Shadow Priest DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.1.0)
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Shadow Priest in World of Warcraft The War Within (11.1.0).
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Shadow Priest gear and best in slot.
Gear Guide for Shadow Priest
Welcome to our Gearing Page for Shadow Priest. This section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly for The War Within Season 2. Check out the sections below to see information on the best gear from all sources and specifics for Trinkets and Crafted items.
If you have a new piece of gear for which you need gems and enchant advice, you can find everything on our dedicated page below.
Many people overthink the distribution of their secondary stats. An important thing to remember is that a higher quantity of stats is nearly always better than a better quality of stats. Because of this, wearing higher item-level gear with worse stats tends to be better than lower item-level gear with great stats. Keep this in mind when considering gear. For more stats information, please refer to our dedicated page.
BiS Gear for Shadow Priest
Overall BiS List for Shadow Priest
The below list is meant to give you a goal, not the end all be all. You can tweak various pieces depending on your exact stats or setup. You should always sim yourself on various settings to determine if something is an upgrade rather than mindlessly following this list.
Many of the items in this list have equally powerful alternatives; do not turn down an upgrade just because this is not mentioned here. This list is an example of a well-put-together Shadow Priest build that balances gear from Raids and Mythic+.
While this list does include crafted items where it makes sense from a secondary stat perspective, you should note that there are several viable setups of crafted embellished items. Check out the crafted section below to see how to tweak this depending on what you want to optimize for.
Gearing is a journey, and there are multiple ways to outfit your character with optimal gear. and there are several item sets that are considered BiS. Whenever there are more than one options, I will list them, but even some outside the list might be better for your character and your gearing setup. It is crucial that you sim your character to know for sure.
Be sure to check out the stats page to understand our goals with each secondary stat.
Slot | Item | Source/Note |
---|---|---|
One-Hand | ![]() |
Mug'Zee in Liberation of Undermine |
Off-Hand | ![]() |
Inscription |
Head | ![]() |
One-Armed Bandit in Liberation of Undermine |
Neck |
|
|
Shoulder | ![]() |
Rik Reverb in Liberation of Undermine |
Cloak |
|
|
Chest | ![]() |
Sprocketmonger Lockenstock in Liberation of Undermine |
Wrist |
|
|
Hands | ![]() |
Cauldron of Carnage in Liberation of Undermine |
Waist | ![]() |
Sprocketmonger Lockenstock in Liberation of Undermine |
Legs | ![]() |
Vexie Fullthrottle in Liberation of Undermine |
Feet |
|
|
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Siren Isle |
Ring #2 |
|
|
Top Trinkets |
|
Eventually we prefer to use an off-hand weapon for Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension,
early on we will prefer to put this on a two-handed weapon for the early boost in power.
Once you get access to a good Myth track one-handed weapon that is upgraded you can then
move to the off-hand setup. Check out the crafted section below with more information.
For embellished items, the above table uses Consecrated Slippers.
This specific slot is optional, and you should craft
Writhing Armor Banding on
whichever slot makes the most sense for you, ideally Cloak, Waist, or Feet. Check out the
crafted section below for more details on specific crafting orders for Raid and Mythic+.
Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Shadow Priest
THIS LIST IS NOT BIS FOR DOING MYTHIC+. If you want the best gear setup to do Mythic+ content, you should use the Overall BiS List. This list is specifically showcasing the best drops when only looking at Mythic+ gear. Optimal setups will always include some raid items, especially trinkets.
For Season 2 in The War Within, you can get gear from the following dungeons:
- Cinderbrew Meadery
- Darkflame Cleft
- Operation: Floodgate
- Operation: Mechagon - Workshop
- Priory of the Sacred Flame
- The MOTHERLODE!!
- The Rookery
- Theater of Pain
Use the following list to help you target items to drop in Mythic+ Season 2 dungeons that have more ideal stats. This does not mean these are the only upgrades you can get from the dungeons, but just the notable ones. You should augment this gear with crafted pieces where possible to get the extra gain in item level until you get Myth track options.
With the Catalyst, even if an item has bad stats, you might be able to catalyst it into Tier or better secondaries. Do not get rid of a piece of gear before checking! You do have limited charges of the catalyst that recharge over time, so be sure to prioritize getting your set bonus with Head, Shoulders, Chest, and Gloves before using charges on other slots.
Gearing is a journey, and there are multiple ways to outfit your character with optimal gear. and there are several item sets that are considered BiS. Whenever there are more than one options, I will list them, but even some outside the list might be better for your character and your gearing setup. It is crucial that you sim your character to know for sure.
Be sure to check out the stats page to understand our goals with each secondary stat.
