Path of Exile Item Upgrades
The performance of many Path of Exile items can be enhanced by upgrading their performance. They can provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.
Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is often surpassed by Rare-grade 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 that they're connected to. Armor upgrades can be found in the game's world and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Alternatively, they can also be salvaged from items with upgrade components inside them, with a professional or higher salvage kit.
The amount of damage a piece of armor or weapon will absorb is contingent on the degree of upgrades. The damage absorption of an item of armor will increase as it is upgraded to its maximum upgrade level. But, it's important to keep in mind that this will increase its weight, causing it to weigh more than before.
There are many different kinds of armor upgrades available in the game. Each has a different impact. For instance, some upgrades will give the armor a certain amount of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The kind of armor upgrade an item can receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade, as indicated in the table below.
Certain upgrades require magic or a combination of technology and magic, which is indicated by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Some upgrades also require charges to use, which are indicated by an "Charges" entry in the table below. These charges are either constantly updated or never expire depending on the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest method to upgrade your armor. You can locate it by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive, but can be found at the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Certain 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 in stats, and are worth the investment.
The process of upgrading an armor piece to its maximum upgrade level will significantly boost its defense but the wearer must be aware that increasing its weight can drastically decrease its agility and speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor beyond +9. The boost in defense 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 a weapon. Upgrades can improve the accuracy of a rifle, or the damage that shotgun shells do. Certain weapons come with special enhancements to enhance their intrinsic qualities. These include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and decreases the chance of overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the velocity of projectiles for greater 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 can be obtained by doing side quests, or killing a certain number of bosses or monsters, or from the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.
To upgrade a weapon, equipment set piece or Whetblade, you must visit the NPC [ArmorBoboko. Boboko located in Central Flarine, and pay her an upgrade fee of a certain amount 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 less.
In Chapter 2: Season 5 the way you upgrade weapon and equipment sets has changed a bit. Previously you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay for a specific number of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased quality. You could continue to do this until you reached the max upgrade level of the equipment or weapon, following which the upgrades would reset.
It's possible, but it relies heavily on RNG. Instead, you're much better off visiting stores and buying equipment with low upgrade levels, but good base scores and stat distributions. They will also be able to give you the highest tier perks and blessings.
The majority of players will make the most of upgrades to weapons they use most frequently to allow them to progress faster. Players should also upgrade the weapons that their squadmates utilize to increase their power. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F in order to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used in conjunction with biotic specialists such as Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels are placed in the armor's sockets and weapons, increasing the power of a character and bringing about secondary effects. Jewelry crafting is a method of making them, in which you combine gemstones with specific reagents on a table. The higher the level of the jewel the better the secondary effect. These reagents can be obtained around the world from Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and occasionally by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Prisms and gold.
The quality of a jewel can be improved by the Jeweler, with stages that vary from Crude to Royal. The stat boosts can vary depending on the level the jewel is in when it's slotted into weapons, jewelry, or gear.
The Jeweler can create all kinds of gems, apart from the rare and legendary ones that require an appropriate level to obtain. Unlike other upgrade components, jewels are able to be swapped with another identical jewel without damaging the original one. However, you can only replace a jewel in an item of equipment once.
It is normal to use more jewelry for aesthetic reasons. In addition to enhancing performance, the diamonds create an outer layer that is more durable than steel, so the repeated friction from pivots doesn't damage them as easily.
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 out at any time but aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded like jewelry, at the Jeweler for gold, and also a scattered Crystal. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components such as traits or aegis can't be exchanged and can only be retrieved through an upgrade extractor or salvaging with the Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are a great way to provide your hero with many small, but beneficial, advantages. You can find them in the starting area as loot or personal story rewards. item upgrade can also be obtained through vendors and after the completion of road interactions. They may also be crafted by jewelers, and found or purchased from the Trading Post.
The first trinket a player unlocks will be the cloak, which grants a small but useful bonus to speed of movement and evasion. Then, they can acquire rings, amulets, and necklaces in the same fashion to how the player can acquire armor and weapons. Each piece of gear comes with one upgrade slot that accepts either a universal or jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be used on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced, and can only be used with certain trinkets.
These trinkets grant additional buffs and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't engaged in combat. This lets the hero be more effective when not active and may also help fill in the void of a strong team or any talent tree slots which would normally be filled with the hero's ideal stats.
A good general 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 to be upgraded. This is especially true if an item has multiple stats you wish to upgrade, as it's often better to upgrade just one 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 into a red one in the middle and top players will usually opt for the pink or green ward (depending on the matchup). These choices will have a major impact on the hero's abilities to control maps.
In addition to the items mentioned above, players may also discover a variety of other trinkets in the game in the form of trophies and awards. These can be earned by completing certain milestones within the story. For instance, completing a chapter’s main quest or defeating a boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the appropriate achievement from the reward tab of the hero menu.