WoW: How Item Upgrade System Works After 10.1 Update

The latest 10.1 update for World of Warcraft introduced massive changes to the game. One such change comes in the form of the new upgrade system for your items.

Unlike before, you can now upgrade any piece of gear by simply using Flightstones. No unlocking is necessary, and each gear that you loot will have a tooltip that will show you its current upgrade level.

Understandably, the changes are a bit overwhelming and confusing even for veteran WoW players. If you’re one of them, this guide will show you how the new system works.

How the New Item Upgrade System Works After 10.1 Update in World of Warcraft

As mentioned, every gear piece that you’ll obtain in the game will come with its own upgrade level and progression step. Meanwhile, each progression step will grant an item around 3-4 item levels.

In order to upgrade a piece of gear, you’ll have to use Flightstones and various crests to enhance its current item level. Obviously, the higher the item level, the more upgrade materials you’ll need.

Also, weapons will cost a lot more to upgrade compared to armor pieces.

In order to upgrade an item, you’ll have to visit an Item Upgrade NPC.

There are a bunch of them on the map, especially in the main areas of Dragonflight such as Valdrakken, Zaralek Cavern, and The Forbidden Reach.

Obtaining Upgrade Materials

You will be able to obtain Flightstones from various activities such as boss raids, Zaralek cavern events, and dungeon completion.

Moreover, you will also gain a bunch of Flightstones when doing any season-related activity for the current seas.

However, the amount you get will depend on the difficulty of the activity, so the harder the content you tackle, the more Flightstones you’ll get.

On the other hand, crests can be obtained from raid bosses as well as high-level Mythic+ dungeons.

You can also find some from open-world activities, though they will come in crest fragments instead of a whole crest.

That said, there are four different types of crest which are as follows:

• Aspect’s Shadowflame Crest – Obtained from level 16-20 Mythic Dungeons and some Heroic Aberrus bosses.
• Drake’s Shadowflame Crest – Obtained from level 6-10 Mythic+ Dungeons, Normal Aberrus bosses, and Zaralak Cavern events.
• Whelpling’s Shadowflame Crest – Obtained from Mythic Dungeons below level 6 and Raid Finder Aberrus bosses.
• Wyrm’s Shadowflame Crest – Obtained from level 11-15 Mythic+ Dungeons and Heroic Aberrus bosses.

Upgrade Discounts

In the new upgrade system, you will get to enjoy discounts during item upgrades once a piece of gear reaches a certain item level.

Basically, any item that has the same type will receive discounts until it reaches the same item level.

For example, if you managed to upgrade a chest piece all the way to item level 434, any other chest pieces that you upgrade in the future will have discounts until it reach item level 434.

This applies to item drops as well, and if an item that you loot has a higher item level than your current gear, you’ll be able to enjoy discounts while upgrading.

However, there are key differences between Flightstones and crests. Specifically, Flightstones will grant you a 60% discount while Crests basically removes the cost altogether.

It’s worth noting that Flightstones discounts are account-wide, meaning you can take advantage of the massively reduced crafting cost for your alts.

On the other hand, Crests discounts are character-exclusive, not account-wide.

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