Slot | Item | Source/Note |
---|---|---|
Weapons |
|
|
Head |
|
|
Neck | ![]() |
Cinderbrew Meadery |
Shoulder |
|
|
Cloak | ![]() |
Operation: Floodgate |
Chest |
|
|
Wrist |
|
|
Hands |
|
|
Waist | ![]() |
Priory of the Sacred Flame |
Legs |
|
|
Feet | ![]() |
The MOTHERLODE!! |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Siren Isle |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
The MOTHERLODE!! |
Top Trinkets |
|
Raid Gear BiS List for Shadow Priest
THIS LIST IS NOT BIS FOR RAIDING. If you want the best gear setup to do Raiding content for, you should use the Overall BiS List. This list is specifically showcasing the best drops when only looking at gear from Liberation of Undermine. Optimal setups will include items outside of raiding.
Use the following list to help you target items to drop in raids that have more ideal stats. This does not mean these are the only upgrades you can get from the Raid, but just the notable ones. You should augment this gear with crafted pieces where possible.
With the Catalyst, even if an item has bad stats, you might be able to catalyst it into Tier or better secondaries. Do not get rid of a piece of gear before checking! You do have limited charges of the catalyst that recharge over time, so be sure to prioritize getting your set bonus with Head, Shoulders, Chest, and Gloves before using charges on other slots.
Gearing is a journey, and there are multiple ways to outfit your character with optimal gear. and there are several item sets that are considered BiS. Whenever there are more than one options, I will list them, but even some outside the list might be better for your character and your gearing setup. It is crucial that you sim your character to know for sure.
Be sure to check out the stats page to understand our goals with each secondary stat.
Slot | Item | Source/Note |
---|---|---|
Weapons |
|
|
Head | ![]() |
One-Armed Bandit in Liberation of Undermine |
Neck |
|
|
Shoulder | ![]() |
Rik Reverb in Liberation of Undermine |
Cloak | ![]() |
Sprocketmonger Lockenstock in Liberation of Undermine |
Chest | ![]() |
Sprocketmonger Lockenstock in Liberation of Undermine |
Wrist | ![]() |
Gallywix in Liberation of Undermine |
Hands | ![]() |
Cauldron of Carnage in Liberation of Undermine |
Waist | ![]() |
Sprocketmonger Lockenstock in Liberation of Undermine |
Legs | ![]() |
Vexie Fullthrottle in Liberation of Undermine |
Feet | ![]() |
Mug'Zee in Liberation of Undermine |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Siren Isle |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Gallywix in Liberation of Undermine |
Top Trinkets |
|
Best Cyrce's Circlet Gems for Shadow Priest
Cyrce's Circlet was a ring added in Patch 11.0.7
that will continue to be Best-In-Slot throughout Season 2 due to its
power level. This ring is acquired by completing activities in the new Siren Isle and has
3 gem sockets to augment your power. Each socket has its own unique type and each type has
4 gems that can be obtained, for a total of 12 possible gems to socket.
When you initially acquire the ring it will be 639 item level. By completing activities on the Isle you will get items to upgrade it eventually all the way up to 658 item level.
Shadow Priest is a spec that loves Haste and Mastery as our best secondary stats for most forms of content. With this we will run the same gem setup in all cases to further boost this power.
- Thunder:
Stormbringer's Runed Citrine
- Sea:
Fathomdweller's Runed Citrine
- Wind:
Windsinger's Runed Citrine
After the nerf to Legendary Skipper's Citrine we now use
Windsinger's Runed Citrine in all forms of content. With this setup it does not
matter if you gain Haste or Mastery from this gem, both are considered Best-In-Slot.
Unlike Skippers you do not care if others are also using the ring to get full power
out of it.
When fully upgraded with the best gems you can expect to get roughly 0.2% more damage when compared to a normal 678 Myth track ring with good stats. This is obviously quite close and certain gearing setups might choose to drop this altogether, but should be rare.
For more information on how to get the ring, as well as acquiring all of the
different gems that you can possibly socket into it, check out our
Cyrce's Circlet guide below!
Hyperthread Wristwraps
For the duration of Season 2 you can farm Operation: Mechagon - Workshop to
obtain the Hyperthread Wristwraps. These wrists have quite a unique effect
on a 2 minute cooldown that tracks the last 3 abilities you used and reduces
their cooldown by 5 seconds. Importantly this buff can apply to the same ability
multiple times if you press the same ability multiple times in a row.
As a Shadow Priest we primarily use these wrists in AoE scenarios as
Voidweaver. There could be other situations where they are okay
but this is typically where it shines. This involves either using it for
extra casts of
Shadow Crash or more likely
Void Blast
casts. It generally is not suggested to use as
Archon.
Below is a short list of exmaple sim numbers where 678
Hyperthread Wristwraps produce a
DPS gain versus 678
Illicit Bankroll Bracers. There are certainly other
use cases depending on your characters
gear but these are the ones exist even at full Best-In-Slot.
- Single Target: No significant loss/gain.
- Raid Encounters with Adds: 0.3%
- 2 Target 5-minute Sustained: 0.9%
- 4 Target 5-minute Sustained: 0.5%
- 8 Target 1-minute Burst: 2.4%
Note that if you choose to experiment with these or might in the future it might be a good idea not to craft an item in the wrists slot.
