Nikon D3100 Lense Suggestions?

Can someone help explain to me some good upgrade lenses for this? What is on the grail status for lenses?

i'm currently using the 18-55mm VR that came with it but am i bit clueless to what i can upgrade to or what the order of lenses as the price goes up.

There's no "upgrading" lenses. You simply add to your collection.

Now, I can't tell you what lens you should get because you haven't told us what kind of photography you want to do more of.

if you want to do landscape, the Nikon 10-24mm
for portraits: 50mm f/1.8G or f/1.4G
for macro: depends on what you want to shoot, again. Macro lenses range from 40mm to 105mm for Nikon cameras
for telephoto: you can get the complimentary 55-200mm lens which will cover the rest of the range most used by most photographers. You can also look at the 70-300mm VR

again, what do you want to shoot?

What do you find lacking about your current lens? Buying lenses without knowing what you really need is a sure way to waste tons of money. If you don't have any actual issues with your current lens, then you don't need another one.

Don't fall for the typical beginner's mistake of buying a lens with "more zoom" next. It may seem to be a no-brainer choice, but it really isn't. There are several kind of lenses which are totally different, and which each are specialized for a particular type of photography. There's no point in getting a telephoto lens if you really are into landscape photography, it'd end up gathering dust on your shelf. What is the most common focal length of the photos that you currently take?

- Telephoto lenses are good for shooting things that are far away, such as sports or wildlife. Consider the Nikkor 55-200mm VR or 55-300mm VR as a decent and affordable one. Unless you buy a really expensive one with a constant f/2.8 aperture, image stabilization is very important here, stay away from those without. These lenses also are ok for portaits. Note that while telephoto lenses are good for shooting far away things that appear small due to the distance, they are not good at magnifying things that are close but really small. That's what macro lenses are for.

- Ultra wide angle lenses are the opposite of telephoto lenses. They zoom very, very far out and are good for architectural and landscape shots. Consider the Nikkor 10-24mm, Tokina 11-16mm/2.8 or Sigma 10-20mm/4-5.6. Note that there are two versions of the Sigma ultra wide angle lens. The f/4-5.6 version is both cheaper and optically better than the f/3.5 version.

- Prime lenses with a wide maximum aperture of f/1.8 or even f/1.4 are good for low light situations and shallow depth of field (blurred backgrounds). Note that primes don't zoom at all, they use a single focal length. On the other hand, they usually offer superior image quality to zooms of the same price range, and that maximum aperture advantage is huge too. The most common focal length for a prime lens is 50mm, which is excellent for portraits on your camera. Another popular one is 35mm, which is too wide for portraits but suitable for much street- or group photography.
Consider the Nikkor 50mm/1.8G AF-S or 50mm/1.4G AF-S. Note that there are also versions of these lenses available that say D instead of G and AF instead of AF-S. These won't autofocus on your camera, you need the AF-S versions.

- Macro lenses are good for, well, macro photography. Those with a focal length range of about 60mm (or not far from that) also are very good for portraits. They are not as good for shallow depth of field or low light as the aforementioned wide aperture prime lenses though, but macro lenses typically are prime lenses too; they don't zoom but use a single focal length.
For shooting living insects, a longer focal length is recommended though, such as 100mm, in order not to scare away the skittery bugs.
Good ones are the Nikkor 60mm/2.8, Sigma 70mm/2.8, Nikkor 105mm/2.8, Tokina 100mm/2.8 or Tamron 90mm/2.8. Again, for the Nikkor ones watch out that you get a version with AF-S, not just AF. For the others, also explicitly check if they'd autofocus with cameras without autofocus motor such as yours. E. G. The Tamron and Tokina do not, i don't know about the Sigma.

Depends on what that lens does not do for you.