Path of Exile Item Upgrades
The performance of many Path of Exile items can be enhanced by upgrading them. They can be a good source of additional damage or more AD or even more attachments.
Sometimes, however, upgraded Common and Magic gear is beaten out by Rare-grade gear because of their requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They improve the stats 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 rescued from items with upgrade components in them with a professional or higher salvage kit.
The amount of damage that a piece of armor or weapon can absorb depends on the level of its upgrades. A piece of armor upgraded to maximum upgrade level will boost its ability to absorb damage. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, therefore it must be heavier.
There are a variety of armor upgrades available in the game. Each one has a distinct effect. For instance, certain upgrades will grant the armor a certain amount of additional health points, while others will make it lighter and stronger. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the type of upgrade that an item will be given, as illustrated below.
Some of the upgrades are also magic or a hybrid of magic and technology, which is shown by a "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require charges to use, which are shown by an "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are constantly updated or never expire depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest way to upgrade your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive but it can be obtained from the 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. item upgrading can give significant improvements in performance and are worth the cost, especially for single-handed weapons.
The process of upgrading an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will greatly increase its defense capabilities, but the player should be aware that putting on weight will drastically reduce its agility and speed. This is why it is typically not recommended to upgrade the majority of armor pieces that are higher than +9 since the added defense is typically not worth the additional weight and power costs of the upgrades required.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades give players to enhance certain aspects of their weapon. Upgrades can improve the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage that shotgun shells cause. Certain weapons come with special upgrades to improve their inherent capabilities. Frictionless materials (improves stability, minimizes weapon overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's speed to cause more damage) are two examples.
The majority of upgrades to weapons require one of three Power Dices, a different amount of Minerals and Erons and a whetblade. These can be obtained by completing Side Quests or by killing a certain amount of bosses and monsters.
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 higher the upgrade level, the more bars you will need to complete the upgrade. If you have multiple upgrade materials, the cost of upgrading will be lower.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets changed a little. Prior to Chapter 2: Season 5, you could upgrade your weapon or equipment by paying a specific amount of Bars. You could do this until you reached a maximum upgrade level for your weapon or equipment, after which upgrades would reset.
You can still do this but the process is high on RNG and low on agency. You're better off buying gear with low upgrade levels and high base scores and stat distributions. These will then have a chance at gaining you the highest tier benefits and blessings.
To improve their skills faster, many players prioritise upgrading their weapons. Additionally, players should consider upgrading the weapons they use with their squadmates to increase their power as well. Shepard for instance should upgrade his M92F in order to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when accompanied with biotic specialists such as Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to improve a stat or provide secondary effects on weapons and armor. Jewelry crafting is a method for creating them. You combine gemstones with specific reagents on a jewelry table. The higher the grade of the gemstone, the better its secondary effect. These reagents can be gotten from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses all over the world, or through salvaging Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The Jeweler can enhance the quality of the gem in stages that range from Crude up to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the tier the jewel is at when it is inserted into weapons, jewelry, or other gear.
The Jeweler can create all tiers of gems, apart from the rare and legendary ones, which you must be at certain levels to gain. Jewels can be substituted with another one without damaging the original. You are able to replace the jewel only once in a piece of equipment.
Utilizing more jewels in a move can make it feel more comfortable and is usually performed for aesthetic reasons. In addition to enhancing performance, the diamonds create a surface that is harder than metal, which means that repeated friction with pivots doesn't cause damage as easily.
A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the look of your weapons and shields. These glyphs provide a small boost in power and can be swapped, but 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 can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, such as aegis and traits, aren't swappable and can only be recovered using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them using the Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage Tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets can provide your hero with a variety of small, but valuable benefits. They are available in the starting area as loot or as personal story rewards. They are also available from vendors as well as through doing road interaction. They can also be made by jewelers, and found or purchased on the Trading Post.
The first trinkets that a player is able to unlock is the cloak, which grants an unimportant but beneficial boost to speed of movement and evasion. The player can then acquire necklaces, amulets, and rings in a similar manner similar to how they obtained weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment has an upgrade slot that can be either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades provide smaller bonuses and can be put into any type of equipment while jewelry cannot be changed or upgraded, and is only compatible with certain types of trinkets.
These trinkets provide additional buffs and abilities that are active when the hero isn't fighting. This allows the hero to be more effective when not active and also helps fill in the void of a strong team or any slots in the talent tree that normally are filled with the hero's best statistics.
A good rule 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 that is being upgraded. This is especially true when an item has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade as it's often more beneficial to upgrade one crucial stat than two subpar ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinket to a red trinket at the beginning of the game. Top and mid players however they will select either a pink or green ward, based on the game's matchup. These choices can impact a hero's ability 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 earned by completing certain milestones within the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. You can view them by clicking on the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.