Shadow Priest DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.2)

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. 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	Voidglass Kris	Fractillus in Manaforge Omega
Off-Hand	Vagabond's Torch	Inscription
Head	Dying Star's Veil (TIER SET)	Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega
Neck	Duskblaze's Desperation Sin Stained Pendant Chrysalis of Sundered Souls ( Voidweaver Option)	The Soul Hunters Halls of Atonement Soulbinder Naazindhri in Manaforge Omega
Shoulder	Sinlight Shoulderpads	Halls of Atonement
Cloak	Reshii Wraps (Mastery or Haste)	Reshii Wraps
Chest	Dying Star's Cassock (TIER SET)	Fractillus in Manaforge Omega
Wrist	Consecrated Cuffs	Tailoring
Hands	Dying Star's Caress (TIER SET)	Soulbinder Naazindhri in Manaforge Omega
Waist	Singularity Cincture	Dimensius The All Devouring in Manaforge Omega
Legs	Dying Star's Leggings (TIER SET)	Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega
Feet	Interloper's Silken Striders	The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega
Rings	Whispers of K'aresh Signet of the False Accuser Logic Gate: Omega Logic Gate: Alpha	Eco-Dome Al'dani Halls of Atonement Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega Plexus Sentinel in Manaforge Omega
Active Trinkets	Araz's Ritual Forge Lily of the Eternal Weave Signet of the Priory Astral Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity	Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega Eco-Dome Al'dani Priory of the Sacred Flame PvP
Passive Trinkets	Astral Antenna Diamantine Voidcore Azhiccaran Parapodia So'leah's Secret Technique (Mastery) Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj	Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega Fractillus in Manaforge Omega Eco-Dome Al'dani Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit The Dawnbreaker

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.

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 3 in The War Within, you can get gear from the following dungeons:

• Eco-Dome Al'dani
• Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
• The Dawnbreaker
• Operation: Floodgate
• Priory of the Sacred Flame
• Halls of Atonement
• Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit
• Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder

Use the following list to help you target items to drop in Mythic+ Season 3 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, Chest, Legs, and Gloves before using charges on other slots.

Gearing is a journey, and there are multiple ways to outfit your character with optimal gear. 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	Hand of Beledar (1H) Nathrian Reliquary (OH) Staff of Fractured Spacetime (2H)	Priory of the Sacred Flame Halls of Atonement Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit
Head	Dying Star's Veil (TIER SET) Wasteland Devotee's Wrappings	Matrix Catalyst any Head Eco-Dome Al'dani
Neck	Sin Stained Pendant	Halls of Atonement
Shoulder	Sinlight Shoulderpads	Halls of Atonement
Cloak	Reshii Wraps (Mastery or Haste)	Reshii Wraps
Chest	Dying Star's Cassock (TIER SET) Saboteur's Rubber Jacket	Matrix Catalyst any Chest Operation: Floodgate
Wrist	Fizzlefuse Cuffs	Operation: Floodgate
Hands	Dying Star's Caress (TIER SET) Ancient Oracle's Caress Cyphered Gloves	Matrix Catalyst any Hands Eco-Dome Al'dani Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder
Waist	Pan-Dimensional Packing Cord Honorbound Retainer's Sash	Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder Priory of the Sacred Flame
Legs	Dying Star's Leggings (TIER SET) Archaic Venomancer's Footwraps	Matrix Catalyst and Leys Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
Feet	Slippers of Leavened Station	Halls of Atonement
Rings	Whispers of K'aresh Signet of the False Accuser	Eco-Dome Al'dani Halls of Atonement
Top Trinkets	Signet of the Priory Lily of the Eternal Weave Azhiccaran Parapodia So'leah's Secret Technique (Mastery) Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj	Priory of the Sacred Flame Eco-Dome Al'dani Eco-Dome Al'dani Tazavesh: So'Leah's Gambit The Dawnbreaker

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 Manaforge Omega. 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, Chest, Leggings, and Gloves before using charges on other slots.