From a gearing perspective these can also be quite good for their item level until you get solid Myth track bracers from the raid or the Great Vault. To see more detail on how to use these wrists optimally check out the Rotation guide in the specific Hyperthread Wristwraps section at the bottom.
Best Trinkets for Shadow Priest in The War Within
Here are the top trinkets to target as a Shadow Priest. Check out the sims below for more details about which trinkets to use and when. These are generic suggestions of what to target, but anything that is a big item-level jump might be an upgrade, even if it is not on this list.
Top Trinkets for Shadow Priest
Top Trinkets for Raiding
In a raiding environment, trinkets are prioritized for their consistent single-target damage while also being able to take into account average fight durations for certain on-use trinkets.
NOTE: To keep things brief, not every trinket is listed below, only ones that are particularly relevant or popular. If a trinket is excluded from this list, it is likely well below D-Tier.
Tier | Trinkets |
---|---|
S-Tier |
|
A-Tier |
|
B-Tier |
|
C-Tier |
|
D-Tier |
|
There are several trinkets in the above list that drop from Delves,
which are great trinkets to use in early weeks of the season or while
you are starting your gearing journey. Several of these mentioned
are exceptionally good for their item level and can last you up
until Hero/Myth track of top trinkets, even at Champion item level.
This includes Funhouse Lens or
Suspicious Energy Drink
to name a few. Check out the Delves section to learn more.
Top Trinkets for Mythic+
Inside Mythic+ dungeons, you typically want to use trinkets that are good for maximizing overall dungeon damage. This is not always just slamming full AoE trinkets, as Bosses will still take up a significant portion of the key.
NOTE: To keep things brief, not every trinket is listed below, only ones that are particularly relevant or popular. If a trinket is excluded from this list, it is likely well below D-Tier.
In Mythic+, you often want to use a combination of one passive
trinket and one on-use trinket. We have extremely strong passive trinket
options this Tier, and having one on use helps out with our burst in
AoE packs, particularly with Void Eruption as you push high keys.
Tier | Trinkets |
---|---|
S-Tier |
|
A-Tier |
|
B-Tier |
|
C-Tier |
|
D-Tier |
|
There are several trinkets in the above list that drop from Delves,
which are great trinkets to use in early weeks of the season or while
you are starting your gearing journey. Several of these mentioned
are exceptionally good for their item level and can last you up
until Hero/Myth track of top trinkets, even at Champion item level.
This includes Funhouse Lens or
Suspicious Energy Drink
to name a few. Check out the Delves section to learn more.
Timewalking Trinkets
In addition to normal seasonal trinkets, I wanted to highlight some options from Timewalking Raids. Due to general trinket scaling and the 619 item level, the following options are quite competitive in all forms of content. While they are not strictly BiS, they could certainly help as you are gearing up if they are active.
Living Flame — Ulduar Timewalking
Energy Siphon — Ulduar Timewalking
Scale of Fates — Ulduar Timewalking
Eye of the Broodmother — Ulduar Timewalking
Necromantic Focus — Firelands Timewalking
Pandora's Plea — Ulduar Timewalking
Elemental Focus Stone — Ulduar Timewalking
The Skull of Gul'dan — Black Temple Timewalking
Flare of the Heavens — Ulduar Timewalking
Dope'rel's Calling Rune — Blackrock Depths (11.0.5 Anniversary Event)
Delve Trinkets for Pre-BiS
Early on in the gearing process using drops from Delves and the Open World can help augment your gear as you are chasing the Best-In-Slot trinkets. Delves drop farmable Champion gear at the highest level and by using Maps or the Great Vault they can go up to Hero track gear. This means strictly speaking these trinkets are not Best-In-Slot since they will miss out on Myth track item level. However, there are several extremely strong trinkets that are better than their item level suggests, so getting your hands on them early can be a big boost in damage.
The rankings in the other sections take the item level difference into account, which is why they are not that high in the tier section. When comparing across equal item levels though these trinkets punch way above their weight class. Use the list below as trinkets to consider keeping onto and using in your gearing journey for Raid and Mythic+.
Top Delve Trinkets for Raid
Suspicious Energy Drink
Quickwick Candlestick
Funhouse Lens
Top Delve Trinkets for Mythic+
Suspicious Energy Drink
Funhouse Lens
Quickwick Candlestick (Strong for
Archon)
Single Target Trinket Rankings
Dungeon Trinket Rankings
Trinkets Explained
The following section will go over specific notes on the various trinkets to consider as a Shadow Priest. Not every trinket is listed, only ones that have interactions worth discussing.
Eye of Kezan
This trinket is quite powerful, particularly in sustained Raid encounters for the stacking benefit you get from long fights. On progression this will be a highly desirable trinket that should do well even in some farm encounters.
