Shadow Priest DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Shadowlands 9.2.5

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. We would suggest reading this side-by-side during the video to absorb the information the best.

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.

As of Patch 9.2 the Domination shards and set bonuses are not relevant for new content. These only work in Torghast, Korthia, and the Maw.

With the release of the raid we will start to acquire our Tier Set gear which enables the following set effects:

• T28 2-piece: Shadow Priest 2-Piece
• T28 4-piece: Shadow Priest 4-Piece

You can not only acquire these set bonus items from the raid, but also the weekly Great Vault as well. The set bonus is upwards of 15% single target DPS increase for Shadow, so you will want to prioritize getting this ASAP. This does change up the rotation priority in certain scenarios, so be sure to check out the Rotation page for exactly how to optimize for tier set damage.

After you progress enough through the new campaign you will also get access to the Creation Catalyst. This gives you the ability to transform any Season 3 piece into a piece with the tier set bonus effect. This will give you the ability to craft your way to the tier if you have unfortunate luck getting it to drop in the raid or your vault.

Note the item level of the piece you create is identical to what you put in. So putting in the higher ilevel drops from the last 3 bosses in the raid will give you the most stats.

One quirk of this system is that the stats are static based on what you put in. Use the list below to determine which slots might make sense for you to craft (tier set or not). The first stat listed is the larger of the two stats.

• Helm - Haste/Mastery (TIER)
• Shoulder - Mastery/Versatility (TIER)
• Cloak - Mastery/Critical Strike
• Chest - Critical Strike/Haste (TIER)
• Wrists - Haste/Versatility
• Gloves - Versatility/Haste (TIER)
• Belt - Critical Strike/Haste
• Legs - Mastery/Critical Strike (TIER)
• Boots - Versatility/Mastery

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 Sepulcher of the First Ones. Most of these pieces will come from dungeons, but you can also fill in some slots from the previous raid of Sanctum of Domination.

Note that Mythic+ gear can drop up to 262 item level with up to 278 coming from the weekly Great Vault. Tazavesh, the Veiled Market is now available as Mythic+ which does add some more options for gearing up.

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	Sin Stained Pendant	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	Unbound Changeling	Ingra Maloch in Mists of Tirna Scithe
Two-Hand	Staff of Fractured Spacetime	So'leah in Tazavesh, the Veiled Market
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 Sepulcher of the First Ones. 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 Tier Slots, these pieces will be marked specifically and should be targeted over alternatives.

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Amice of the Empyrean (TIER) Ephemera-Charged Thinking Cap	Anduin Wrynn in Sepulcher of the First Ones Lihuvim, Principal Architect in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Neck	Worldkiller Iris	The Jailer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Shoulder	Capelet of the Empyrean (TIER) Reanimator's Mantle	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones Amarth the Harvester in The Necrotic Wake
Cloak	Shroud of the Sire's Chosen	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Chest	Habit of the Empyrean (TIER) Sinister Requiem Vestments	Rygelon in Sepulcher of the First Ones Devos, Paragon of Doubt in Spires of Ascension
Wrists	Cuffs of the Covert Commander	Lords of Dread in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Gloves	Caress of the Empyrean (TIER) Bindings of the Banished One	Lihuvim, Principal Architect in Sepulcher of the First Ones The Jailer in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Belt	Sash of the Silent Sonata	Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Legs	Leggings of the Empyrean (TIER) Mueh'zala's Hexthread Sarong	Halondrus the Reclaimer in Sepulcher of the First Ones Mueh'zala in De Other Side
Boots	Stolen Nathrian Slippers	Artificer Xy'Mox in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Ring #1	Loquacious Keeper's Peridot	Lihuvim, Principal Architect in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Ring #2	Soulwarped Seal of Wrynn (SEE NOTE BELOW) Death God's Signet	Anduin Wrynn in Sepulcher of the First Ones Mueh'zala in De Other Side
Trinket #1	Soulletting Ruby	Kul'tharok in Theater of Pain
Trinket #2	Unbound Changeling	Ingra Maloch in Mists of Tirna Scithe
One-Hand	Antumbra, Shadow of the Cosmos	Rygelon in Sepulcher of the First Ones
Off-Hand	Forbidden Truth	The Jailer in Sepulcher of the First Ones

Each tier item has an additional off-set slot provided since you do want to prioritize getting 4-set even if its not the best 4 pieces. In addition, BiS setup with Necrolord when you get access to Memory of Unity will have you use Pallid Command on Waist/Gloves/Ring/Head slot and then Shadowflame Prism on Gloves/Head. You'll need to play around with slots you craft these on based on what tier you have access to.

The Soulwarped Seal of Wrynn is currently not implemented in SimC as we are not exactly sure how the proc rate scales with health. This item was not implemented or available on the PTR so no testing was done. That being said the item appears to be very strong and likely will be BiS but stay tuned for further testing.

Note that most of the trinkets that drop from the raid were not testable on PTR and thus we do not have data for these and they are not simmable. As such trinket rankings will be off until things are stabilized and we get some in game test data.