How to Upgrade Gear in Dragonflight Season 2

Key Takeaways

Dragonflight Season 2 replaced Valor points with two new currencies: Flightstones (universal, from all PvE content) and four Crest types (Whelpling, Drake, Wyrm, Aspect) tiered by content difficulty.
Gear came in five upgrade tracks (Explorer, Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, and Hero), with the track determined by the content that dropped the item, not player choice.
Veteran gear started at 402 item level (M+2 keys); Champion started at 415 (M+10); Hero capped at 441 item level (M+17 or higher keys).
Raiding gear became fully upgradeable for the first time: LFR items could reach normal ilvl, normal could reach heroic, and heroic could reach mythic.
Crafted gear required Shadowflame Sparks and Enchanted Crests to reach Season 2's crafted cap of 447 item level — higher than Season 1's 418 ceiling.

Here is how each part of the system worked.

How Dragonflight Season 2 Changed Gear Upgrades

Dragonflight Season 2 launched alongside the Aberrus raid in May 2023 and introduced the most significant overhaul to WoW's upgrade system since Valor points first appeared. The season replaced Valor entirely with a two-currency model — Flightstones for all upgrades and four tiers of Crests tied to content difficulty — and unified the upgrade path across every form of PvE content for the first time.

Blizzard's stated goal was to remove the need for separate currencies across outdoor content, Mythic+, and raiding, while creating a natural progression path as players tackled harder content. Players who only ran normal raids and M+2 keys could still upgrade their gear; players who pushed Mythic raids and high keys could push gear further.

Flightstones

Flightstones served as the universal upgrade currency in Season 2, functionally similar to how Primal Chaos had worked for profession crafting in Season 1; they dropped from all PvE content at a consistent rate regardless of difficulty. Every item upgrade cost Flightstones alongside the appropriate Crests, so a player farming outdoor quests and world bosses accumulated the same Flightstone pool as a Mythic raider, just slower.

In Season 2, Flightstones covered upgrades across every item track: M+ gear, raid drops, outdoor world gear, and crafted profession items all shared the same Flightstone cost structure.

Crests

The second currency, Crests, introduced the difficulty gating the system needed. Four Crest tiers existed, each tied to a specific range of content:

Whelpling Crests: outdoor content and LFR
Drake Crests: Normal raid and low M+ keys
Wyrm Crests: Heroic raid and mid-range M+ keys
Aspect Crests: Mythic raid and high M+ keys

Fifteen Crest Fragments of any type combined to form one Crest. Fragments dropped from the content associated with that Crest's tier — running heroic raids and M+10-16 keys dropped Wyrm Fragments, for example.

A seasonal cap limited how many Crests any player could accumulate in a given week: 10 of each type per week. Players who missed a week could catch up the following week since the cap was seasonal rather than reset-locked. Mythic raiders who farmed Wyrm Crests for upgrading heroic gear found this cap the binding constraint for their mid-tier alt gear.

✏️ Wyrm Crests were the most in-demand tier for most players in S2. Heroic raiders and M+10-16 key pushers all competed for the same 10-Wyrm weekly cap — use them on the longest-BiS slot first, not the first eligible drop.

Gear Tracks and Upgrade System

Each upgradeable item in Season 2 belonged to one of five gear tracks, determined by where it dropped. Players could not switch a lower track item to a higher one: a Veteran item remained on the Veteran track regardless of how many Flightstones it accumulated.

Players looking to skip the upgrade grind on current Midnight-era Mythic+ can browse WowCarry's dungeon carry services.

Gear Ranks

Explorer Gear: from outdoor content and low-difficulty activities; lowest starting ilvl.
Adventurer Gear: slightly higher than Explorer, from casual group content.
Veteran Gear: starting at 402 item level; dropped from M+2 keys and equivalent raid content.
Champion Gear: starting at 415 item level; from M+10 keys or higher.
Hero Gear: from M+17 keys or higher; the highest Mythic+ track, capping at 441 item level (equivalent to Mythic raid gear).

Item-level ranges overlapped between adjacent tracks: a fully-upgraded Veteran item could reach the starting ilvl of a Champion item, creating natural upgrade paths as players geared through content.

📌 The most common early-season mistake was upgrading a Veteran item with Drake or Wyrm Crests before earning a Champion drop for the same slot. Veteran items could never reach Champion floor stats, so replacing a fully-upgraded Veteran piece with a base Champion drop was still an upgrade.

Upgrading Items

Each track had a specific upgrade ceiling. Crucially, an item could never cross from its original track to a higher one: an Explorer item upgraded to its max remained Explorer-track, even if the max ilvl happened to equal a lower-end Adventurer item's starting ilvl.

Raiding tier worked the same way: LFR items upgraded to Normal ceiling, Normal items to Heroic ceiling, Heroic items to Mythic ceiling. This gave raid-only players a Mythic-equivalent path through Heroic progression for the first time, without requiring Mythic kills.