The biggest downside with Eye of Kezan is the way the stack depreciate
quickly outside of combat. Once you leave combat you will start losing stacks
and will be totally drained no later than 20 seconds after. This means that
getting optimal usage of this trinket in Mythic+ will be quite tricky and
very punishing with downtime between packs.
For this reason in Mythic+ you might have a better time using a different trinket unless your group is comfortable chain pulling around the trinket.
Mug's Moxie Jug
This is one of the most consistently good trinkets you can get in Season 2, being viable in all forms of content. While Shadow Priest is not actively stacking Critical Strike, the scaling of this trinket in particular is very strong, and since we are never close to diminishing Critical Strike stat we always get max benefit from this trinket.
Prized Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity
This trinket is particularly strong for Voidweaver since we can
use it with every cast of
Dark Ascension. While you do have to do some
PvP for this it can be quite easy to pickup early until you get better trinkets.
Ingenious Mana Battery
While this is technically a healer trinket it can be used by Shadow Priests. Since we do not use our mana pool you just need to use this trinket once before combat starts and then you effectively get the full Vers effect as long as your mana does not drop below the threshold. This turns out to be a reasonably solid trinket at current tuning but in order to get it you need to be Holy or Discipline loot spec.
Synergistic Brewterializer
This is a great trinket to pickup early on in the season, particularly
for dungeon content. Not only is the proc strong it also gives us
Twist of Fate when you trigger the barrel.
You can use this macro to easily damage the barrel when it spawns.
- #showtooltip Shadow Word: Death
- /cleartarget
- /targetexact Backfill Barrel
- /cast Shadow Word: Death
- /targetlasttarget
Here are some auras and mods you can add to your UI to help:
- WeakAura that puts a timer next to the nameplate and plays a sound on spawn
- Plater Script to change color of the nameplate
When used in practice it is clear to see that this trinket is definitely oversimming in a lot of cases so be cautious with how much you rely on those sims. Currently sims proc the barrel as soon as it spawns, instead of simming you killing the barrel. This by itself means it is oversimming by about 0.5%. In addition it is also simming as if it always hits all targets when it procs, which is generally fine for Mythic+ but with boss positioning and movement in raids makes it generally unreliable.
Signet of the Priory
Signet will be one of the top on use trinkets to use in Season 2, particularly in raid environments where it is likely to have multiple people also using the trinket at similar times as you. As more people use the trinket and stack uses together the damage increase will keep compounding on itself making it very powerful.
Even if you are the only person in your group that has the trinket it is still very strong and should be highly sought after, particularly early in the season.
House of Cards
Another on-use trinket that barely falls below Signet of the Priory
for most players. This trinket is tuned around being used every 90 seconds,
but since we only use it every 2 minutes its value is a bit diluted.
That being said this trinket gets better the more you use it with a pretty lengthy grace period before stacks drop out of combat. This means in Mythic+ it is one of the best trinkets you can use if you can keep those stacks up.
Soulletting Ruby
A classic trinket returning with Season 2, Soulletting Ruby is an
amazing trinket to have in your arsenal, particularly for encounters
with adds. Getting to use this trinket on an add that is about to die
to then get big damage out on a boss or priority target will make this
a favorite trinket among highly skilled players and gives you a fun
gameplay loop to play around.
Spymaster's Web
Spymaster's Web is a Season 1 trinket that has continued to scale
into Season 2. While it is not strictly Best-In-Slot it will likely be a great
progression trinket to keep around, at least until you get Hero track trinkets to
replace it from Season 2.
For the most optimal uses, you only want to use it when you have max stacks with full cooldowns. In addition, you can further optimize this by using the trinket again if you know if the fight will end before the buff runs out.
Example use case 1:
- 4:00 - Use with last set of Cooldowns of the fight
- 4:40 - Last use before the fight ends
- 5:00 - Fight Ends
Example use case 2:
- 2:00 - Use with cooldowns at half stacks
- 6:00 - Full stacks with
Bloodlust and full cooldowns
- 6:40 - Last use before the fight ends
- 7:00 - Fight Ends
For builds that use Dark Ascension or
Voidweaver
you can also press this with your last cast of Dark Ascension or
Entropic Rift.
"Simming" Yourself as a Shadow Priest
Throughout this page, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots, as it is an indispensable aspect of optimizing your character.
While we do offer generic sim charts for Trinkets, this should not be a replacement for simming yourself, at least not if you want to minmax sub-1%!
If you are new to simming and Raidbots, check out our detailed guide below.
Best Neck and Ring Items as a Shadow Priest in The War Within
For neck and ring pieces, you can drop 5-10 ilevels in most cases to get our preferred stats: Haste and Mastery. That said, you should always sim yourself to see what is better as the secondary stat diminishing returns can still change your ideal setup.
Overall Top Necks
Semi-Charmed Amulet
Strapped Rescue-Keg
Gobfather's Gifted Bling
Make sure to use Magnificent Jeweler's Setting to add 2 sockets up to your
neck item.
