Season one of World of Warcraft Dragonflight brought an abundance of ways to progress your character and gear them. Among these ways are three primary ones – raiding, Mythic Plus dungeons, and PvP. This article will take a particular interest in Mythic Plus.
While this won’t address any of the affixes or mechanics of the Mythic Plus dungeons themselves, it will tell you how and where to upgrade the gear you earn from them. After all, any and all gear you loot from this content is not stuck at the item level you get it at. Quite the contrary, so let’s get into it.
How To Upgrade Mythic Plus Gear
To upgrade your Mythic Plus gear, you need Valor Points. You get 135 points per complete dungeon and 65 bonus points if someone’s Mythic Plus rating increases as a result of the dungeon run. While it’s simple, there are a few catches.
First, there is a Valor cap, meaning you can’t infinitely earn Valor Points. The first week of Dragonflight saw the cap be at 1,500 points, which will increase by 750 points every week until the season’s end.
The Valor Cap is in place largely to prevent Mythic raiders from being at a disadvantage. Since they can only run each raid difficulty once per week for loot, this balances out the rate of high item level gear acquisition.
If you fall behind on Valor Points at any point, don’t worry. The Valor Cap only means you can’t earn past a certain number of points per week. For example, the Valor cap in week two increased to 2,250 from 1,500. If you didn’t play during week one, you could still earn up to 2,250 points.
The second catch is that each piece of gear requires a different number of Valor Points to upgrade.
Gear Type |
Upgrade Cost Per Level |
---|---|
Off-Hand Weapons, Cloaks, Bracers, Necklaces, Rings |
250 Valor Points |
Shoulders, Gloves, Boots, Belts, Trinkets |
400 Valor Points |
Helms, Chests, Leggings |
450 Valor Points |
One-Handed Strength and Agility Weapons |
500 Valor Points |
One-Handed Intellect Weapons |
750 Valor Points |
Two-Handed Weapons (ranged weapons included) |
1,000 Valor Points |
Lastly, even though each upgrade level only bumps up the item level by three to four points, upgrading your gear to some of the higher levels requires you to have a certain Mythic Plus rating to do so. Of the thirteen possible upgrade levels, levels one through six have no requirements.
The following table will show the Mythic Plus rating needed to upgrade gear. Additionally, since the item level of gear varies depending on the keystone level of the mythic dungeon, it will also show the end-of-dungeon item level gear that drops at each keystone level (so if you’re looking for a higher item level, you know which key levels to target).
Also, note that no Mythic Plus gear can be upgraded past the item level of gear that drops in the second half of the Vault of the Incarnates raid on Mythic difficulty:
Gear Rank |
Item Level |
Mythic Plus Rating Requirement To Upgrade |
Mythic Plus Keystone Level(s) |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
376 |
No requirement |
2 and 3 |
2 |
379 |
No requirement |
4 and 5 |
3 |
382 |
No requirement |
6 |
4 |
385 |
No requirement |
7 and 8 |
5 |
389 (equivalent to base normal raid item level) |
No requirement |
9 |
6 |
392 |
No requirement |
10, 11, 12, and 13 |
7 |
395 |
600 |
14 |
8 |
398 |
1,000 |
15 and 16 |
9 |
402 (equivalent to base heroic raid item level) |
1,000 |
17 and 18 |
10 |
405 |
1,400 |
19 and 20 |
11 |
408 |
1,700 |
N/A |
12 |
412 |
2,000 |
N/A |
13 |
415 (equivalent to base mythic raid item level) |
2,400 |
N/A |
The Mythic Plus rewards you get from your Great Vault are also subject to the same one-to-thirteen ranking system and are upgraded in the same way.
Where to Upgrade Mythic Plus Gear
Weirdly enough, the place to upgrade your Mythic Plus gear is in the PvP room in Valdrakken (Gladiator’s Refuge). Head on over to the black drakonid Corxian with the Item Upgrades title beneath his name (he’s standing right next to the Elite Conquest Quartermaster, Glamora), and upgrade your gear with him.
You also upgrade your PvP gear at Corxian, so if you’ve got PvP gear in your inventory, don’t mix them up.
Tips For Upgrading
- The Valor Point cap is especially punishing early in the season, so if you can, try to save up those points to upgrade only your bets-in-slot items.
- If you’re not rushing to gear up but still want to get your best-in-slot gear, try running lower keys in the Mythic dungeon you want. That way, it’s not as hard, and you can still get the piece of gear you want; it’ll just take a bit longer to upgrade.