Shadow Priest DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.1.5

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

If you are more of a visual learner, you can watch the video guide version of this guide instead. I would suggest reading this side-by-side during the video to absorb the information the best. A full video will be published soon, but for now the survival guide gives you all the info you need for this patch.

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.

While gearing, item level is rather important, mainly due to the relative value increase of primary stats. In the case of Shadow, this means we want to prioritize Intellect first over any other stat; in other words, item level of gear will generally be the most important factor when looking at replacing something. Secondary stats are still important as well, however, and currently Shadow wants to focus on acquiring as much Haste and Mastery as it can. Critical Strike and Versatility are both lower in value. If it is not an obvious choice, sim your own character to find out. For a more detailed explanation, you can read the Simulations page.

While we heavily recommend simming yourself, you can find some of our general simulations on the dedicated page below.

Mythic+ rewards gear based upon the keystone level you complete

Depending on the type of content you are doing, you will be crafting and equipping a Legendary Item for your character. To craft these, you need to gather different crafting materials, as well as learn the power associated with the Legendary you want to use. The guide below tells you everything you need to know while crafting your best Legendary as a Shadow Priest. The BiS list below will give recommendations for each slot, so you have options on which piece to craft depending on what gear you have.

With the release of Patch 9.1, we now have access to a new system of sockets, Shards of Domination, usually referred to as Domination Sockets. These sockets are different from normal ones, and only exist on specific pieces of gear from the new Sanctum of Domination raid environment (5 in total). The sockets correspond to one of three types: Blood, Frost, and Unholy, with each type having 3 different Shard options. Each of these options is either a damage, healing, or defense Shard, meaning there are 3 total of each type. Furthermore, having all 3 of one type of socket gets you a socket set bonus for some extra throughput. This means the optimal setup will have you run all 3 Shards of one type, and the other 2 DPS throughput Shards of the other type.

1. Shard of Dyz
2. Shard of Dyz + Shard of Bek
3. Triple Unholy Shard
4. Triple Unholy Shard + Shard of Bek
5. Triple Unholy Shard + Shard of Bek + Shard of Cor

Each Shard can be upgraded 4 times, meaning each Shard has a total of 5 ranks. By upgrading all Shards of one type you also upgrade the set bonus attached to that set of Shards. This is where the majority of the power gains come from and should be prioritized in roughly this order:

1. Upgrade Shard of Dyz, Shard of Zed, and Shard of Oth together to maximize set bonus gains (i.e. upgrade all three to rank 2 before upgrading Dyz to rank 3);
2. Shard of Bek;
3. Shard of Cor.

If you would like to know more about the remaining Domination Shards' effects, their set bonuses, or how to upgrade their effects into even more potent forms, please see our official guide detailing everything about this new system of Patch 9.1:

With the large variety of trinkets and different item levels, specific sets of sims have been run to help you decide which trinkets to aim at getting as a Shadow Priest. You can use the Composite rankings for generic raid performance, while single-target is specific to 1-target sims with mixed movement to gauge performance.

• Composite Trinket Rankings
• Composite Trinket Combo Rankings
• Single Target Trinket Rankings
• Single Target Trinket Combo Rankings

Many people have a tendency to 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.

With Patch 9.0.5 you now have access to upgrade gear obtained after the patch with Valor points. You can learn more about this system on the dedicated Valor page.

This item list is specific to pre-raid gearing and focuses on the best gear to get before stepping into Sanctum of Domination. Most of these pieces will come from dungeons, but you can also fill in some slots from the previous raid of Castle Nathria.

Note that Mythic+ gear can drop up to 236 item level with up to 252 coming from the weekly Great Vault. Tazavesh, the Veiled Market is the new mega-dungeon that, while not available for Mythic+, does drop 226 gear (or 233 on hard mode) and can be helpful in your gearing process. Because it does not scale since it is not available in Mythic+, none of these pieces will be BiS, but the following are good drops if you still need 226 or 233 pieces:

• Drape of Titanic Dreams — Hylbrande
• Staff of Fractured Spacetime — So'leah
• Perfectly-Forged Credentials — Quest Reward