Overall Top Rings
Cyrce's Circlet
The Jastor Diamond
Miniature Roulette Wheel
Miniature Roulette Wheel
Footbomb Championship Ring
Make sure to use Magnificent Jeweler's Setting to add 2 sockets up to your
rings.
Best Weapons as a Shadow Priest in The War Within
This is a rough guide of what weapons to aim for. It is not an end-all-be-all list, and depending on your gear, you might find something that is even better. Be sure to sim your upgrades to know for sure, but you can use this list to help target things that will likely be strong.
Two-Handed Weapons
Voltaic Stormcaller
Neural Synapse Enhancer
Alphacoil Ba-Boom Stick
One-Handed Weapons
Big Earner's Bludgeon
Stix's Metal Detector
Hand of Beledar
While Big Earner's Bludgeon is our Best-In-Slot weapon it is not
incredibly strong such that you should use a Hero track version over a
Myth track normal weapon. The damage proc is just a small cherry on top
but is not worth much in item level. It is considered Best-In-Slot just
due to the nature of the proc being added for free without the cost of
stats compared to a normal weapon.
In addition to the weapons above, you might get lucky and get
Fate Weaver to drop. This allows you to create
Fateweaved Needle
which is a powerful proc weapon that does not give static secondary stats.
This is a random drop from open-world content, including Delves. This item is
slightly more valuable than an equivalent weapon at the same item level
and can drop up to Hero track (665).
Off-Hand Weapons
Vagabond's Torch
Operator's Fraud Detector
Deathwalker's Promise
All the other off-hands this Season are terrible stats for Shadow Priests.
Tier Set Bonus for The War Within
For Season 2, Shadow Priest has access to the following tier set:
- 2-piece set bonus:
Priest Shadow 11.1 Class Set 2pc
- 4-piece set bonus:
Priest Shadow 11.1 Class Set 4pc
Based on the stats on these pieces and the pieces that drop across season 2 content, you should ideally drop Legs and use the rest to make up your 4-piece set bonus. You want to use Head, Shoulders, Chest, and Gloves, ideally all the time. Legs this season are still decent though and you should prioritize getting your set bonus activated over optimal slots.
Tier Set Power Level
Here are rough numbers for how strong the bonuses themselves are. This does not take into account the actual gear pieces, just the bonuses themselves.
Single Target
- 2-piece set bonus: ~4-7%
- 2-piece and 4-piece set bonus: ~10-12%
Average Overall in Mythic+
- 2-piece set bonus: ~5%
- 2-piece and 4-piece set bonus: ~10%
When to Replace Old Tier?
As a Shadow Priest you should aim to replace your Season 1 tier set bonuses as soon as possible. Once you get the new 2-set bonus you should immedietly use it and drop to 2-set of the old tier and 2-set of the new tier.
The same also applies to moving to the new 4-set, you should do this as soon as you can. Note that once you do this you should fully swap to the new talent builds in the Talents section of the guide.
Matrix Catalyst
The Matrix Catalyst allows you to convert a valid Season 2 item into a tier-set item. When doing this, the secondary stats will change to static stats, as you can see below. Note that only the items that drop in a tier set slot will gain the Tier Set Bonus as indicated in the list.
- Head —
Confessor's Unshakable Halo (TIER SET BONUS)
- Shoulders —
Confessor's Unshakable Radiance (TIER SET BONUS)
- Back —
Confessor's Unshakable Lightcover
- Chest —
Confessor's Unshakable Vestment (TIER SET BONUS)
- Wrists —
Confessor's Unshakable Faulds
- Hands —
Confessor's Unshakable Mitts (TIER SET BONUS)
- Waist —
Confessor's Unshakable Ornament
- Legs —
Confessor's Unshakable Leggings (TIER SET BONUS)
- Feet —
Confessor's Unshakable Boots
Crafted Profession Gear
You can further push your character's strength by utilizing your 2 embellishment professional crafted gear items. You can equip as many pieces as you want, but if they use embellishments, then you are limited to 2.
Embellished Items
As a Shadow Priest, you have a few options for your two embellished slots, depending on what you want to optimize for. The below sections detail your options for gearing for either Raid or Mythic+-focused setups.
If it was not clear, you can stack two of most embellished effects, which doubles the effects but not how often it procs.
The important thing when gearing up is also to consider the item you are replacing. The above advice is generic for equal opportunity costs, but while gearing, if you are struggling to get an item in a specific slot, you likely want to spend your Spark to replace that ASAP and then match it with the corresponding strong embellishment.
The Wrist slot is not suggested as a slot to craft in purely due to the
option that Voidweaver builds have with using
Hyperthread Wristwraps. If you do not have any plan on experimenting
with these wrists or playing around them then
Consecrated Cuffs are
still a great slot to consider.
The advice below is aimed at minimizing the risk of item churn. If you are looking for the best possible upgrade every week, the best thing you can do is sim the available options. Many people might choose to craft a weapon with their first Spark to get a nice boost in damage before they acquire a Myth track weapon. Gearing is a journey, and you should do what makes the most sense for you!
