Why You Should Focus On Enhancing Item Upgrades
Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a frequent and crucial method to enhance the performance of many items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.
Sometimes, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is outclassed by Rare-grade gear due to their higher requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They boost the performance of the item level upgrade they are attached to. Upgrades to armor can be found in the world of the game and are available from Blacksmiths on bonfires. They can also be salvaged using an expert 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 can take on. The upgrade of an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will increase its ability to absorb damage. It is important to note that this will increase the weight of the armor, which means it must be more heavy.
There are several types of armor upgrades that are available in the game and each one has distinct effects. For example, some upgrades will give the armor a certain number of health points while others will make it lighter and stronger. The name of the armor upgrade will indicate the kind of upgrade that an item will receive, as shown below.
Certain upgrades require magic or a combination of technology and magic, as indicated by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table below. Certain upgrades also require fees in order to be used. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades change every day or never expire, dependent on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest way to improve your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small treasure chests. Titanium is more expensive, but is readily 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 boost in stats, and are well worth the cost.
A piece of armor upgraded to max upgrade level will dramatically increase its defense values however, the user must be aware that putting on weight will dramatically reduce its speed and agility. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The defensive boost gained generally isn't worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades give players the ability to improve certain aspects of their weapon. Upgrades can boost the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage that shotgun shells cause. Certain firearms have enhancements to enhance their intrinsic characteristics. Frictionless materials (improves stability, and reduces weapon overheating) and Kinetic coils (increases the projectile's acceleration for greater damage) are two examples.
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 finishing side quests, killing a certain number of monsters or bosses, or through the Weapon Upgrade NPC located in Central Flarine.
To upgrade the weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade You must go to the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a certain number of Bars. The more bars required to complete an upgrade, the more expensive the upgrade. If you have multiple upgrade materials The cost of upgrading will be lower.
In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade weapon and equipment sets has changed. In the past you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a certain amount of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to a higher rarity. You could continue to do this until you reached a max upgrade level of the equipment or weapon, after which upgrades would reset.
This is still possible, but it depends heavily on RNG. Instead, you're much better off visiting stores and buying gear with low upgrade levels but good base scores and stat distributions. These will have a better chance of bringing you the highest tier perks and blessings.
To increase their level faster, many players prioritize upgrading their weapons. Additionally players, they should also consider upgrading the weapons favored by their teammates to increase their power as well. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to increase its utility when accompanied by biotic specialists like 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 a method for making them, in which you combine gemstones with specific reagents on a table. The higher the grade of the gemstone is, the greater its secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also buy them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.
The Jeweler can boost the quality of the gem in stages that range from Crude up to Royal. Based on the level of the jewel, it will provide a different stat boosts when inserted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.
All tiers of jewels can be made at the Jeweler, with the exception of the rare and legendary jewels which require you to be at a high enough level to qualify for them. Jewels can be replaced with another one without damaging the original. However, you can only replace one jewel in an equipment piece only once.
It is normal to use more jewels to enhance the appearance of. Jewels also enhance performance and make a harder surface than steel so that repeated friction from pivots do not cause damage to the movement.
In addition to the above-mentioned upgrades, the player can also obtain glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These are a small perk and can be swapped freely however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs are like jewelry and can be upgraded by the Jeweler to exchange gold and Scattered Crystals. Glyphs can also be taken out 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 a Black Lion Salvage Kit, or Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that bestow a wide range of small, but beneficial benefits to your hero. You can find them in the starter area as rewards for personal stories or loot. They are also available from vendors as well as through doing road interaction. They can also be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket a player can unlock is the cloak, which grants a small, but valuable boost in speed of movement and evasion. Then, they can get amulets, rings, and necklaces in a similar manner to the way a player obtains armor and weapons. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades offer smaller bonuses and can be put into any type of equipment, however, jewelry cannot be replaced or upgraded, and only works with certain types of trinkets.
These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This lets the hero perform better when they are not active and also helps make up for a lack of a strong team or the absence of any slots from the talent tree which would normally be filled with hero's ideal stats.
A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best item upgrader-in-Slot) items that you will not replace in the near future, then any items with desirable stats but less important than the iLevel of the item to be upgraded. This is especially true when an Item Upgrader Kit has multiple stats that you'd like to upgrade, as it's often better to upgrade just one crucial stat than two subpar ones.
At the beginning of the game junglers will usually want to upgrade their trinket to a red in the middle and top players usually choose a green or pink ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's abilities to control maps.
Aside from the items listed above, players can also find other items in the form of awards and trophies. They can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, like the main quest of a chapter or destroying a boss. You can view them by selecting the achievement in the reward section of the hero's menu.