Each bag contains 15 crests, which under the new system is enough for one upgrade (e.g. from Hero 1/6 -> Hero 2/6).
Alongside several other changes to the Upgrade system, Blizzard already confirmed that players would be able to trade crests up into higher tiered versions in Patch 10.2, with a minimum item level requirement for each bracket – essentially the point at which the previous crest would no longer be useful. However, we don’t yet know what other restrictions there may be, or the exact conversion price from one tier to the next. That said, being able to trade up at all is still a great change that allows lower tier activities to still be rewarding and contribute to reducing the amount of higher end activities that a player needs to farm.
- Hero upgrade track increased to 6 (was 5).
- Myth upgrade track increased to 4 (was 3).
- Crests are now a currency and will no longer take up inventory space.
- Fragments have been removed.
- Crests can now be traded up for higher-level Crests once reaching the lower level Crest’s item level or higher.
For example: Using Season 2 item level numbers, players would become eligible to trade their Whelpling Crests up to Drake Crests when every gear slot had reached item level 411 or higher. Trading up to Wyrm Crests would become available at 424 (again, in every gear slot, using the same rules as crest redundancy), and trading up to Aspect Crests would open at 437.
PvP gear can now be upgraded with Flightstones and Crests (was Honor).
All PvP activities will reward Flightstones, and Crests can be earned from rated activities.
The Crest cap is now 90 per week to purchase 6 upgrades (was 10 upgrades).
Another interesting discovery along the same lines is a second version of the Satchel of Drake’s Dreaming Crests, with the additional stipulation that These crests ignore the seasonal cap. Awarded from the Stones Can’t Fly! achievement, these appear to be the only Crests so far known to exceed the seasonal cap, though their existence implies that there might be more waiting to be found.
If it is only limited to this one instance of Drake Crests though, the ability to exceed the cap this way may not present a major advantage, as the achievement is very easy to unlock after completing introductory quest content, meaning the majority of players engaging with the upgrade system should reasonably obtain it. Originally in Patch 10.1, the same achievement also awarded a single Drake’s Shadowflame Crest (the equivalent to 15 Crests in Patch 10.2), but with 10.2 doing away with Fragments in exchange for a cap on Crests directly, this new version seems more like a failsafe to ensure that newer players do not accidentally overcap their Crest limit and waste their reward.