Best Crafted Items for Shadow Priest
Best Crafted Items for Raiding for Shadow Priest
This section is focused on the best crafts in a Raiding environment. These rankings tend to prefer more consistent effects that specialize in single-target damage.
NOTE: If you already crafted an item in Season 1 you do
NOT need to craft a brand new item in Season 2. You can simply upgrade it
once you get the corresponding Spark of Fortunes and Crests with the
recrafting system.
- Craft/Upgrade
Vagabond's Bounding Baton with
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension. This weapon will not be the Best-in-Slot but it will be the biggest gain you can get early on in the Season. If you already have
Big Earner's Bludgeon, you can consider skipping this step and instead craft/upgrade your
Vagabond's Torch.
- Craft/Upgrade an item with
Writhing Armor Banding. This effectively doubles
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension without having to craft it on another weapon. You should craft this in your worst slot for the biggest upgrade, long term, this is ideally on the Cloak, Feet, or Waist slot.
- Craft
Vagabond's Torch with
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension to replace your
Vagabond's Bounding Baton. This should only be done once you get a high enough item level
Big Earner's Bludgeon or Myth track weapon.
- After you have your Embellished items, you should prioritize crafting items to gain the most item level.
Note: You can also choose to use Duskthread Lining
or
Dawnthread Lining if you do not want to double down
with
Writhing Armor Banding. These options usually are
less damage, but depending on the situation, they might be better for
you. Duskthread is usually preferred for the small extra defensive
benefit but Dawnthread will typically sim a bit more.
Be cautious when crafting items on a Ring or Cloak slot
as there are cantrip items that drop from Liberation of Undermine
that you might prefer to run instead. Test Pilot's Go-Pack,
The Jastor Diamond, and
Cyrce's Circlet are
all great items that you would like to run should you get these
to drop in Raid for you.
You might see some people choose to use
Binding of Binding. This item can perform similarly
to
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension but requires quite a lot of setup
to get an increase out of since using it just by yourself does not
provide any personal DPS benefit. Check out the Embellishments Explained
section to learn more.
Best Crafted Items for Mythic+ for Shadow Priest
This section is focused on the best crafts in a Mythic+ environment. These rankings are aimed at maximizing overall damage inside of Mythic+.
- Craft
Vagabond's Bounding Baton with
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension. This weapon will not be the Best-in-Slot but it will be the biggest gain you can get early on in the Season. If you already have a strong Hero track or Myth track 1-handed weapon, you can skip this step.
- Craft an item with
Duskthread Lining or
Dawnthread Lining. Dawnthread is usually slightly more damage but Duskthread also provides a small defensive benefit, which is why it is preferred. You should craft this in your worst slot for the biggest upgrade, long term, this is ideally on Cloak, Feet, or Waist slot.
-
- OPTION: Craft
Vagabond's Torch with
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension to replace your
Vagabond's Bounding Baton. This should only be done once you get a good Myth track 1-handed weapon.
- OPTION: If you find yourself dropping combat too often to
get good value out of
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension you can instead craft another item with
Duskthread Lining or
Dawnthread Lining.
- OPTION: Craft
- After you have your Embellished items, you should prioritize crafting items to gain the most item level.
For Mythic+ you will notice Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
generally performing worse than other options if you have lots
of downtime between pulls. While we suggest crafting this early
to get our weapon item level, this is something you can consider
phasing out of your gear entirely, depending on your typical pulls.
You might see some people choose to use
Binding of Binding. This item can perform similarly
to
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension but requires quite a lot of setup
to get an increase out of since using it just by yourself does not
provide any personal DPS benefit. Check out the Embellishments Explained
section to learn more.
Embellishment Items Explained for Shadow Priest
Below, you will find detailed information about the various crafted items as a Shadow Priest.
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension
The Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension is a weapon-only embellish item
that progressively stacks up secondary stats the longer you are in combat.
Each time you gain a stack, you randomly pick one of the secondary stats that
the buff sets to.
The buff for Ascension is capped at 10 stacks, meaning it takes 80 seconds to fully stack this 15-second long buff. After it is fully stacked, each time it is refreshed, you will continue to cycle through secondaries.
Due to the consistent nature of this embellishment, it is incredibly strong in sustained raid encounters but falls off in Mythic+, which will naturally always have some downtime between packs.
Typically, we want to craft a weapon early on in the Season for the large
boost in item level, and this makes for a great embellishment for that item.
Once you get access to a Myth track 1-handed weapon, we will typically move
this embellishment
to Vagabond's Torch so that we can
maintain the highest item level in our main hand weapon slot.
Writhing Armor Banding
The Writhing Armor Banding is a unique embellishment that actually
does nothing by itself. To get it to be effective, you need to pair it
with another Nerubian embellished item; in our case, this is usually
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension. When paired with Ascension, it
doubles the effect (although it does not increase the rate at which
you gain stacks).
