World of Warcraft Gear Upgrading Guide

Turbo Boost in Patch 11.1.5, introduced the following changes to gear upgrading that will be active until Season 2 ends:

• Valorstones can be transferred to alts at a 25% penalty.
• Crests are uncapped.
• Hero and Myth-track gear received 2 additional ranks (up to 8).

Every piece of gear in the game comes with a tooltip informing you about the item's track and rank (upgrade possibilities).

To upgrade gear, you must gather Valorstones and crests. You can preview the upgrade costs and how an item increases in power by talking to any item upgrade vendor in the game.

When you obtain gear in Season 2 it will have one of the following tracks — Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Heroic, and Myth. Each track has different upgrade levels, upgrade requirements, and item-level ranges/brackets.

When gear tracks overlap, for example, Item level 610 is both Explorer 5 and Adventurer 1, the item will always have the higher track, which is Adventurer 1 in our scenario.

Keep in mind you can only upgrade gear to the maximum item level of the track it is on. For instance, Hero gear caps out at Item Level 671, meaning it cannot be upgraded beyond that threshold.

Here are the gear upgrade tracks for The War Within Season 2:

Cuzolth, the Item Upgrade Vendor, can be found at 51.9, 42.13 in Dornogal.

• Valorstones — A currency that drops from all types of Season 2 content.
• Undermine Crests — Gear upgrading reagents from Mythic Dungeons, Raids, and Khaz Algar activities.

Valorstones are used to upgrade gear in the War Within.

You can hold a maximum of 2,000 Valorstones.

You will receive Valorstones from all types of activities in Season 2. Completing World Quests, clearing Mythic+ Dungeons, completing zone events, weekly activities and campaign quests will all provide you with Valorstones.

You can transfer Valorstones between characters at a 25% penalty.

Undermine Crests are crafting reagents used to upgrade gear and to craft optional reagents for crafted gear. You will need different crests to upgrade different types of gear.

Crests are obtained from Season 2 content, including raids bosses, Mythic+ Dungeons, and world events.

During the Turbo Boost event, crests are uncapped.

There are multiple types of crests, each with a different source.

• Weathered Undermine Crest — Used to upgrade higher-item level Adventurer (ranks 5-8) and lower-level Veteran gear. You can earn whelpling crests from outdoor activities, Raid Finder Liberation of Undermine, and Heroic Dungeons during the Season 2.
• Carved Undermine Crest — Used to upgrade higher-level Veteran (ranks 6-8) and lower-level Champion gear. Earned from some outdoor activities, Normal Liberation of Undermine, Mythic dungeons, and Mythic Keystone dungeons up to +3 during Season 2.
• Runed Undermine Crest — Used to upgrade higher-level Champion and lower-level Heroic gear, or to craft an optional reagent for crafted gear. Earned from Heroic Liberation of Undermine and Mythic Keystone dungeons from +4 to +8 during Season 2.
• Gilded Undermine Crest — Used to upgrade Hero/Mythic gear or to craft an optional reagent for crafted gear. Earned from Mythic Liberation of Undermine, Mythic Keystone dungeons from +8 and up and Tier 11 Delves completed with lives remaining, during Season 2.

Whenever you need crests for gear upgrading, you will need 15 of them, with the exception of crest discounts, meaning you will no longer need to spend crests when you reach a certain item level in specific slots.

You can exchange high-level crests for low-level crests by talking to Vaskarn at 52, 42, in Dornogal.

• You can buy a Pouch of Weathered Undermine Crests for 15 Carved Undermine Crests.
• You can purchase a Satchel of Carved Undermine Crests for 15 Runed Undermine Crests.
• You can buy Pack of Runed Undermine Crests for 15 Gilded Undermine Crests.

Items in World of Warcraft follow 6 gear upgrade tracks. All of them have 8 ranks except for Hero-track gear with 6 upgrade ranks and the Myth-track with 5 upgrade tracks.

The current gear track and upgrade ranks will depend on the difficulty of the content you complete.

Killing raid bosses can grant you partially upgraded gear.

Explorer gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 577-619). It drops frequently from mobs and is a common quest reward in Undermine. Gear quality changes to Rare (blue) at Rank 3. You will only need Valorstones to upgrade Explorer gear to max rank.

Adventurer gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 610-632). It drops from Awakened outdoor activities. Gear quality changes to Epic (Purple) at Rank 3. You will need Valorstones and Weathered Undermine Crests for Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Veteran gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 623-645). Veteran-track gear can mostly be found in Pinnacle Caches from weekly quests and world events. You will need Valorstones and Carved Undermine Crests for Rank 6-8 upgrades.

Champion gear also has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 636-658). It drops in Mythic baseline dungeons, Liberation of Undermine, and Delves. You will need Valorstones, Weathered Undermine Crests, and Runed Undermine Crests for Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Heroic gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 649-671). It can be found in the Great Vault after completing Tier 8 Delves, in Mythic +6 Keystones, and more. You will need Valorstones, Runed Undermine Crests, and Gilded Undermine Crests for upgrades.

Myth gear follows the Myth upgrade track with 8 ranks (Item Level 662-684) and drops mostly from raid bosses on the highest difficulty and you can find it in the Great Vault upon completing a Mythic 10+ keystone. Here are the upgrade ranks for the highest gear echelon in the game.

• Myth Rank 1/8 — Item Level 662;
• Myth Rank 2/8 — Item Level 665;
• Myth Rank 3/8 — Item Level 668;
• Myth Rank 4/8 — Item Level 671;
• Myth Rank 5/8 — Item Level 674.
• Myth Rank 6/8 — Item Level 678;
• Myth Rank 7/8 — Item Level 681;
• Myth Rank 8/8 — Item Level 684;

Once you obtain an item with a higher item level in a specific armor slot, the amount of Valorstones needed to upgrade additional items in that slot is drastically reduced. The discount is account-wide.

Character-specific 33% crest discounts can be unlocked when your character outgrows certain item level thresholds.

• Weathered of the Undermine: Outgrow the use of Weathered Undermine Crests by reaching Item Level 636 in every slot.
• Carved of the Undermine: Outgrow the use of Carved Undermine Crests by reaching Item Level 649 in every slot.
• Runed of the Undermine: Outgrow the use of Runed Undermine Crests by reaching Item Level 662 in every slot.
• Gilded of the Undermine: Outgrow the use of Gilded Undermine Crests by reaching Item Level 675 in every slot.