more beneficial to upgrade one important stat than two sub-optimal ones.
In the beginning of the game, junglers will usually want to upgrade their yellow trinket to a red, while top and middle players usually choose a green or pink 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 things mentioned above, players can find a number of other trinkets throughout the game in the form of trophies and awards. These can be earned by completing certain milestones within the story, such as completing a chapter's main quest or destroying a boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the relevant achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.