This effectively is similar to using Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension on
a 1-handed weapon and an off-hand weapon. The difference here is that
Writhing Armor Banding can be placed on most normal gear items,
like
Consecrated Cuffs. This is important so that we can
prioritize a top item level Myth track weapon in our main-hand
and lose much fewer stats by putting this on a slot like Cloak, Feet, or Waist.
Dawnthread Lining and
Duskthread Lining
These embellishments will only be used to fill slots if the other choices do not make sense. They do not provide a lot of damage but are typically better than simply using a Myth track item with +3 extra item level. Depending on the encounter, you can see between 60%-90% average uptime of the buff which is about 1% DPS gain per embellishment.
Typically, Shadow Priests prefer Critical Strike over Versatility,
but because they are so close together in this case, I would strongly
suggest crafting Duskthread Lining for the Versatility to get
that little bit of extra defensiveness into your kit. You might get marginally
better results with
Dawnthread Lining, but current builds will almost
never really notice the difference due to the lack of crit scaling in our kit.
Binding of Binding
This unique ring is focused on buffing a specific ally of your choice. Once you pick an ally, it can be expensive early on to move this to someone else. If you can trade with that ally (you bind to them, they bind to you), you both can get a lot of benefits from using this ring, and it can be your best embellishment, depending on procs.
Because of this higher barrier to entry, it is not suggested as a default craft. This is due to you gaining no personal DPS if you are the only one in your group with the ring or no one is bound to you specifically.
In addition to the increased setup to get this ring to be
useful, it also requires you to have 5 total sockets before
getting max value out of the ring. This is 1 socket for your
Culminating Blasphemite meta gem and 4 others for
one of each color beside Amber (Emerald, Onyx, Ruby, and Sapphire).
While sockets can be easier to come by, they might take you a few
weeks to acquire them, depending on the availability of
Magnificent Jeweler's Setting.
Currently, if you have no one in your group bound from you, the ring will randomly proc on anyone in your group, even if they do not have the ring.
Woven Dusk and Woven Dawn
In The War Within, there are two Tailoring sets that proc Haste with damaging spells (Woven Dusk) or Mastery with healing spells (Woven Dawn). These sets require you to make 2 items, which will fully count towards your 2 embellishment cap.
Woven Dusk Items:
Gloves of the Woven Dusk
Slippers of the Woven Dusk
Woven Dawn Items:
Grips of the Woven Dawn
Treads of the Woven Dawn
As of Patch 11.1.0, both of these sets are severely bugged for Shadow Priests, and as such, we do not suggest crafting them. Woven Dusk does not proc from the vast majority of our abilities and, as such, has an abysmally low uptime (average is 5% where it should be ~50%). Woven Dawn should not proc with our spells, but for some reason does to ~50% uptime. With the bug, this can actually be a powerful set, but since it almost certainly is not intended, I expect this to be fixed, and it is not suggested to craft.
Defensive Options
Generally speaking, the embellished items are about 1-2% of your DPS each (so up to 4% total). If you are in a position where you are struggling more with surviving compared to dealing damage, you can consider certain defensive alternatives. These will all be tough to work into your gearset to keep the DPS loss minimal, but it could be worth it, depending on your situation.
Captured Starlight
Non-Embellished Items
After crafting your two embellished pieces, I suggest simming your character to see what profession item upgrades are the most DPS for your character. You can craft every slot with the various professions via crafting orders, and filling out your gear with 675 items can be quite lucrative until you get Myth track items fully upgraded at 678 to replace them.
If we look at all gear items from the Raid, here are the top slots that will likely be good long-term investments to craft. Keep in mind that simming your character will always be the best; this is just a starting point.
Consecrated Slippers
Consecrated Cord
Consecrated Cuffs
Ring of Earthen Craftsmanship
Other items can definitely still be an upgrade; make sure to sim your current gear setup to see what makes the most sense to craft.
Changelog
- 19 Mar. 2025: Remove mention of Amorphous Relic after the bug fix.
- 13 Mar. 2025: Update trinket rankings and add more info to various sections.
- 05 Mar. 2025: Add note about when to swap to the Season 2 Tier.
- 03 Mar. 2025: Add info on using Hyperthread Wristwraps.
- 01 Mar. 2025: Update Cyrce's Circlet gems for Season 2.
- 26 Feb. 2025: Update trinket rankings for Season 2.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Update page for Patch 11.1.0.
- 17 Dec. 2024: Update Cyrce's Circlet tooltips and give alternative wind gem.
- 16 Dec. 2024: Update Cyrce's Circlet gems after recent buffs.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Update Cyrce's Circlet suggestions after initially posting.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Add new Cyrce's Circlet Ring for 11.0.7.
- 04 Nov. 2024: Add caveat for overall BiS list weapons.
- 27 Oct. 2024: Remove Burst of Knowledge.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 17 Oct. 2024: Fix Mythic+ gear set bug with rings.
