Shadow Priest DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.0.5)
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 (11.0.5).
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 1. 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 | Wand of Untainted Power | Grim Batol |
Off-Hand | Vagabond's Torch | Inscription |
Head | Living Luster's Semblance (TIER SET) | The Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace |
Neck |
|
|
Shoulder | Living Luster's Dominion (TIER SET) | Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
Cloak |
|
|
Chest | Living Luster's Raiment (TIER SET) | Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
Wrist |
|
|
Hands | Gory Surgeon's Gloves | Surgeon Stitchflesh in The Necrotic Wake |
Waist | Acrid Ascendant's Sash | Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
Legs | Living Luster's Trousers (TIER SET) | Nexus Princess Ky'veza in Nerub-ar Palace |
Feet | Assimilated Eggshell Slippers | Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
Ring #1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
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 Cuffs. This specific slot is optional, and you should craft Writhing Armor Banding on whichever slot makes the most sense for you, ideally Wrists, 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 1 in The War Within, you can get gear from the following dungeons:
- Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
- City of Threads
- The Stonevault
- The Dawnbreaker
- Mists of Tirna Scithe
- The Necrotic Wake
- Siege of Boralus
- Grim Batol
Use the following list to help you target items to drop in Mythic+ Season 1 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 Legs 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 | 'Emergency Stop' Keychain | The Stonevault |
Shoulder |
|
|
Cloak | Anvilhide Cape | The Stonevault |
Chest |
|
|
Wrist | Iron-Kelp Wristwraps | Siege of Boralus |
Hands |
|
|
Waist | Redhook's Cummerbund | Siege of Boralus |
Legs |
|
|
Feet |
|
|
Ring #1 | Circle of Bone | Grim Batol |
Ring #2 |
|
|
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 Nerub-ar Palace. 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 Legs 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 | Living Luster's Semblance (TIER SET) | The Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace |
Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia | Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace |
Shoulder | Living Luster's Dominion (TIER SET) | Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow | Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
Chest | Living Luster's Raiment (TIER SET) | Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
Wrist | Skeinspinner's Duplicitous Cuffs | The Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace |
Hands | Bindings of the Starless Night | Nexus Princess Ky'veza in Nerub-ar Palace |
Waist | Acrid Ascendant's Sash | Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
Legs | Living Luster's Trousers (TIER SET) | Nexus Princess Ky'veza in Nerub-ar Palace |
Feet | Assimilated Eggshell Slippers | Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
Ring #1 | Writhing Ringworm | Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
Ring #2 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact | Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
Top Trinkets |
|
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 |
|
While several trinkets above drop from Delves, these can be great options early as they are particularly strong for their item level. These will eventually be replaced as they cap out at Hero Track. This includes Candle Confidant, Shadow-Binding Ritual Knife, Concoction: Kiss of Death, and Quickwick Candlestick. Early on you will notice that these trinkets will sim better than others, possibly even in higher tiers.
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 |
|
While several trinkets above drop from Delves, these can be great options early as they are particularly strong for their item level. These will eventually be replaced as they cap out at Hero Track. This includes Candle Confidant, Shadow-Binding Ritual Knife, Concoction: Kiss of Death, and Quickwick Candlestick. Early on you will notice that these trinkets will sim better than others, possibly even in higher tiers.
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)
Single Target Trinket Rankings
- Voidweaver + Idol of C'Thun
- Archon + Void Eruption + C'Thun
- Archon + Void Eruption + Yogg + C'Thun
Dungeon Trinket Rankings
- Voidweaver + Idol of C'Thun
- Archon + Void Eruption + C'Thun
- Archon + Void Eruption + Yogg + C'Thun
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.
Spymaster's Web
Spymaster's Web has some of the most potential for any trinket available in Season 1. With the short cooldown, you are able to customize the use cases depending on the fight you are currently using it in. Your goal is to get as many uses of the trinket at max stacks synced with your cooldowns as possible.
