Shadow Priest DPS Gems, Enchants, and Consumables — The War Within Pre-Patch
On this page, we list the best gems, enchants, flasks, potions, and food you can get for your Shadow Priest, based on your stat priority. We also give budget alternatives. This page is updated for World of Warcraft — The War Within Pre-Patch.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Shadow Priest gems and enchants.
Best Gems, Enchants, Food, and Flasks for Shadow Priest in The War Within
This section covers your character's optimal gems, enchants, food, and flasks. To get a more detailed rundown of the different stats for Shadow Priest, please visit our dedicated Stats page.
Best The War Within Gems for Shadow Priest
For pre-patch, you will have 2 categories of gems to choose from: Rare or Epic. The Rare gems are either just a single stat like in previous expansions or a combination of 2 secondary stats on one gem. The Epic gems are significantly stronger, but you can only use one at a time for your entire character.
Gems can be applied to a Helm, Bracer, Belt, or Ring via the
Eye of Awakening item from the Great Vault. In addition, a
Jewelcrafting item lets you apply up to 3 sockets to a Neck item
with
Tiered Medallion Setting.
- Epic Gem:
Fierce Illimited Diamond or
Skillful Illimited Diamond
- Rare Combination Gem:
Keen Ysemerald or
Keen Neltharite
For your rare gem, I strongly encourage simming your character to see which of the 2 makes the most sense. Raidbots is a great resource to make this easier to run yourself. Make sure to always use the double-stat gems over single-stat ones since they give more secondaries in total.
With the increased item level added in Season 4, we also get more secondary stats. This means it will be easier to hit the diminishing return thresholds, particularly for Haste and Mastery. What this will mean is as you get closer to optimal gear setups, you will naturally start moving gems out of Haste and Mastery and into more Critical Strike and Versatility. Which gem to use will depend on your exact stat setup; use the following list as the top ones I would consider.
Note that Haste DR starts at 30%, and Mastery DR starts at 19%.
- Below both DR thresholds:
Keen Ysemerald or
Keen Neltharite
- Above Haste DR threshold only:
Sensei's Neltharite or
Zen Neltharite
- Above Mastery DR threshold only:
Crafty Ysemerald or
Energized Ysemerald
- Above both DR thresholds:
Radiant Alexstraszite or
Radiant Malygite
If you have a decent amount of Haste and Mastery you can instead use
the Inscribed Illimited Diamond or
Resplendent Illimited Diamond.
For Void Eruption builds in particular you will likely run more than 30% haste.
Make sure to check out the stats page to understand these goals in more
detail.
Rare gems are roughly worth 1200-1400 DPS. If you are considering replacing an item with a socket, keep this in mind. As you get more gear, this could be even higher, but this is a rough number you can use. I would suggest simming the differences on Raidbots to know if something is worth adding or dropping a socket for.
Best The War Within Enchants for Shadow Priest
Slot | Enchantment |
---|---|
Helm | ![]() |
Chest | ![]() |
Cloak (non-throughput) |
|
Wrists (non-throughput) |
|
Waist (non-throughput) | ![]() |
Legs | ![]() |
Ring |
|
Feet (non-throughput) |
|
Weapon | ![]() |
When picking Cloak and Wrist enchants, I would suggest defaulting to Avoidance versions, but keep in mind that not every fight will have mechanics that can be avoided. For those difficult progression fights, consider swapping to Leech. Mythic+ environments should always prefer Avoidance, especially as you push up to higher keys.
Similarly to gems, make sure that as you hit diminishing return thresholds for Haste and/or Mastery, you consider changing your ring enchants to compensate. Use the chart below for a rough guide, but always sim this to know for sure what to run:
- Below 32-40% haste? Use Haste Enchants.
- Below 19-20% mastery? Use Mastery Enchants.
- At or above both thresholds? Consider using Critical Strike or Versatility Enchants.
Enchants and gems will change based on your current gear; make sure you sim
yourself regularly to know what to use for the various
situations. When using Void Eruption in particular Haste gains even more
value up to 40% total, you might still run Haste enchants until this point
for those builds.
Incandescent Essence
The Incandescent Essence helm enchant is a reusable item that lets
you add an extra effect to any Helm item. This enchant has a different effect
depending on your spec. As a Shadow Priest, you get the ranged DPS effect,
Tindral's Fowl Fantasia.
To acquire this helm enchant you need to complete The Power of Dreams quest by defeating Raid bosses in Amirdrassil.
This effect does not strictly change any gameplay and is just a passive proc, and it will add about 1.5%-2.5% DPS in most scenarios. The crucial thing to keep in mind is that this proc scales based on the item level of the Helm you are using.
Best The War Within Phials for Shadow Priest
In pre-patch, several flasks or phials could make sense depending on the content you are doing. Use the following table as your guide; the higher in the table, the more DPS. While each phial has a different top-end DPS, I think there are scenarios where you may want to have at least a few of each around at a time, depending on the encounter.
