Upgrading items?

[Gorny]

How do you all handle upgrading your own character's gear?

Not the mechanics of how to do it, but do any of you follow a certain routine as to upgrading?

For example, do you wait until you are at or past a specific level?

Do you only upgrade certain gear quality levels, like a good rare or set/Legendaries only?

I find as I level I'm replacing gear quickly, so it doesn't always make sense to upgrade something only to swap it out for an upgrade fairly quickly.

One other thing I noticed and don't like (unless I missed it) is that there doesn't seem to be a way to compare an upgraded weapon you are using to something that you had drop - that is you see the difference in stats and the gains and losses but it doesn't look like there's a way to compare an un-upgraded weapon/armor/etc and see both the current un-upgraded version of the new item in question AND be able to see its upgraded stats without yet upgrading it without actually upgrading it - which would help in determing if a piece of gear would be a decent upgrade over something that's already equipped after it's upgraded to the same upgrade level as whatever your using in the same slot.

 

[Dredd]

How do you all handle upgrading your own character's gear?

Not the mechanics of how to do it, but do any of you follow a certain routine as to upgrading?

For example, do you wait until you are at or past a specific level?

Do you only upgrade certain gear quality levels, like a good rare or set/Legendaries only?

Until you start finding items that have best-in-slot affixes (or at least really good affixes that you know you're going to keep equipped for 10-20 levels), I think upgrading is a waste of gold and mats. Best to save that money for extracting/imprinting aspects and other expensive endeavors later on.

 

[Elly]

I upgrade near-on everything I wear but I tend to pick up an awful lot to salvage or sell so I don't seem to be struggling for mats or money really.

I've started Enchanting now and I'm throwing good money after bad there it seems.

I gambled some Obols the other day, second gamble was a legendary!

 

[you]

The first few upgrades are pretty cheap, so you can slap them on w/o worry. I only upgrade things to 4/5 if I'm going to be using them longterm and they have above avg rolls. But once you start helltides the legendary fodder starts rolling in so even the previously rare mats for 4th/5th upg become common. The fiend roses/forgotten souls are probably the rarest mats I've access to at ~60 so I've been really picky about using them.

The ilvl breakpoints are 150, 340, 460, 625, 725
so something to keep an eye out for is upgrades to push ilvl to the next tier where the stats will jump up a lot more than a normal upgrade.

https://files.catbox.moe/rny6yu.png

like this armor i pushed to +4 to hit 725. it rerolls the stat within the range too, so even if the rolls are a bit junky to start with there's still a chance it'll bump up. but i don't think it's worth the 5th given the mat price of uniques. On the other hand I have some comfy boots I got a lucky enchant on, so even though the ilvl's 1 tier lower, it was worth +5ing them because it'll be hard to replace them.

https://files.catbox.moe/1ff767.png

 

[Mick]

My rule of thumb is two upgrades on weapons, one upgrade on armor and jewelry. I'll do that much without thinking, because the cost in gold and mats is negligible.

After that it's mostly based on how hard I feel it will be to replace that item.

 

[Rush]

The first few upgrades are pretty cheap, so you can slap them on w/o worry. I only upgrade things to 4/5 if I'm going to be using them longterm and they have above avg rolls. But once you start helltides the legendary fodder starts rolling in so even the previously rare mats for 4th/5th upg become common. The fiend roses/forgotten souls are probably the rarest mats I've access to at ~60 so I've been really picky about using them.

The ilvl breakpoints are 150, 340, 460, 625, 725
so something to keep an eye out for is upgrades to push ilvl to the next tier where the stats will jump up a lot more than a normal upgrade.

https://files.catbox.moe/rny6yu.png

like this armor i pushed to +4 to hit 725. it rerolls the stat within the range too, so even if the rolls are a bit junky to start with there's still a chance it'll bump up. but i don't think it's worth the 5th given the mat price of uniques. On the other hand I have some comfy boots I got a lucky enchant on, so even though the ilvl's 1 tier lower, it was worth +5ing them because it'll be hard to replace them.

https://files.catbox.moe/1ff767.png

Well explained. Thanks for sharing the example. Should help people get to grips with the upgrading.

 

[melianor]

I do the same as @Elly . You will find and can break down items to materials plenty. So I would not worry much about not having materials
Keeping your current gear in "top" shape through upgrading just keeps you class in top shape.

The ilvl breakpoints are 150, 340, 460, 625, 725
so something to keep an eye out for is upgrades to push ilvl to the next tier where the stats will jump up a lot more than a normal upgrade.
https://files.catbox.moe/rny6yu.png

Those items breakpoints became important to me once the items started to be higher than the 460 breakpoint, or just bit below.
Before that, there was too much item replacement going on.

 

[Gorny]

I've started doing what I did in D3, that is I wait until my inventory is full then I take turns either selling or dismantling all of my normal, magic and rare items until I have enough gold to use for crafting and other vendor services. I might sell my up to three or four times then dismantle up to the same amount of times.

Legendaries and Uniques I don't sell or auto scrap. I scrap all non upgrade legendaries and unique unless they are an upgrade or a class specific one I need for an aspect or other reason, those I keep. The rest that I don't need I scrap for crafting resources.

Gems I keep in stash and upgrade.


So far, it's working for me.