World of Warcraft Gear Upgrading Guide

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 seasonal 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 3 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 655 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 710 and 6/6 ranks, meaning it cannot be upgraded beyond that threshold.

Here are the gear upgrade tracks for War Within Season 3:

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 3 content.
• Ethereal 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 3. 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.

Ethereal Crests are seasonal gear upgrading materials. Each track requires a different type of crests to upgrade.

Crests are obtained from Season 3 content, including raids bosses, Mythic+ Dungeons, and world events.

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

• Weathered Ethereal Crest — Used to upgrade Adventurer and Veteran gear in War Within Season 3 up to item levels 668-678. Earned from Repeatable Outdoor Events, Raid Finder Manaforge Omega, Heroic Season Dungeons, and Delves (Tiers 1-5).
• Carved Ethereal Crest — Used to upgrade Veteran and Champion gear in War Within Season 3 up to item level 681-691. Earned from Weekly Outdoor Events, Normal Manaforge Omega, Mythic Season Dungeons, Delves (Tiers 6-7), and Delver's Bounty (Tiers 4 and 5).
• Runed Ethereal Crest — Used to upgrade Champion and Hero gear in War Within Season 3 up to item levels 694-704. Earned from the following activities: Heroic Manaforge Omega, Mythic Keystone Dungeons from +2 to +6, Delves (Tiers 8-11), Delver's Bounty (Tiers 6 and 7).
• Gilded Ethereal Crest — Used to upgrade Hero/Mythic gear or to craft an optional reagent for crafted gear. Used to upgrade Hero and Myth gear in War Within Season 3 up to item levels 707 and above. Earned from the following activities: Mythic Manaforge Omega, Mythic Keystone Dungeons from +7 and up, Delve's Gildes Stash (Tier 11), Delver's Bounty (Tier 8 and up).

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 Ethereal Crestss for 15 Carved Ethereal Crests.
• You can purchase a Satchel of Carved Ethereal Crestss for 15 Runed Ethereal Crests.
• You can buy Pack of Runed Ethereal Crests for 15 Gilded Ethereal 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 642-665). It drops frequently from mobs and is a common quest reward in K'aresh. 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 655-678). It drops from Awakened outdoor activities. Gear quality changes to Epic (Purple) at Rank 3. You will need Valorstones and Weathered Ethereal Crests for Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Veteran gear has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 668-691). Veteran-track gear can mostly be found in Pinnacle Caches from weekly quests and world events. You will need Valorstones and Carved Ethereal Crests for Rank 6-8 upgrades.

Champion gear also has 8 upgrade ranks (Item Level 681-704). It drops in Mythic baseline dungeons, Manaforge Omega, and Delves. You will need Valorstones, Weathered Ethereal Crests, and Runed Ethereal Crests for Rank 5-8 upgrades.

Heroic gear has 6 upgrade ranks (Item Level 694-710). It can be found in the Great Vault after completing Tier 8 Delves, in Mythic +6 Keystones, and more. You will need Valorstones, Runed Ethereal Crests, and Gilded Ethereal Crests for upgrades.

Myth gear follows the Myth upgrade track with 6 ranks (Item Level 707-723) 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 707;
• Myth Rank 2/8 — Item Level 710;
• Myth Rank 3/8 — Item Level 714;
• Myth Rank 4/8 — Item Level 717;
• Myth Rank 5/8 — Item Level 720.
• Myth Rank 6/8 — Item Level 723.

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 Ethereal: Outgrow the use of Weathered Ethereal Crests by reaching Item Level 681 in every slot.
• Carved of the Ethereal: Outgrow the use of Carved Ethereal Crests by reaching Item Level 694 in every slot.
• Runed of the Ethereal: Outgrow the use of Runed Ethereal Crests by reaching Item Level 707 in every slot.
• Gilded of the Ethereal: Outgrow the use of Gilded Ethereal Crests by reaching Item Level 720 in every slot.