Item Upgrades Explained In Fewer Than 140 Characters

Path of Exile Item Upgrades
The performance of a variety of Path of Exile items can be improved by upgrading them. They can be a good source of extra damage or more AD or even more attaches.
Sometimes, however upgraded Common and Magic gear is outclassed by Rare-grade gear due to their high requirements.
Armor
Armor upgrades are a type of upgrade that can be applied to weapons and armor items. They increase the effectiveness of the item that they're attached to. Armor upgrades are found in the world of the game and can be purchased from Blacksmiths at any bonfire. Alternately, they can be salvaged from items with upgrade components inside them, using a specialist or more powerful salvage kit.
The level of an armor's or weapon's upgrade determines the amount of damage it is able to absorb. The upgrade of an armor piece to the highest upgrade level will boost its damage absorption. However, it's important be aware that this upgrade will increase its weight, causing it to be heavier than it was before.
There are several kinds of armor upgrades available in the game, and they all have distinct effects. Certain upgrades grant armor a greater number of health points while others make it stronger and lighter. The type of armor upgrade that an item can get is indicated by the name of the upgrade, as shown in the table below.
Some of the upgrades also require magic or a hybrid technology and magic, which are shown by the "Magic" and "Hybrids" entries in the table. Certain upgrades require charges to use. They are referred to as "Charges" entries in the table. The charges for these upgrades change daily or never expire, dependent on the upgrade.
The cheapest method of upgrading armor is to use Iron Ore, which can be obtained through exploring the surroundings and looting minor loot chests. Titanium is more expensive but is readily available at the smelters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind City. Some upgrades, such as the Reforge and the Hot Potato Books, can only be applied to high-level armor pieces. These upgrades can provide significant improvements in stats and are worth the investment.
The process of upgrading an armor piece to max upgrade level will dramatically increase its defense capabilities, but the player should be aware that putting more weight on it will drastically reduce its speed and agility. It is not recommended to upgrade armor past +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 certain aspects of the weapon. For instance an upgrade could enhance the damage caused by the shells of a shotgun or the accuracy of the rifle that snipes. Some weapons have special upgrades to improve their inherent characteristics. They include Frictionless Materials (improves stability and minimizes the risk of overheating) and Kinetic Coils (increases the speed of projectiles to cause more 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. These can be obtained by completing Side Quests, killing a certain number of monsters or bosses or by contacting the Weapon Upgrade NPC in Central Flarine.
Upgrading a Weapon, Equipment Set piece, or Whetblade requires visiting the NPC [Armor] Boboko in Central Flarine and paying her an upgrade cost of a certain number of Bars. The more bars needed to complete an upgrade the higher the level. The cost of upgrading will be lower if have more than one of the upgrade materials.
In Chapter 2: Season 5, the way you upgrade your weapon and equipment sets changed a little. Prior to Chapter 2 Season 5 you could upgrade your weapon or equipment by paying a certain number of Bars. You could continue doing this until you reached the maximum upgrade level for your weapon or equipment, after which upgrades would reset.
You can still do this, however, the process is high on RNG and low on agency. Instead, you're better off going to stores and buying equipment that has low upgrade levels but good base scores and stat distributions. These items will have a better chance of giving you the highest level of advantages and benefits.
To improve their skills quicker, players usually prioritise upgrading their weapons. In addition, players should consider upgrading the weapons that are most popular with their squadmates to make them more powerful as well. Shepard for instance, should upgrade the M92F in order to unlock the Beretta M93R. This will make the weapon more effective when used by biotic specialists like Grunt and Tali.
Jewels
Jewels can be used to increase a stat or provide secondary effects on weapons and armor. Jewelry crafting is the process of creating them. You combine a gemstone with a number specific reagents in a jewelry table. The higher the quality of the gem, the greater the secondary effect. These reagents are obtained in the world through Treasure Goblins, World Bosses and, sometimes, by salvaging Legendary equipment. You can also buy them from The Jeweler for gold and a Scattered Prism.
The Jeweler can enhance the quality of a gem in stages ranging from Crude up to Royal. Based on the tier of the jewel, it will provide a different stat boosts when it is inserted into weapons, gear and jewelry.
All tiers of jewels can be made at the Jeweler, with the exception of the rare and legendary gems that require you to be at a certain level to be able to get these. In contrast to other upgrade components, jewels are able to be swapped with another jewel of the same type without destroying it. However you can only swap out one jewel in an equipment piece only once.
Utilizing more jewels in a movement can make it feel more comfortable and is usually performed to enhance the aesthetics of the movement. The jewels can also enhance performance and create a harder surface than steel so that repeated friction caused by pivots does not cause damage to the movement.
In addition to the upgrades mentioned above, the player can also obtain glyphs for their shields and weapons from a Glyphmaster. These glyphs give a slight boost in power and can be traded, but they are not guaranteed to be available as loot. Glyphs can be upgraded, as jewelry, by visiting the Jeweler for gold and scattered Crystal. Glyphs may also be removed and returned to the inventory. Other upgrade components like aegis or traits cannot be exchanged, and can only be found with an Upgrade extractor or salvaging with Black Lion Salvage Kit or Ascended Salvage tool.
Trinkets
Trinkets can be used to provide your hero with many small, but beneficial advantages. You can find them in the starter area as rewards for personal stories or loot. They are also available through vendors and after doing road interaction. They can be found on the Trading Post, or crafted by jewelers.
The first trinket that a player will unlock is the cloak. It provides a tiny, but useful bonus in speed of movement and evasion. The player will then be able to acquire rings, amulets and necklaces, in a similar way similar to how they obtained weapons and armor. Each piece of equipment comes with an upgrade slot that is either universal or jewel. Universal upgrades offer smaller bonuses and can be put into any type of equipment while jewelry cannot be changed or upgraded, and only works with certain kinds of trinkets.
These trinkets can also grant bonuses and abilities that are active whenever the hero is not fighting. This allows the hero to perform better when they are not active and also helps fill in the void of a strong team or the absence of any talent tree slots that normally are filled with the hero's ideal stats.
As a rule trinket upgrades should be a priority BiS (Best in Slot) items you won't replace soon. Next, any items with desirable statistics that are less significant than the iLevel for the item that is to be upgraded. This is especially true if an item has multiple stats you'd like to upgrade as it's often more beneficial to upgrade one important stat than two sub-optimal ones.
In the beginning of the game, players in the jungle are likely to upgrade their yellow trinket to a red, while top and mid players usually choose a green or pink ward (depending on the game's matchup). These choices can impact a hero's ability to control the map.
In item upgrader to the items listed above, players can also find other trinkets in the form trophies and rewards throughout the game. They can be earned through completing certain milestones in the story, such as finishing a chapter's main quest or killing a particular boss. They can be viewed by selecting the appropriate achievement in the reward tab of the hero menu.