Gearing is a journey, and there are multiple ways to outfit your character with optimal gear. 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	Voidglass Kris (1H) Fractillus' Last Breath (OH) Voidglass Spire (2H)	Fractillus in Manaforge Omega Fractillus in Manaforge Omega Soulbinder Naazindhri in Manaforge Omega
Head	Dying Star's Veil (TIER SET)	Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega
Neck	Duskblaze's Desperation Chrysalis of Sundered Souls ( Voidweaver Option)	The Soul Hunters Soulbinder Naazindhri in Manaforge Omega
Shoulder	Mounted Manacannons	Plexus Sentinel in Manaforge Omega
Cloak	Reshii Wraps (Mastery or Haste)	Reshii Wraps
Chest	Dying Star's Cassock (TIER SET)	Fractillus in Manaforge Omega
Wrist	Conjoined Glass Bracers	Fractillus in Manaforge Omega
Hands	Dying Star's Caress (TIER SET)	Soulbinder Naazindhri in Manaforge Omega
Waist	Singularity Cincture	Dimensius The All Devouring in Manaforge Omega
Legs	Dying Star's Leggings (TIER SET)	Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega
Feet	Interloper's Silken Striders	The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega
Ring #1	Logic Gate: Omega	Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega
Ring #2	Logic Gate: Alpha	Plexus Sentinel in Manaforge Omega
Top Trinkets	Araz's Ritual Forge Diamantine Voidcore Astral Antenna	Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega Fractillus in Manaforge Omega Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega

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.

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. Check out the Delves section to learn more.

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.

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. Check out the Delves section to learn more.

In addition to normal seasonal trinkets, I wanted to highlight some options from Timewalking Raids. Due to general trinket scaling and the 704 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.

1. Living Flame — Ulduar Timewalking
2. Energy Siphon — Ulduar Timewalking
3. Eye of the Broodmother — Ulduar Timewalking
4. Flare of the Heavens — Ulduar Timewalking
5. Scale of Fates — Ulduar Timewalking
6. Pandora's Plea — Ulduar Timewalking
7. Elemental Focus Stone — Ulduar Timewalking
8. The Skull of Gul'dan — Black Temple Timewalking

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+.

1. Incorporeal Essence-Gorger
2. Void-Touched Fragment
3. Soulbreaker's Sigil
4. Essence-Hunter's Eyeglass
5. Automatic Footbomb Dispenser
6. Chaotic Nethergate

1. Incorporeal Essence-Gorger
2. Void-Touched Fragment
3. Automatic Footbomb Dispenser
4. Essence-Hunter's Eyeglass
5. Soulbreaker's Sigil
6. Chaotic Nethergate

• Voidweaver
• Archon

• Voidweaver
• Archon

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.

This trinket has several interactions that are worth understanding and potentially playing around. Firstly, it does get about 1-2% better if paired with one of the special weapons that drop in Manaforge Omega. In particular we want to try and get Voidglass Kris regardless of using this trinket, but they can pair nicely.

In addition, there is also some optimization around the mana component of this trinket. While there is no evidence to suggest playing around this mid-encounter, you can game this pre-pull. By swapping specs to Holy or Discipline and then back to Shadow pre-pull you can instantly drain your mana to 0. Doing this can net you 0.2-0.3% damage, particularly for situations where you are using Bloodlust on pull. Because the gain is so small this is not something many people will choose to do.

To get any value out of this trinket you must use it onto a party member of your choice. Ideally you pair this with someone that has a secondary stat we desire as their highest stat. As a Shadow Priest you can follow this as your guide on preference.

1. Mastery
2. Critical Strike
3. Versatility
4. Haste

Note that if you are below 20% Haste ( Voidweaver) or 30% Haste ( Archon) then selecting Haste is also a strong option.

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.

Signet will be one of the top on-use trinkets to use in Season 3, 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.

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 2 you do NOT need to craft a brand new item in Season 3. You can simply upgrade it once you get the corresponding Spark of Fortunes and Crests with the recrafting system. This saves you gold when recrafting.

1. 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 Voidglass Kris, you can consider skipping this step and instead craft/upgrade your Vagabond's Torch.
2. 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 Wrists or Waist slot.
3. 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 Voidglass Kris or Myth track weapon.
4. 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. This is the option you can consider if you end up using Voidglass Spire. Overall this combination is about 1% worse than Voidglass Kris and Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension with Writhing Armor Banding.

DO NOT CRAFT A CLOAK OR FEET ITEM. Our cloak slot is reserved for Reshii Wraps this season and we boost this cloak by using Interloper's Silken Striders.

This section is focused on the best crafts in a Mythic+ environment. These rankings are aimed at maximizing overall damage inside of Mythic+.

1. 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 consider skipping this step.
2. 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 Wrists or Waist slot.
3. • 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.
4. 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.

Below, you will find detailed information about the various crafted items as a Shadow Priest.

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.

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 Wrists or Waist.

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.

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.

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 11.2, 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.

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

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 720 items can be quite lucrative until you get Myth track items fully upgraded at 723 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 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.