Way back in the day during patch WoW 5.1, Blizzard introduced an item upgrade system. You would take certain pieces of gear to a vendor, located next to the transmogrifier and void storage area, and you would pay justice points/valor for PvE or you would pay honor/conquest points for PvP gear. This system is back, but with a twist.
Upgrading the item levels for your PvE gear is now much more affordable. It will only cost 250 valor per 4 levels for a total of 8 item levels at 500 valor. If you’re upgrading something that costs justice points, the cost will be one fee of 750 justice points for 8 item levels.
This is a huge boon to players who are trying to beat the item level cap for certain raids. If you are having a terrible time trying to get a new piece of equipment from a raid, this will grant you a bit of a boost in your performance.
These upgrades come at a much lower cost now than they did in WoW 5.1. This is because players would often times forgo item upgrading in case they were going to have the chance to get a better piece of gear the next week. Why spend a ton of valor on a piece you’re going to soon replace? Now the costs are so low, there’s no reason not to upgrade.
The item upgrade system is more or less kaput for PvP. You can upgrade your Season 12 Dreadful Gladiator’s Honor gear or Malevolent Gladiator’s Conquest gear for the same prices as the patch in WoW 5.1. Anything newer than that is not available for item upgrade and this will probably never change.
In some of the developer interviews for 5.2, the staff has been very clear that item upgrades for PvP gear was a mistake. The staff didn’t like it and more importantly the players hated it. So, unless something completely screwy happens, it won’t be making a comeback in PvP for any future WoW patches or expansions.
