I’ve grown to really loathe this new system implemented with the crests and flightstones to upgrade gear.
For starters, PvP gear doesn’t even require honor to upgrade. You’d think doing the content you’d like to do would reward you with a way to continue doing that content with better gear, but instead you have to utilize crests from raiding and the rare world quest to upgrade.
Though I don’t raid much, upgrading LFR gear to Normal gear can only be done with Drake or Wyrm’s crests, which are obtained through Normal raiding.
I’m pretty casual, so I don’t play as much as big PvPers or raiders, but I really don’t see the benefit of this new system. I liked the system in place during the beginning of the expansion, and wish it stayed.
4 Likes
I loath the fact that we need eight billion upgrade currencies and a spreadsheet to keep track of them all.
21 Likes
Having to run M+ 11-15s to upgrade even my hero gear made me quit altogether. That, and how tedious M+ can be. Rather spend my time doing a million other things than carry another pug group.
But yeah, I’m not a fan. Flighstones are an annoying grind.
5 Likes
Pvp gear upgrade is for pve ilvl, it doesn’t matter or pvp.
Never was a fan tho of upgrade systems, they are rarely fulfilling for me.
Always preferred content to drop gear and that’s it.
4 Likes
You liked valor that only came from M+ as opposed to crests that come from more content sources?
I hate incremental upgrade systems, period. Turns gearing into more of a checklist than something that just comes naturally as you do content. It’s one of the main reasons I can’t stomach FFXIV endgame.
That and I don’t get any joy from +3 ilvl on one piece of gear. It does not make a notable impact on… anything. But you have to do it because a bunch of +3s add up into something that does. But it will never feel good because it’s always just another +3.
I also think it’s important to have clear goals to reach for. Incremental upgrades just get in the way of that. They add weeks of pointless grind to make your gear into what it “should” be, so most of the time you’ll never actually be “done” gearing, because you’ll either be working on upgrading what you have, or something a track higher will drop and then you’re starting that process over again.
6 Likes
I like it as a more deterministic upgrade system compared to something like Titanforging and the rng associated with that. I do think it may need more work to improve it in War Within though.
Theres 4 kinds of crests and flightstones
Whelping upgrades open world gear
Drake upgrades low m+ and normal raid
Wyrm upgrades 11-15 m+ and heroic raid
Aspect upgrades 16+ and mythic raid
Flightstones gotten from both m+ and raids
Super easy to understand
I don’t mind it overall. The flightstones could disappear and I wouldn’t miss them, though.Ididn’t really upgrade much until I started getting 470-480 gear though. And I was stuck at 450 for a while until my first piece of tier dropped
But actually you need Drakes to fully upgrade open world gear, Wyrms to fully upgrade normal raid and Aspects to fully upgrade heroic raid.
no, i think it’s really good, actually.
3 Likes
And paracausal flakes, dreamsurge coalescence, honour, conquest, etc…
A simplified system where all activities can reward different amounts from a couple basic currencies that don’t change every freaking patch would make it so much easier than the current “everyone gets to create a currency” scheme.
3 Likes
Blizzard does that because they don’t want people stockpiling and buying / upgrading everything instantly at the start of the new patch, and also don’t seem to want to reset currencies and give people gold based on how much they had, like what they used to.
I’m not saying it’s a good reason. I’m just saying that’s why they do it. And why it probably won’t change and we’ll get yet another 50 random currencies over the course of the next expansion.
But hey, at least crests are currencies now! No longer have those stupid crests and crest fragments further cluttering up our already bloated bags with all the random “currency” items that go into our bags this expansion…
Stopped upgrading stuff once I got a few characters I had for years up to around 410. Was burning out with constantly having to check to see if I had enough of this, or that to upgrade something. Turned retail into world 
of currenciescraft
4 Likes
Love the new system. It could be improved most definitely but i love the general system.
I think gearing is boring in general and would probably like the game as much or more if M+ just had gear templates or had some public permanent tournament realm where you could just buy free bis from vendors. Gearing is not the game for me, neither is leveling, both are chores for me to do what I want which is play fun M+ dungeons and sometimes do the raid.
1 Like
I’m ok with it… I like it better than valor.
i started playing in wod and the current upgrade system is the best one i’ve seen in the game since i started playing
like it’s not even hard to understand. you play content and get flightstones plus whatever crests are relevant to the level of content you’re playing
if your gear is below 437 you don’t need crests
437-450 = whelplings (lfr, m2-5)
450-463 = drakes (normal, m6-10)
463-476 = wyrms (heroic, m11-15)
476-489 = aspects (mythic, m16-20)
and once you’ve played enough content you can upgrade something
it’s like titanforging is still in the game but you get to titanforge your favorite piece of gear eventually in addition to the loot rolls you already got to make before this system got added
PvP gear you don’t need to upgrade at all, once you obtain it, it is good for PvP with no extra steps.
For PvE, it is a constant upward scale (faster for high M+/Raiders, lower but still present for people who only do solo content) that will constantly make things easier until you hit the cap for the content you do.
You can also get Whelpling/Drake quests from world content, so the only ones that will require Raiding or M+ to acquire would be Wyrms/Aspects.
1 Like