World of Warcraft Gear Upgrading Guide (2024)

Last updated on Aug 21, 2024 at 22:08by Stan6 comments

Welcome to our comprehensive guide to the gear upgrading system introducedin World of Warcraft. Here, we list the different types of gear you can get,explain how to upgrade it,and show you the upgrade requirements.

Every piece of gear in the comes with a tooltip informing youabout the item's track and upgrade possibilities.

To upgrade gear, you must gather Valorstones andcrests. You can preview the upgrade costs and how an item increases in powerany item upgrade vendor in the game.

When you obtain gear in The War Within Season 1, it will have one of the followingtracks — Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Heroic, and Myth. Each trackhas different upgrade levels, upgrade requirements, and item-level ranges/brackets.

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

• Valorstones — A currency that drops from all types ofSeason 1 content.
• Harbinger Crests — Gear upgrading reagents from crafting 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 1.Completing World Quests, clearing Mythic+ Dungeons, completing zone events, weeklyactivities and campaign quests will all provide you with Valorstones.

Harbinger Crests are crafting reagents used to upgrade gear and to craftoptional reagents for crafted gear. You will need different crests to upgradedifferent types of gear.

Crests are obtained from Season 1 content, including raidsbosses, Mythic+ Dungeons, and world events.

You can obtain 90 crests per type every week, meaning six upgrades per tier per weekat most.

• Weathered Harbinger Crest — Used to upgrade higher-item levelAdventurer (ranks 5-8) and lower-level Veteran gear. You can earn whelpling crestsfrom outdoor activities, Raid Finder Nerub-ar Palace, and Heroic Dungeonsduring the War Within Season 1.
• Carved Harbinger Crest — Used to upgrade higher-levelVeteran (ranks 6-8) and lower-level Champion gear. Earned from some outdooractivities, Normal Nerub-ar Palace, Mythic dungeons, and Mythic Keystonedungeons up to +3 during the War Within Season 1.
• Runed Harbinger Crest — Used to upgrade higher-level Championand lower-level Heroic gear, or to craft an optional reagent for crafted gear. Earnedfrom Heroic Nerub-ar Palace and Mythic Keystone dungeons from +4 to +8during the War Within Season 1.
• Gilded Harbinger Crest — Used to upgrade Hero/Mythic gear orto craft an optional reagent for crafted gear. Earned from Mythic Nerub-ar Palaceand Mythic Keystone dungeons from +9 and up during the War Within Season 1

In Season 1, you can exchange low-level crests for higher-level crestsby talking to Vaskarn at 52, 42 in Dornogal.

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

As mentioned above, we have six gear tracks in Season 1.All gear tracks have 8 upgrade levels except Heroic, with 6 upgrade levels andMyth gear with 5 upgrade ranks.

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

Killing raid bosses can grant you partially upgraded gear.

Explorer gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 558-580). It drops frequentlyfrom Emerald Dream mobs and is a common quest reward. Gear qualitychanges to Rare (blue) at Rank 3. You will only need Valorstonesto upgrade Explorer gear to max rank.

Adventurer gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 571-593). It dropsfrom Awakened outdoor activities. Gear quality changes to Epic(Purple) at Rank 3. You will need Valorstones and Weathered Harbinger Crestsfor Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Veteran gear in Season 3 has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 584-606). It dropsAwakened outdoor activities and end-of-campaign quests. You will need Valorstones and Carved Harbinger Crests for Rank 6-8 upgrades.

Champion gear also has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 597-619). It drops inFated Raids bosses, you can find it in the Great Vault, or weeklybonus event quests. You will need Valorstones, Weathered Harbinger Crests,and Runed Harbinger Crests for Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Heroic gear has 6 upgrade ranks (Item Level 610-626). You will need Valorstones, Runed Harbinger Crests, and Gilded Harbinger Crestsfor upgrades.

Myth gear follows the Myth upgrade track with 6 ranks (Item Level 623-639)and drops mostly from raid bosses on the highest difficulty.

• Myth Rank 1/6 — Item Level 623;
• Myth Rank 2/6 — Item Level 626;
• Myth Rank 3/6 — Item Level 629;
• Myth Rank 4/6 — Item Level 632;
• Myth Rank 5/6 — Item Level 635.
• Myth Rank 6/6 — Item Level 639;

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 slotis drastically reduced. The discount is account-wide.

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

To learn more about upgrading Mythic Dungeon gear, check out ourdetailed Season 1 guide!

The War Within Mythic+ Season 1 Guide COMING SOON!