Path of Exile Item Upgrades
The performance of many Path of Exile items can be enhanced by upgrading them. They can be a great source of extra damage and more AD or even more attaches.
Often times however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is outclassed by Rare-grade gear because of their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They boost the performance of the item that they're attached to. Armor upgrades can be found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Additionally, they can be salvaged from items that have upgrade components in them using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.
The amount of damage that a piece of armor or weapon can absorb depends on the level of its upgrades. The absorption of damage by an armor piece will increase when it's upgraded to the maximum upgrade level. It is important to keep in mind that this will increase the weight of the armor, so it must be more heavy.
There are a few different kinds of armor upgrades available in the game, and each one has distinct effects. Certain upgrades grant armor an extra number of health points while others make it lighter and more powerful. The type of armor upgrade that an item will receive is indicated by the name of the upgrade as indicated in the table below.
Certain upgrades require magic or a hybrid technology and magic, as identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Certain upgrades require charges for use. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. These charges are updated daily or never expire depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest option to improve your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more costly, however, it is available at the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain upgrades, like the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can give a significant increases in stats and are well worth the investment.
Upgrading a piece of armor to max upgrade level will significantly boost its defense, but the player should be aware that putting more weight on it will drastically reduce its agility and 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 an weapon. Upgrades can improve the accuracy of a rifle or the damage caused by shotgun shells. Some weapons have special upgrades to improve their inherent qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and reduces the risk of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).
The majority of upgrades for weapons require the use of a whetblade, or one of the three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These are obtained through either completing Side Quests, killing a certain amount of monsters or bosses or through the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.
To upgrade the weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee that is a certain number of Bars. The more bars you need to complete an upgrade the more advanced 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 equipment and weapon sets was a bit different. Prior to Chapter 2: Season 5, you could upgrade your weapon or equipment by paying a certain amount of Bars. 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 however, the process is high on RNG and low on agency. It is better to purchase gear that has low levels of upgrade but with high base scores and stat distributions. These items have a greater chance of giving you the highest level of advantages and benefits.
To increase their level quicker, players usually be more inclined to upgrade their weapons. Players should also upgrade the weapons their squadmates use to make them stronger. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F in order to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will increase the effectiveness of the weapon when used 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. They can be made through an process known as jewelry crafting, which is where you combine a gem and various chemicals at a table. The higher the level of the gem is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents can be gotten from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses in the world, or by salvaging 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 at the Jeweler in stages that vary from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the level the jewel is at when it's slotted into jewelry, weapons or gear.
The Jeweler is able to create all tiers of gems, with the exception of rare and legendary ones, which require a certain level to get. In contrast to other upgrade components, jewels are able to be swapped with another jewel of the same kind without destroying it. You can only replace the jewel once within an item of equipment.
Using more jewels in the movement will make it more smooth and is usually done to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. In addition to improving performance, the jewels also create an area that is stronger than metal, which means that repeated friction with pivots doesn't cause damage as easily.
In addition to the above-mentioned upgrades players can also get glyphs for their weapons and shields from a Glyphmaster. These provide a small bonus and can be swapped out at any time however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are upgradeable, like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold and scattered Crystal. Glyphs are also removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as traits or aegis can't be exchanged, and can only be retrieved by using an Upgrade extractor or salvaging using Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage.
Trinkets
Trinkets are pieces of equipment that offer an array of small, but beneficial benefits to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the beginning areas as loot, 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 that a player will unlock is the cloak. It grants a small, but useful bonus in movement speed and the ability to evade. Then, they can purchase amulets, rings and necklaces in a similar manner to the way a player acquires armor and weapons. Each piece of equipment has a slot for an upgrade that is either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be used in any kind of equipment while jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and only works with specific types of trinkets.
These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't fighting. This allows a hero to be more efficient when they are not active. It can also make up for the absence of good team or talent tree slots which are usually filled by the hero's best stats.
A good rule of thumb for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you won't be replacing soon, followed by any items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is especially true if you want to upgrade multiple stats on an item. It is more beneficial to upgrade a single important stat rather than two suboptimal ones.
Jungle players often upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red one prior to the beginning of the game. Top and mid players however, will choose a green or a pink ward, depending on the game's matchup. These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's map control abilities.
In addition to the things mentioned above, players may also find other trinkets throughout the game in the form of awards and trophies. These can be earned through completing certain milestones within the story. For instance, finishing the main quest of a chapter or beating a boss. item upgrades can see them by selecting the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.