Phial Name | When to Use | DPS Increase at Rank 3 |
---|---|---|
![]() |
Only use if you get at least 70% uptime. |
|
![]() |
While not the best, it can be a nice mix of offensive and defensive power without any downside. | 3.2% |
If you can maintain 70%+ uptime of Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage, this Phial
will generally outperform
Phial of Tepid Versatility offensively. Uptime is not
the best metric to gauge this, but it is generally okay to look at the value. We mostly care
about uptime during cooldowns; as long as you have it there, it is probably worth using.
I would suggest keeping a supply of both in case you want the extra defensive value from
the Vers flask, or you can push for more damage.
For most parts of PvE content, it will not be easy to use Phial of Charged Isolation
or
Phial of Static Empowerment. For this reason, they are not suggested.
Note that Phial of Elemental Chaos and
Phial of Glacial Fury are
both worse than the options above, and I would not consider using them as a Shadow
Priest unless they are considerably cheaper and you are on a budget.
Best The War Within Potion for Shadow Priest
In pre-patch, several potions could make sense depending on the content you are doing. Use the following list as your guide; the higher, the better.
Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
Elemental Potion of Power
Residual Neural Channeling Agent - can be used while dead
For Healing Potions, you have a few options to choose from.
As an Alchemist, I strongly suggest using Potion of Withering Dreams
since you can spec into reducing the negative component to make this considerably
stronger. If you are not an Alchemist or not specced to reduce the Toxic damage, you
should default to the
Dreamwalker's Healing Potion. Healthstones and Healing
Potions can be used alongside each other without putting the other
on cooldown.
Potion of Withering Dreams - Alchemist Only
Dreamwalker's Healing Potion - General Use
Best Food for Shadow
For your food buff, you should consider using alternative food choices
instead of relying on Fated Fortune Cookie or the equivalent
Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak.
As we acquire more gear, we are generally seeing the secondary stat food scaling better than the Intellect versions. There are many good options here similar to gems; use this as a rough guide, but be sure to sim the differences if you are looking to min/max.
- Below both DR thresholds:
Sizzling Seafood Medley
- Above Haste DR threshold only:
Thousandbone Tongueslicer or
Great Cerulean Sea
- Above Mastery DR threshold only:
Feisty Fish Sticks or
Aromatic Seafood Platter
- Above both DR thresholds:
Revenge, Served Cold
These options are roughly 0.25% better than the Intellect options. Certainly, not a lot of damage if you prefer to save money and just use your group's feast.
Weapon Runes for Shadow
For your temporary weapon rune, you should use Howling Rune,
Buzzing Rune,
or
Hissing Rune, depending on your stats. I would suggest simming
both options at your current gear to see which is better, but for most
people you can use this rough guide.
- Below both DR thresholds:
Howling Rune
- Above Haste DR threshold only:
Hissing Rune
- Above Mastery DR threshold only:
Howling Rune
- Above both DR thresholds:
Buzzing Rune
Augment Runes for Shadow
You should aim to use Draconic Augment Rune to get a boost of
Intellect during any progression content. You can also purchase a permanent
version
Dreambound Augment Rune via the Dream Wardens Rank 18 Renown
in the Emerald Dream. In terms of value, they give the exact same amount of
Intellect (87 for 1 hour).
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Update leg enchant suggestion and review for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Extra clarification on gem choices.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Add alternative Boot enchant for more mobility.
- 13 Dec. 2023: Add section about Incandescent Essence.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Update all consumables for Season 3.
- 03 Oct. 2023: Use correct name for the socket item for Season 2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 13 Aug. 2023: Update video link.
- 23 Jul. 2023: Reviewed from the recent hotfixes.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 27 Jun. 2023: Adjust wording on Onyx Annulet do not use statement.
- 01 Jun. 2023: Add note about rough value of a socket.
- 15 May 2023: Rage Phial has been fixed so adjusting back suggestions and adding belt clasp.
- 03 May 2023: Change default Phial back to Vers with Rage being bugged.
- 02 May 2023: Add extra note on Sophic vs. Wafting.
- 01 May 2023: Change suggested Phials and review other enchants for 10.1.0.
- 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: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7 and add info about the Onyx Annulet ring.
- 15 Feb. 2023: Clarify gem usage.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Added mention of Haste/Mastery combo gem.
- 21 Dec. 2022: Add extra clarification on when to use Vers phial.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Add note about more Phials that I would not suggest using.
- 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. He currently raids in The Exiled on Arthas-US.
- World First Mythic Garrosh Solo in MoP Remix
- Druid Changes in the War Within Beta Build 55789
- Alysrazor Bugged in the War Within Pre-Patch
- The War Within Pre-Patch Early Mythic+ DPS, Tank and Healer Log Rankings
- The War Within and Season of Discovery Hotfixes, July 25th
- Game Time Incoming for Players on North American Realms
- Demon Hunter Changes in the War Within Beta Build 55789
- Molten Core Trash Mob Immunity Hotfix