If you are not looking to fully min/max this trinket, it will lose about 3% damage, but just syncing it with Power Infusion still makes this a great trinket.
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.
Unbound Changeling
Unbound Changeling lets you choose between Haste, Crit, or Mastery for the stat proc of the trinket. This changes every time you eat food and generally matches the stat on that particular food buff.
As a Shadow Priest, we are generally good with any buff, although generally, we prefer Mastery for single target and Haste for Mythic+.
You also have a chance to get a special All stat buff that gives you Haste, Crit, and Mastery. This can randomly happen when eating food but can only happen once per day. This gives the same amount of stats as a single proc, just distributed across all 3 secondaries. If you continue to eat the same food, you should keep the buff.
If you are finding that eating food is never changing the buff, make sure you do not have an older version of the trinket in your bank, as this can bug out the script.
You can use this script to check if you have tried to proc All yet for the current reset. If it returns True, then that means you cannot proc it for the rest of the day.
- /dump C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(60826)
Treacherous Transmitter
Treacherous Transmitter is a sort of unique trinket that gives you one of three tasks to complete in order to get the increased primary stat. The challenges are one of:
- Collect purple orb that spawns near you
- Jump 3 times
- Stand on purple disc to charge it for a few seconds
Using this trinket, you need to keep track of which event has happened and complete the challenge.
This trinket is currently budgeted around the 90-second cooldown, but since we only use it every 2 minutes, it can be worse for us compared to other specs. That being said, it does offer quite a bit of burst and might be useful in some situations.
My Trinket WeakAura Pack tracks which task is currently out to help with this.
Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg
Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg tasks you with balancing your movement. If you can manage this well, it will position itself as one of the most powerful trinkets for this Season.
This trinket is most effective when you keep the stacks at or below 20, ideally 20 primary and 10 secondary. You should move your character just enough to hover around this so that you do not go above 20 stacks of either buff for very long. I would avoid binding the on-use portion of this trinket to something like Power Infusion and instead purposefully freeze the trinket during cooldowns when you hit the ideal 20 primary and 10 secondary stat point.
My Trinket WeakAura Pack tracks which stacks for each type with indicators when you are above 20 stacks.
Harvester's Edict
For Harvester's Edict sims, we are currently assuming that 20% of the time, you will pick up the orb. In practice, this is slightly hard to pull off as the orb itself is easily missed. If you are able to catch the orb consistently, it can be a powerful trinket, but in the current implementation, that is almost impossible.
Mereldar's Toll
While by itself Mereldar's Toll will never sim as our top trinket, when looking at the overall benefit to your group, this could have a lot of value. The biggest issue with this is if your group can all get on similar cooldown timers and if you all want damage at the same time. Since this trinket is ideally used on a 2-minute timer, it could be awkward for us to time with others.
Aberrant Spellforge
Aberrant Spellforge will typically not be a BiS choice, as it particularly comes into play in longer fights. This is due to each use scaling how much it empowers Mind Blast. After getting to 5 stacks, each empowered Mind Blast will also grant you Aberrant Alacrity.
It is very important that you only use this trinket when you have less than 5 stacks, as after that, it does not actually do anything extra. In addition, you want to try to use this as an off-GCD action with something else like Shadowfiend or any other instant cast spell.
In long progression fights, this can be strong early but will naturally get worse as kill times get shorter.
In dungeon environments this can be particularly strong if you are able to maintain the buff stacks throughout the dungeon. After you drop combat you have 16 seconds to re-enter combat before losing your stacks. If you can keep these maintained throughout a large portion of the dungeon it is very strong and should be considered a BiS trinket.
Mad Queen's Mandate
Mad Queen's Mandate is, strictly speaking, our worst raid trinket available, particularly for Archon. In pure single target, it does get better with Voidweaver specifically due to Voidheart, but since we do not play that very often, it becomes very niche. Since this trinket has no target scaling it is often undesireable for Mythic+ content.
