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 provide extra damage, AD or even affixes.
Rare-grade equipment is often superior to modernized Common or Magic equipment due to their high demands.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They increase the effectiveness of the item they are connected to. Upgrades to armor can be found in the world of games and are available from Blacksmiths on bonfires. Alternatively, they can also be salvaged from items with upgrade components in them with a professional or higher salvage kit.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it will take on. A piece of armor upgraded to its highest upgrade level will increase its ability to absorb damage. However, it's important to be aware that this upgrade will increase its weight, causing it to weigh more than it was before.
There are several different types of armor upgrades available in the game. Each has a different effect. For instance, some upgrades 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 hybrid technology and magic, which are identified by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Some upgrades also require charges for use. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades refresh daily or never expire, dependent on the upgrade.
item upgrade is the cheapest way to upgrade your armor. You can find it by exploring and looting small chests. Titanium is more expensive, but is readily available at the smelters of 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 provide a significant improvement in stats and are worth the investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.
The process of upgrading an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will greatly increase its defense values, but the player should be aware that increasing its weight will dramatically reduce its agility and speed. For this reason, it is not recommended to upgrade armor pieces that are higher than +9 because the increase in defense is generally not worth the weight and power cost of the improvements required.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to improve the effectiveness of specific aspects of the weapon. Upgrades can improve the accuracy of a rifle or the damage caused by shotgun shells. Some weapons also have special upgrades that enhance their inherent capabilities. They include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes overheating of the weapon) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more damage).
The majority of weapon upgrades require a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. These can be obtained by doing side quests, or killing a certain amount of monsters or bosses or by contacting the Weapon Upgrade NPC located in Central Flarine.
Upgrades to a weapon, equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade price that is based on a specific number of Bars. The more bars required to complete an upgrade, the more advanced the level. The cost of upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the relevant upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the ways to upgrade your equipment and weapon sets has changed a bit. Previously you could go to an Upgrade Bench and pay a set number of Bars to upgrade your weapon or equipment to an increased quality. You could do this until your weapon or equipment reached its maximum upgrade level at which point the upgrades would be reset.
It's possible, but it depends heavily on RNG. Instead, you're much better off visiting stores and purchasing equipment with low upgrade levels, but good base scores and stat distributions. These items have a higher likelihood of granting you highest tier advantages and benefits.
The majority of players will prioritize upgrades to the weapons they most often use to allow them to progress faster. Additionally, players should consider upgrading the weapons they use with their teammates to increase their power and effective. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R to enhance its effectiveness when paired with experts in biotics like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels are placed in the armor's sockets and weapons, enhancing a stat and providing secondary effects. They can be created using a process called jewelry crafting, in which you combine a gem and a number of specific chemicals at a table. The higher the grade of the gem has, the more powerful its secondary effect. These reagents are available from Treasure Goblins and World Bosses around the world, or by finding Legendary Gear. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The quality of a diamond can be improved at the Jeweler, with stages that vary from Crude to Royal. Depending on the tier of the gem, it will provide a different stat boost when slotted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.
All levels of jewels can be crafted at the Jeweler and Jeweler's Workshop, with the exception of the rare and legendary gems that require you to be at a high enough level to be able to get the privilege of having them. Jewels can be replaced with another one without damaging the original. You are able to replace the jewel once in an item of equipment.
It is common to use more jewels to enhance the appearance of. In addition to enhancing performance, the diamonds create a surface that is harder than metal, which means that repeated friction from pivots won't cause harm as easily.
A Glyphmaster can offer glyphs to improve the appearance of your weapons and shields. These are a small perk and can be swapped out at any time however they aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs, just like jewelry, can be upgraded at the Jeweler in exchange for Scattered Crystals and gold. Glyphs can also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components, like traits and aegis, aren't swappable and can only be retrieved using an Upgrade Extractor or salvaging them using the Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage Tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets are small pieces of equipment that provide a wide range of small but useful benefits to your hero. They can be acquired starting in the starter areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, and by performing road interactions. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket that a player can unlock is the cloak. It gives a small but valuable boost in speed of movement and evasion. The player can then acquire necklaces, rings, and amulets, in a similar way similar to how they obtained weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade slot that can accommodate either a universal or a jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades are smaller and can be used on any equipment. Jewels are not upgradeable or replaced and only work with certain trinkets.
These trinkets can provide additional bonuses and abilities that are active even when the hero isn't fighting. This enables the hero to be more effective when not active and also helps make up for a lack of a strong team or any talent tree slots that normally are filled with hero's ideal stats.
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 that are less important than the iLevel of the item that is being upgraded. This is particularly true if an item has multiple stats you wish to upgrade, since it's generally better to upgrade a single important stat than two sub-optimal ones.
At the beginning of the game players in the jungle are likely to upgrade their yellow trinket into a red one, while top and middle players typically choose the pink or green ward (depending on the matchup). These choices will have a major impact on the hero's map control abilities.
In addition to the items mentioned above, players will also find other trinkets that form of trophies and rewards throughout the game. These can be obtained by completing certain milestones in the story, for instance finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a certain boss. These can be viewed by selecting the relevant achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.