Destruction Warlock DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.0.5

Welcome to our Gearing Page for Destruction Warlock, this section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly.

If you have a new piece of gear that you need gems and enchants advice for, you can find everything you need on our dedicated page below.

When Season 1 of Shadowlands begins, most of your gear will come from either Raiding, Mythic+, PvP, or the weekly chest. However, none of these options are available in the first couple of weeks of Shadowlands. Below, we go over some of the best ways to get geared early on in Shadowlands.

• Covenant Callings: These are daily quests that can give you up to 200 item level gear and Conduits.
• The Maw: Rares and Events in The Maw can drop up to 184 item level gear.
• Battlegrounds: You can exchange Honor Points for u to item level 184 gear.
• Mythic dungeons: Although Mythic+ is not open yet, standard Mythic dungeons are open. These drop 184 item level loot and can be looted once per week.
• Reputation: Getting honored allows you to buy 181 item level gear and getting exalted gives 200 item level gear.

Patch 9.0.5 re-introduced the Valor system, which lets you upgrade your gear from dungeons.

Due to the simplicity of determining upgrades with a simulation in the current era of the game, we recommend using the popular Raidbots tool to determine which pieces of gear offer the most potential for your character. The main reason why this is a huge advantage is due to the huge number of variables that differ from character to character, such as Stat Quotients, and Scale Factors.

The Top Gear function can be especially useful, as it allows you to compare multiple items and item types to find the best combination of upgrades.

Learning to use the tools available will allow you to reach the most accurate conclusions with the least effort. It is highly recommended you avail yourself of these tools, and they will serve you well when evaluating items.

The Droptimizer feature from Raidbots lets you identify which dungeons and Raid Bosses you should spend your Bonus Rolls on. It simulates all of the potential upgrades in a raid or a dungeon, and lists the bosses/dungeons by rank order of how much DPS you can expect to gain from bonus rolling on it. We have a guide for it that you can access using the link below.

Both Cinders of the Azj'Aqir (Legs) and Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning (Finger) are extremely important in both Raiding and Mythic+ situations. It is advisable to craft them with Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste.

However, you should prioritise Cinders of the Azj'Aqir over Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning if the main goal is Raiding as the former offers plenty of value in Mythic+ dungeons too.

After crafting and upgrading the above 2 choices, it is advisable to consider crafting other more niche choices such as:

• Relic of Demonic Synergy (Head) — enables multi-spec and is overall the second-best option in both single-target and AoE.
• Embers of the Diabolic Raiment (Chest) — a solid option when playing with Fire and Brimstone.
• Madness of the Azj'Aqir and Odr, Shawl of the Ymirjar offer value with periodic cleave scenarios, augmenting Havoc windows; the former shines whenever you can sustain chaining Chaos Bolts, while the latter offers a flat damage increase on the secondary target affected by Havoc.

If you are looking for in-depth explanation on what Legendary to pick for what situation and how to obtain them, read our Legendary page below.

1. Combusting Engine
2. Ashen Remains

1. Duplicitous Havoc
2. Infernal Brand

For more info regarding which Conduits to pick for which situations, check our full Covenants, Soulbinds & Conduits page.

Here we have provided a list of the best available items from Castle Nathria, which may be advantageous for players who have little interest in Mythic+ dungeons or PvP.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Confidant's Favored Cap	Lady Inerva Darkvein in Castle Nathria
Neck	Charm of Eternal Winter	Huntsman Altimor in Castle Nathria
Shoulder	Shawl of the Penitent	Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria
Cloak	Crest of the Legionnaire General	General Kaal in Castle Nathria
Chest	Robes of the Cursed Commando	General Kaal in Castle Nathria
Wrists	Acolyte's Velvet Bindings	Trash in Castle Nathria (Bind on Equip, can be bought from Auction House / other players)
Gloves	Impossibly Oversized Mitts	Sludgefist in Castle Nathria
Belt	Cinch of Infinite Tightness	Hungering Destroyer in Castle Nathria
Legs	Grim-Veiled Pants	Crafted Legendary with Cinders of the Azj'Aqir, Missive of Mastery and Missive of Haste
Boots	Slippers of the Forgotten Heretic	Shriekwing in Castle Nathria
Ring #1	Most Regal Signet of Sire Denathrius	Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria
Ring #2	Ardent Sunstar Signet	Sun King's Salvation in Castle Nathria
Main-hand + Off-hand	Spire of the Long Dark	Trade in Abominable Anima Spherule at your Covenant Weaponsmith, dropped from Sire Denathrius or Sun King's Salvation in Castle Nathria
Trinket 1	Dreadfire Vessel	Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria
Trinket 2	Cabalist's Hymnal	Sire Denathrius in Castle Nathria

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Depraved Physician's Mask	Plaguefall
Neck	Sin Stained Pendant	Halls of Atonement
Shoulder	Reanimator's Mantle	The Necrotic Wake
Cloak	Drape of Twisted Loyalties	Spires of Ascension
Chest	Sinlight Shroud	Halls of Atonement
Wrists	Contaminated Gauze Wristwraps	Theater of Pain
Gloves	Stonefiend Shaper's Mitts	Halls of Atonement
Belt	Kin-Tara's Baleful Cord	Spires of Ascension
Legs	Leggings of the Erudite Scholar	Plaguefall
Boots	Dark Stride Footwraps	Spires of Ascension
Ring #1	Death God's Signet	De Other Side
Ring #2	Arachnid Cipher Ring	Plaguefall
Main-hand + Off-hand	Nathrian Ferula	Halls of Atonement
Trinket 1	Inscrutable Quantum Device	De Other Side
Trinket 2	Infinitely Divisible Ooze	Plaguefall

Due to the prevalence of high item level trinkets via Mythic+, raiding, and PvP, there are a variety of suitable options when it comes to trinkets. It is always best to use Raidbots Top Gear to determine what your optimal trinkets are.

From Castle Nathria, Cabalist's Hymnal is the best choice, while Dreadfire Vessel and Glyph of Assimilation are similar in terms of value and still worth acquiring.

From dungeons, Inscrutable Quantum Device is by far the most potent trinket, rivalling raid trinkets of similar item level, but becomes somewhat inconsistent in the latter part of a fight due to its stat increase effect being on a lower priority than other triggers. Infinitely Divisible Ooze and Unbound Changeling are the 2 best passive trinkets. Empyreal Ordnance is worth mentioning as the delay in buff application allows you to run it as a second on-use trinket. Soulletting Ruby works well when paired with Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning and Rain of Chaos.