With Patch 9.1.5 you can also run Legion Timewalking while that event is active. Nothing from its available dungeons is absolutely BiS but you can fill out your gear with some more Haste/Mastery pieces or Moonlit Prism if you still need a good trinket.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Depraved Physician's Mask	Doctor Ickus in Plaguefall
Neck	Perfectly-Forged Credentials Sin Stained Pendant	Quest reward from Tazavesh, the Veiled Market Halkias the Sin-Stained Goliath in Halls of Atonement
Shoulder	Reanimator's Mantle	Amarth the Harvester in The Necrotic Wake
Cloak	Drape of Twisted Loyalties	Devos, Paragon of Doubt in Spires of Ascension
Chest	Sinister Requiem Vestments	Devos, Paragon of Doubt in Spires of Ascension
Wrists	Deathshackle Wristwraps	Ingra Maloch in Mists of Tirna Scithe
Gloves	Tricksprite Gloves	Mistcaller in Mists of Tirna Scithe
Belt	Kin-Tara's Baleful Cord	Kin-Tara in Spires of Ascension
Legs	Mueh'zala's Hexthread Sarong	Mueh'zala in De Other Side
Boots	Slippers of Leavened Station	Lord Chamberlain in Halls of Atonement
Ring #1	Signet of the False Accuser	Lord Chamberlain in Halls of Atonement
Ring #2	Death God's Signet	Mueh'zala in De Other Side
Trinket #1	Soulletting Ruby	Kul'tharok in Theater of Pain
Trinket #2	Tome of Insight	Korthia random drop. Can be upgraded to 233.
Two-Hand	Nathrian Ferula	Lord Chamberlain in Halls of Atonement
Potency Conduit #1	Dissonant Echoes	Doctor Ickus in Plaguefall
Potency Conduit #2	Haunting Apparitions	Mordretha, the Endless Empress in Theater of Pain
Potency Conduit #3	Rabid Shadows	Margrave Stradama in Plaguefall

Note that there are plenty of alternative items that are also good, just look for Haste pieces with ideally Mastery on them.

The list below shows the best piece of gear for each individual slot that drops in Sanctum of Domination. Alternatives will be listed from Mythic+ anytime the raid-drop piece is not well itemized. This means you will need to get lucky with your weekly vault to get comparable item level though.

Many of the slots are set in stone due to Domination Sockets, these pieces will be marked specifically and should be targeted over alternatives.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Veil of the Banshee Queen (Domination Socket)	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
Neck	Interplanar Keystone	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Shoulder	Frame of the False Margrave (Domination Socket)	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Cloak	Drape of Twisted Loyalties Cloak of Scarred Honor	Devos, Paragon of Doubt in Spires of Ascension Soulrender Dormazain in Sanctum of Domination
Chest	Sacrificer's Sacramental Cassock (Domination Socket)	Painsmith Raznal in Sanctum of Domination
Wrists	Desecrator's Keening Wristwraps (Domination Socket)	Sylvanas Windrunner in Sanctum of Domination
Gloves	Grasps of the Clairvoyant Sage	The Eye of the Jailer in Sanctum of Domination
Belt	Sash of Duplicitous Magics (Domination Socket)	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination
Legs	Mueh'zala's Hexthread Sarong Leggings of the Screaming Flames	Mueh'zala in De Other Side Painsmith Raznal in Sanctum of Domination
Boots	Sandals of Sacred Symmetry	Guardian of the First Ones in Sanctum of Domination
Ring #1	Sworn Oath of the Nine	The Nine in Sanctum of Domination
Ring #2	Death God's Signet Miniature Breaking Wheel	Mueh'zala in De Other Side Painsmith Raznal in Sanctum of Domination
Trinket #1	Soulletting Ruby	Kul'tharok in Theater of Pain
Trinket #2	Unbound Changeling (Haste or Mastery)	Mists of Tirna Scithe
Two-Hand	Maledict Opus	Kel'Thuzad in Sanctum of Domination

Alternatively to Unbound Changeling, you can also use Titanic Ocular Gland assuming you can keep high uptime of the buff or your Changeling is not of equal item level.

Forbidden Necromantic Tome was once listed as a strong option. However, with the discovery that it cannot proc if you already have 3 stacks of the buff it is no longer the best; it is still competitive though.

Perfectly-Forged Credentials will be a great Neck to grab while gearing up as the proc adds a decent amount of "item level" to the piece making it roughly on par with other Heroic-level necks. This assumes the neck you are comparing it to ALSO does not have a socket; it is likely not worth putting a socket into this new neck just to replace an old one. You are better off keeping your current neck until you get a Heroic/Mythic one to socket.

Note that if you can get Empyreal Ordnance or Inscrutable Quantum Device at item level 252 (or equivalent to your existing trinkets), these are both very competitive options in addition to our BiS Soulletting Ruby.