World of Warcraft Gear Upgrading Guide (10.1)

Every piece of gear dropping in Patch 10.1 will come with a tooltip that informs you about its current rank and possible upgrades.

To upgrade gear, you must gather Flightstones and various types of crests. You can preview the upgrade costs and how an item improves in power at any Item Upgrades NPC in the game. There is one in Valdrakken, The Forbidden Reach, and Zaralak Cavern.

Multiple types of gear were added in Patch 10.1 — Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, and Mythic Gear, each having different upgrade ranks, requirements, and item-level ranges.

Mythic Dungeon gear is also upgraded this way and no longer uses Valor.

You have multiple choices and can visit a few different locations to upgrade gear in Patch 10.1.

• Cuzolth is found in Zaralak Cavern at 56 56.
• Corxian can be found in Valdrakken's Gladiator's Refuge at 44 37.
• Researcher Baneflare can be found in The Forbidden Reach at 35 59.

• Flightstones — A new currency that drops from all types of Season 2 content.
• Shadowflame Crests, crafting reagents from Mythic Dungeons, Raids, and select Zaralek Cavern and Dragon Isles weekly activities.

Flightstones are a new Season 2-exclusive currency used to upgrade gear.

Flightstones will begin dropping on May 2, 2023.

You can hold a maximum of 2,000 Flightstones.

As Flightstones are exclusive to Season 2, you can only use them to upgrade Dragonflight Season 2 gear, which includes open-world drops, quest rewards, crafted gear, raid gear, Mythic+ gear, world boss gear, and so on.

You will receive Flightstones from all types of Season 2 content. Completing World Quests, clearing Mythic+ Dungeons, completing zone events, weekly activities, and campaign quests will all give you Flightstones.

Shadowflame 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 Aberrus bosses, Mythic+ Dungeons, and outdoor content.

• Whelpling's Shadowflame Crest — Used to upgrade higher-item level Adventurer (ranks 5-8) and lower-level Veteran gear. You can earn it from Dragonflight Mythic Dungeons below Level 6, Aberrus raid bosses on Raid Finder Difficulty, World Quests, Treasures, and activities in Zaralak Cavern.
• Drake's Shadowflame Crest — Used to upgrade higher-level Veteran (ranks 6-8) and lower-level Champion gear. You can earn it from Dragonflight Mythic+ Dungeons between Level 6-10, Aberrus raid bosses on Normal Difficulty, and select weekly activities in Zaralak Cavern.
• Wyrm's Shadowflame Crest — Used to upgrade higher-level Champion and lower-level Hero gear, or to craft an optional reagent for crafted gear. It is earned from Mythic+ Dungeons between Level 11-15 and Heroic Difficulty Aberrus bosses.
• Aspect's Shadowflame Crest — Used to upgrade Hero gear to Item Level] 441, or to craft an optional reagent for crafted gear. Earned from select Heroic Aberrus bosses or Mythic Dungeons between Level 16-20.

Vaskarn in Loamm located at 56.50 56.04, lets you exchange Shadowflame Crests.

• You can buy 1 Whelpling's Shadowflame Crest for 1 Drake's Shadowflame Crest.
• You will receive 1 Drake's Shadowflame Crest for 1 Wyrm's Shadowflame Crest.
• You can purchase 1 Wyrm's Shadowflame Crest for 1 Aspect's Shadowflame Crest.

As mentioned above, we have different types of gear in Patch 10.1. All gear types have 8 upgrade levels except Heroic, with 5 upgrade levels and Mythic gear, which cannot be upgraded.

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

For example, defeating Echo of Neltharion on Heroic Difficulty would give you one piece of Heroic Item Level 437 piece of gear at 4/5 upgrade ranks.

Explorer gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 376-398). It drops frequently from Zaralak Cavern mobs and is a common quest reward. Gear quality changes to Rare (blue) at Rank 3. You will only need Flightstones to upgrade Explorer gear.

Adventurer gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 389-411). it rarely drops from outdoor Zaralek Cavern activities. Gear quality changes to Epic (Purple) at Rank 3. You will need Flightstones and Whelpling's Shadowflame Crests for Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Veteran gear in Season 2 has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 402-424). It drops from Fyrakk Assaults, select Zaralak Cavern activities, and 10.1 end-of-campaign quests. You will need Flightstones and Drake's Shadowflame Crests for Rank 6-8 upgrades.

Champion gear also has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 415-437). It drops in Aberrus, you can find it in the Great Vault, or weekly bonus event quests. You will need Flightstones, Whelpling's Shadowflame Crests, and Wyrm's Shadowflame Crests for Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Hero gear has just 5 upgrade ranks (Item Level 428-441). You will need Flightstones, Wyrm's Shadowflame Crests, and Aspect's Shadowflame Crests for upgrades.

Mythic Aberrus Item Level (441-457) gear cannot be upgraded. You gain progressively better loot the more bosses you defeat.

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

The same applies to Shadowflame Crests, but that discount is character-specific and you do not need to spend any crests on upgrading an item.

To learn more about upgrading gear from Mythic Dungeons, check out our detailed Season 2 guide!