Weapon Upgrades

Okay I searched for info on this and came up with close to 200 results, none of which had anything to do with what I wanted to know. My question is this: Can I put weapon upgrades on ANY weapon? I don't mean can I put a bow string on a sword. What I mean is that if I have a nice bow string, can I put it on a nice yellow bow? And on the off chance, what if that bow already has the same modifier that the string gives? Do they stack? I'm just asking cause I'd hate to have to spen a few thousand gold on various items and upgrades only to find that they can't be stuck together. Any help at all on this would be greatly appreciated.

If you apply an upgrade to an already upgraded weapon the better of the 2 will take precidence, and it will ask to confirm so you don't screw yourself over.

It won't take the better of the two, it'll simply ask if you want to change the old with the new. As for replacing a modifier or keeping a modifier, it depends on what the modifier is coming from. With bows, your string will be the prefix - sundering, vampiric, poisoners, etc. Your handle will be the suffix - of fortitude, of enchantment, of charrslaying, etc. If you don't have a prefix or a suffix on the bow then adding a string or handle will add to the bow exiting properties. If you have a prefix or a suffix, then adding a string or handle will change the bows existing properties.

quick question, what happens to the old upgrade? I'm assuming it is destroyed....

The old upgrade vanishes into the ether.

Strings overwrite strings. Handles overwrite handles. Runes overwrite runes. It's a replacement system. I don't believe it takes the better of the 2. Pretty sure it's a complete replacement of the item being replaced.

Look for the prefixes and suffixes when you're looking to buy a new weapon. Often, on gold items for example, the specifics of that item's applied characteristics (string, handle, hilt, etc.) will be slightly higher quality than on purple items, and purples will be slightly higher than blues. That's a rule of thumb though. It doesn't always hold true.

Personally I have found that on my Gold/yellow drops that the grips or hilts are almost max for what they can be. Like the Furious Axe of Fortitude that I got has a +29 health for the hilt. When the max is 30. It also had +15% damage while enchanted. If I was only a warrior and could use it...

K, but say you have a short bow of shelter (+4 to armor) and you wanna put an icy string on it, that would work wouldn't it?

Yes it would. THe Name would change to Icy short bow of shelter, and would deal cold damge now.

It would become an Icy Shortbow of Shelter. If you replaced the handle with a handle of fortitude it would become an Icy Shortbow of Fortitude. If you then replaced the string with a zealous bow string it would become a Zealous Shortbow of Fortitude.

There's a post somewhere around here with all of the upgrade components for all of the different types of weapons. I'm not sure if it was stickied, but you should probably look in the stickies in Q/A first and see if it's there. If it's not stickied, it should have been stickied.

BTW, I don't think I'd ever use a handle of shelter on my ranger. As a smiting ranger, I usually look for handles of enchanting. I have a +15% enchanting handle on my shortbow now.