- 01 Oct. 2024: Adjust gear setups to include more one handed weapons.
- 30 Sep. 2024: Update trinket rankings and add a few extra gear options for BiS lists from dungeons.
- 19 Sep. 2024: Add Candle Confidant.
- 17 Sep. 2024: Change fateweaved weapon mention.
- 16 Sep. 2024: Update trinket rankings and mention Fateweaved Needle weapon.
- 12 Sep. 2024: Remove Pre-Season BiS list.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Increase Mad Queen's Mandate on Raid tier list.
- 01 Sep. 2024: Remove Binding of Binding from crafting gear suggestions.
- 31 Aug. 2024: Update crafted gear suggestions for Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for the launch of The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 15 May 2024: Put Call to Suffering in S-tier for Mythic+.
- 13 May 2024: Add note about buying defensive trinkets for Mythic+.
- 09 May 2024: More info around Vessel and the Fire damage procs and add trinket combination examples for Mythic+.
- 07 May 2024: Updated for 10.2.7.
- 05 May 2024: Add more detail around Vessel and swap a few rankings around.
- 01 May 2024: Update ranking of Vessel of Searing Shadows since it can help proc the rings.
- 30 Apr. 2024: Add more info on bullion purchases and additional fire damage sources.
- 28 Apr. 2024: Add note about on-use trinkets in Mythic+.
- 25 Apr. 2024: Add bonus IDs to display crafted gear more clearly and add new video for Bullions and split suggestions for Raid and Mythic+.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Update for Season 4 with new gear suggestions.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Update embellishment guidance for high Mythic+ dungeons.
- 13 Feb. 2024: Update dungeon trinket rankings to match the tier list.
- 25 Jan. 2024: Increase rank of Balefire Branch and Ashes of the Embersoul in Mythic+ Rankings.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Clarify usage on Hood of Surging Time in Mythic+.
- 20 Dec. 2023: Lower Nymue in the trinket rankings for Dungeons.
- 19 Dec. 2023: Update gear sets with more Neck options.
- 18 Dec. 2023: Add extra note about Augury of the Primal Flame.
- 13 Dec. 2023: Add note about prioritizing helm upgrades for Incandescent Essence.
- 01 Dec. 2023: Add crafted gear widget.
- 30 Nov. 2023: Add trinket tier lists as well as more detailed info on some options.
- 24 Nov. 2023: Update trinket and weapon rankings/comments.
- 16 Nov. 2023: Update note about Ashes trinket.
- 14 Nov. 2023: Add link to the trinket video.
- 14 Nov. 2023: Add small note about using Iridal in execute.
- 13 Nov. 2023: Update trinket suggestions and add more detail about when to use each one.
- 08 Nov. 2023: Add link to crafted gear video.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Update embellishment suggestions after the Undulating Sporecloak nerf.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Update gear lists and suggestions for Season 3 and Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Add new gear lists.
- 13 Aug. 2023: Add video link.
- 10 Aug. 2023: Add note about Irideus Fragment for Dark Ascension builds.
- 23 Jul. 2023: Reviewed from the recent hotfixes.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updates for Patch 10.1.5 including new items from Dawn of the Infinite.
- 27 Jun. 2023: Clarify a few choices on trinkets and embellished items.
- 07 Jun. 2023: Add note about Beacon to the Beyond in Mythic+.
- 01 Jun. 2023: Clarifying technical note about how the T30 set bonus works and adding rough numbers.
- 31 May 2023: Add a bit more detail on weapon crafting.
- 23 May 2023: Adjust timewalking section from recent changes
- 23 May 2023: Add timewalking section.
- 16 May 2023: Remove reference to Undulating Sporecloak bug as it was fixed.
- 16 May 2023: Add bug to Undulating Sporecloak and remove old Neltharion's Lair items.
- 15 May 2023: Correct Undulating Sporecloak info now that it has fixed stats.
- 06 May 2023: Add note about Ominous Chromatic Essence flight choice.
- 05 May 2023: Update weapon and trinket rankings from recent changes.
- 01 May 2023: Update all gearing suggestions for 10.1 and Season 2.
- 23 Mar. 2023: Update Onyx Annulet suggestions from recent hotfixes.
- 22 Mar. 2023: Update Onyx Annulet suggestions from recent info on Prophetic Twilight Stone interactions.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Update for Patch 10.0.7 with new section on the Onyx Annulet.
- 05 Mar. 2023: Small tweak to Dungeon trinket suggestions.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Update gear suggestions for 10.0.5.
- 24 Dec. 2022: Add Desperate Invokers Codex trinket.
- 21 Dec. 2022: Add some more detail to crafted gear sections.
- 13 Dec. 2022: Add video guide for crafted gear and remove note about having different elements in Elemental Lariat.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Season 1 launch.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Priest Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Publik, Shadow Priest theorycrafter and SimC dev at Warcraft Priests.
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