Path of Exile Item Upgrades
Upgrades to items are a frequent and essential way to boost the performance of numerous items in Path of Exile. They can cause additional damage, AD or even affixes.
Often times however upgraded Common and Magic gear is outclassed by Rare-grade gear due to their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades can be applied to both weapon and armor items. They boost the performance of the item that they are connected to. Armor upgrades are found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. browse around this website can also be salvaged by using a professional or higher salvage kits to recover upgrade components from other items.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it can take on. The absorption of damage by an item of armor will increase as it is upgraded to the highest upgrade level. It's important to remember that this will increase the weight of the armor, so it should be heavier.
There are a variety of armor upgrades that are available in the game. Each has a different impact. Some upgrades give armor an additional amount of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The type of armor upgrade that an item will receive will be indicated by the name of the upgrade as shown in the table below.

A few upgrades are magic or a mix of technology and magic, which is identified by an "Magic" or "Hybrid" entry in the table below. Some upgrades also require charges for use. These are indicated as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges associated with these upgrades refresh daily or never expire according to the upgrade.
Iron Ore is the cheapest method to upgrade your armor. It can be found by exploring and looting small loot chests. Titanium is more expensive, but is readily available at the smelters of Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, like the Reforge or the Hot Potato Books can only be applied to armor pieces that are of high-level. These upgrades can give significant improvement in performance and are worth the investment, especially for 1-handed weapons.
The player must be aware, however, that upgrading a piece to the maximum upgrade level will increase its defense values. However, it can also reduce its agility and its speed. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +9. The defensive boost gained generally isn't worth the weight and power cost of the upgrades.
Weapons
Weapon upgrades allow players to increase the effectiveness of specific aspects of a weapon. Upgrades can boost the accuracy of a rifle or the damage that shotgun shells cause. Certain firearms have upgrades that enhance their inherent characteristics. 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 a whetblade. It's one of three Power Dices and a different amount of Minerals and Erons. They can be obtained by completing Side Quests, killing a certain amount of monsters or bosses or through the Weapon Upgrade NPC located in Central Flarine.
The process of upgrading a weapon, equipment Set piece or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade fee that is based on a specific number of Bars. The more bars needed to complete an upgrade, the more expensive the upgrade. The cost of the upgrades will be lower if you have more than one of the relevant upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the method of upgrading your equipment and weapon sets has changed a bit. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon and equipment by paying a specific number of Bars. You could continue to do this until you reached a maximum upgrade level for the weapon or equipment, after which the upgrades would be reset.
You can still do this however, the process is high on RNG and low on agency. You're better off buying gear with low upgrade levels but with high base scores and stat distributions. These items have a greater chance of giving you the highest level of advantages and benefits.
Most players will want to prioritize upgrades to the weapons they most often use to allow them to progress quicker. Players should also upgrade the weapons their teammates use to boost their strength. For instance, Shepard should consider upgrading the M92F to unlock the Beretta M93R, which will enhance its effectiveness when accompanied by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels are used in the sockets of armor and weapons, increasing the power of a character and bringing about secondary effects. They can be created through an process known as jewelry crafting, where you combine a gem with a number of specific chemicals at a table. The higher the grade of the gemstone, the better its secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also purchase them from The Jeweler in exchange for gold and Scattered Prisms.
The quality of a jewel can be improved at the Jeweler, in stages that range from Crude to Royal. Based on the level of the gem it can provide different stat boosts when it is inserted into weapons, equipment and jewelry.
All levels of jewels can be made at the Jeweler and Jeweler's Workshop, with the exception of the rare and legendary jewels which require you to be at a certain level to be able to get them. Like other upgrade components jewels can be swapped with a jewel of the same type without damaging it. However, you can only replace the jewels in an item of equipment once.
It is common to use more gems for aesthetic reasons. Apart from improving performance, the diamonds create an area that is stronger than metal, which means that repeated friction from pivots doesn't cause damage as easily.
A Glyphmaster can provide glyphs that can enhance the appearance of your shields and weapons. These provide a small bonus and are able to be swapped easily but aren't guaranteed to drop as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded, like jewelry, at 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 a Black Lion Salvage Kit or an Ascended Salvage Tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets can be used to give your character a variety of small, but beneficial, advantages. They can be acquired starting in the starter areas as loot or personal story rewards from vendors, or by completing road interactions. They can also be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
browse around this website will be able to unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny, but useful bonus in speed of movement and evasion. Then, they can acquire rings, amulets, and necklaces in the same fashion to how the player obtains weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with one upgrade slot that can accept either a universal or jewel upgrade. Universal upgrades offer fewer benefits and can be put into any kind of equipment while jewelry cannot be changed or upgraded and is only compatible with certain types of trinkets.
These trinkets can also grant bonuses and abilities that are active whenever the hero is not in combat. This enables the hero to be more effective when not active and also helps make up for a lack of a solid team or any slots in the talent tree that would normally be filled with the hero's ideal statistics.
A good guideline for trinket upgrades is to prioritize BiS (Best-in-Slot) items that you aren't planning to replace soon, followed by 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 better to upgrade a single crucial stat than two subpar ones.
Jungle players usually upgrade their yellow trinkets to a red one at the start of the game. Mid and top players on the other hand will pick either a pink or green ward, depending on the matchup. These choices will have a significant impact on the hero's abilities to control maps.
In addition to the items listed above, players will find other trinkets in the form of trophies and rewards throughout the game. These can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, for instance completing a chapter's main quest or destroying a boss. These achievements can be seen by selecting the appropriate achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.