Two very useful guids bout upgrading your items: http://forum.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?t=47145 - this one talks bout rising tier of your eq, and is very easy to understand. Just remember, that not all eq is wort upgrading. Its worth mostly to upgrade 2h weapons, upper body armors, shields, 1h weapons in that order. For the rest of eq its best to just add stats to it. And we can find how to do that here: http://forum.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?t=39939.