M+ Hero gear (from M+17+ keys) upgraded to a max of 441 item level, Mythic raid equivalent. Champion-track items from lower keys capped at 437. Players farming keys below +17 who wanted the 441 cap needed to re-farm the item at a higher key rather than upgrade the lower version.

Upgrading All Gear Types

The Season 2 system extended upgrades to all gear types simultaneously, including raid drops (previously excluded from most upgrade systems) and profession crafts. The only limitation was the track ceiling: each gear type progressed within its own bracket and could not exceed its design cap.

Players who reached the target ilvl for their content tier could stop farming Crests and bank them for the next patch's content. The lack of per-content-type currency meant a single weekly budget of Crests covered all upgrade needs.

Crest Farming and Caps

The weekly cap per Crest type was 10 each: 10 Whelpling, 10 Drake, 10 Wyrm, and 10 Aspect per week. Farming all four in parallel required running multiple content brackets in the same reset. Most players specialized: raiders accumulated Wyrm and Aspect Crests through their progression content while casuals worked up through Whelpling and Drake from outdoor quests and LFR.

⚠️ The Aspect Crest weekly cap of 10 was the binding constraint for Mythic raiders pushing to max ilvl quickly. A Mythic raider clearing all content optimally still took several weeks to fully upgrade every gear slot due to the Aspect Crest ceiling — plan upgrade priority by slot impact (trinkets, weapons, tier pieces first).

Crafted Gear in Season 2

Season 2 retired the Season 1 crafting currencies (Concentrated Primal Infusions and Primal Infusions) and replaced them with Enchanted Crests. Crafted items reached different ilvl ceilings based on which Enchanted Crest was used during crafting:

Creating Enchanted Crests

An enchanter (or work-order at an enchanting table) converted regular Crests into Enchanted variants:

3 Wyrm Crests → 1 Enchanted Wyrm Crest
4 Aspect Crests → 1 Enchanted Aspect Crest

An Enchanted Wyrm Crest upgraded a crafted item to the mid-tier Season 2 ilvl, also usable as a replacement for a Season 1 Primal Infusion. An Enchanted Aspect Crest unlocked the season's crafting cap of 447 item level, requiring the matching Shadowflame Spark to complete the recipe.

Crest Costs for Upgrading Crafted Gear

Each crafted item upgrade tier cost a fixed number of Crests. Moving a crafted Veteran-track item (1/8) to fully-upgraded (8/8) required three Whelpling Crests and four Drake Crests as example mid-range costs. The Aspect Crest requirement for 447-cap crafted items made them rare in the early weeks of a season; only players with consistent Mythic raid or high-key access accumulated them quickly.

Players seeking crafted gear for current Midnight content can explore WowCarry's raid carry options.

Video Walkthrough

For a visual breakdown of the Season 2 upgrade system as it appeared at launch:

FAQ

What replaced Valor points in Dragonflight Season 2?

Flightstones replaced Valor as the universal upgrade currency in Season 2. Unlike Valor, Flightstones dropped from all PvE content: outdoor quests, LFR, Mythic+, and raids. Players could spend them on any upgradeable item regardless of where it dropped.

What were Flightstones used for in Dragonflight?

Flightstones were spent alongside Crests to upgrade items. Every upgrade on every gear track (Explorer through Hero and crafted gear) required Flightstones. They were not content-gated, so players accumulated them from whichever content they preferred.

What are the four Crest types in Dragonflight Season 2?

Whelpling Crests (from outdoor/LFR content), Drake Crests (Normal raid / low M+), Wyrm Crests (Heroic raid / mid M+), and Aspect Crests (Mythic raid / high M+). Each tier corresponded to the content difficulty that dropped its fragments, with 15 fragments combining into one usable Crest.

What was the highest item level in Dragonflight Season 2?

441 item level via the Hero gear track (M+17+ keys or equivalent), matching the Mythic raid ilvl ceiling. Crafted gear topped out at 447 item level with an Enchanted Aspect Crest and Shadowflame Spark, the highest obtainable item level in the season.

What was Hero gear in Dragonflight Season 2?

Hero gear dropped from M+17 keys and higher, starting at the season's highest M+ ilvl and upgrading to 441. It was the only Mythic+ track item that could reach Mythic raid equivalent item level. Items from lower keys (Champion track, below M+17) capped at 437 regardless of upgrades.

What were Shadowflame Sparks used for in Dragonflight Season 2?

Shadowflame Sparks were required to craft Season 2 profession items at max potential, specifically the items that could be upgraded to the 447 ilvl ceiling with an Enchanted Aspect Crest. They replaced Season 1's Primal Infusion spark system.

Could LFR gear be upgraded in Dragonflight Season 2?

Yes — LFR items could be upgraded using Whelpling Crests and Flightstones, up to Normal raid item level. This was a change from earlier systems where LFR gear had no upgrade path. Normal-mode drops could reach Heroic ilvl, and Heroic drops could reach Mythic ilvl.

Last reviewed 2026-06-17 against Patch 10.1 Embers of Neltharion — Maintained by WowCarry's WoW team.