"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
- Sureki Zealot's Insignia
- 'Emergency Stop' Keychain
- Trailspinner Pendant
Make sure to use Magnificent Jeweler's Setting to add 2 sockets up to your neck item.
Overall Top Rings
- Seal of the Poisoned Pact
- Writhing Ringworm
- Circle of Bone
- Key to the Unseeming
- Umbriss Band
- Seal of the City Watch
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
- Takazj's Entropic Edict
- Melodious Iron Songspire
- Staff of Siphoned Essences
- Krix'vizk's Speech Rod
One-Handed Weapons
- Wand of Untainted Power
- Scithewood Scepter
- Kingslayer's Frostfang
- Sovereign's Disdain
- Unceremonious Bloodletter
- Scepter of Manifested Miasma
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 (626).
Off-Hand Weapons
- Pail of Preserved Obscurity
- Vagabond's Torch
All the other off-hands this Season are terrible stats for Shadow Priests.
Tier Set Bonus for The War Within
For Season 1, Shadow Priest has access to the following tier set:
- 2-piece set bonus: Priest Shadow Season 1 2pc
- 4-piece set bonus: Priest Shadow Season 1 4pc
Based on the stats on these pieces and the pieces that drop across season 1 content, you should ideally drop Gloves and use the rest to make up your 4-piece set bonus. You want to use Head, Shoulders, Chest, and Legs, ideally all the time.
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: ~2.1%
- 2-piece and 4-piece set bonus: ~5.4%
Average Overall in Mythic+
- 2-piece set bonus: ~1.7%
- 2-piece and 4-piece set bonus: ~4.8%
Matrix Catalyst
The Matrix Catalyst allows you to convert a valid Season 1 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 — Living Luster's Semblance (TIER SET BONUS)
- Shoulders — Living Luster's Dominion (TIER SET BONUS)
- Back — Living Luster's Glow
- Chest — Living Luster's Raiment (TIER SET BONUS)
- Wrists — Living Luster's Crystbands
- Hands — Living Luster's Touch (TIER SET BONUS)
- Waist — Living Luster's Lightbelt
- Legs — Living Luster's Trousers (TIER SET BONUS)
- Feet — Living Luster's 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 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.
- 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 and instead craft it on Vagabond's Torch.
- Craft 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, 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 good Myth track 1-handed weapon.
- After you have your Embellished items, you should prioritize crafting items to gain the most item level.
If you choose to craft a 2H weapon early and use up both your sparks, be sure to craft a rare crafted piece of Tailoring gear (i.e. Pioneer's Cuffs and other gear) at 590 to put Writhing Armor Banding on with your Weathered Harbinger Crests. This does not scale with item level, so you get the full benefit from using it until you replace it with a Spark of Omens crafted version.
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 Neck, Ring, or Cloak slot as there are cantrip items that drop from Nerub-ar Palace that you might prefer to run instead. Sureki Zealot's Insignia, Wings of Shattered Sorrow, and Seal of the Poisoned Pact 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 Wrists, 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.
- 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 Wrists, 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 11.0.5, 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 636 items can be quite lucrative until you get Myth track items fully upgraded at 639 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
- 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.
- Patch 11.1 and The War Within Season 2’s Likely Release Date Revealed
- Turbulent Timeways Timewalking Event Returns in January
- Four New Timewalking Mounts Added in Patch 11.0.7, Including an Ur’zul Fleshripper!
- War Within and Cata Classic Hotfixes: November 6th
- Patch 11.0.7 PTR Development Notes: No Profession Respec
- Warning: Don’t Pick Up Disturbance Detected: Blackrock Depths on Alts This Week!
- War Within Season 1 Mythic+ DPS, Tank, and Healer Log Rankings, Week 7: Tuning Aftermath
- New Broom Mounts for Love is in the Air 2025: All Tints Revealed