Shadow Priest DPS Gear and Best in Slot — 12.0.5

Welcome to our Gearing Page for Shadow Priest. This section will cover everything you need to know about equipping your character correctly for Midnight and Season 1. Check out the sections below to see information on the best gear from all sources and specifics for Trinkets and Crafted items.

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.

Upgrading gear in Midnight continues to use the Crest system which lets you increase the item level of gear along tracks that relate to where you obtained the item, which harder content dropping gear that can be upgraded to higher Item Levels. For more information, read up on our dedicated page on how the gearing system works and what has changed in the Midnight expansion.

OverallMythic+Raid

This list contains the highest DPS setup from all sources for Shadow Priest. Keep in mind that there are many other setups that perform within the margin of error. This list is not the end-all-be-all list where any item that is not listed is far behind this specific selection.

This list is by no means a replacement for simming yourself. Depending on your previous Great Vault choices and the gear you have available, your BiS gear might look different in some spots than the below list.

In some non-Tier slots, a max ilvl craft will technically be optimal since you can customize the secondary stats to your liking. Your mileage here may vary.

FAQWhat About the Crafted 2-Handed Weapon?

Strictly speaking, the crafted 2-handed weapon is not Best-In-Slot, but it is very close and a great choice for being efficient with your Dawncrests early. Check out the crafted section below to learn more.

FAQWhich Tier Set Pieces Do I Want?

For Midnight Season 1 as a Shadow Priest you want to try and prioritize aquiring the Tier Helm, Shoulders, Chest, and Leg set pieces. Keep in mind that just getting our bonsuses are the important thing, regardless of slots. If you need to use Gloves to get your 2 or 4-piece bonus, that is still better than waiting for optimal slots. Long term, just focus on dropping the Gloves.

Shadow Priest

1.1.

Best Overall Best in Slot

Blind Oath's Winged Crest Helm

Lightblinded Vanguard in The Voidspire Empowered Blessing of Speed

Vilehex Bonds Hands

Maisara Caverns

Eternal Voidsong Chain Neck

Crown of the Cosmos in The Voidspire

Arcanoweave Cord Waist

Crafted by Tailoring

Blind Oath's Seraphguards Shoulders

Fallen-King Salhadaar in The Voidspire Akil'zon's Swiftness

Blind Oath's Leggings Legs

Vaelgor and Ezzorak in Voidspire Sunfire Silk Spellthread

Draconic Nullcape Cloak

Vaelgor and Ezzorak in Voidspire

Lightbinder Treads Feet

Skyreach Farstrider's Hunt

Blind Oath's Raiment Chest

Chimaerus in The Dreamrift Mark of the Worldsoul

Omission of Light Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Occlusion of Void Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus in The Dreamrift

Martyr's Bindings Bracers

Crafted by Tailoring

Vaelgor's Final Stare Trinket

Vaelgor and Ezzorak in Voidspire

Belo'melorn, the Shattered Talon Main Hand

Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas Arcane Mastery

Tome of Alnscorned Regret Off Hand

Chimaerus in The Dreamrift

This list consists of the best items that solely drop and are farmable for Season 1 Mythic+ dungeons. This list is not meant at being your Best-In-Slot list for pushing keys, use the Overall List for that.

This list is by no means a replacement for simming yourself. Depending on your previous Great Vault choices and the gear you have available, your BiS gear might look different in some spots than the below list.

TipsWhich Dungeons Should I Farm?

If you have limited time to play the game, we recommend to farm the following dungeons:

• Skyreach: Has both a 2-handed and off-hand weapons with good stats.
• Maisara Caverns: Drops one of our best trinket options.
• Windrunner Spire: Drops two of our best trinket options.

Shadow Priest

1.2.

Best Mythic+ Gear

Blind Oath's Winged Crest (TIER SET) Helm

Catalyst Empowered Blessing of Speed

Vilehex Bonds Hands

Maisara Caverns

Necklace of the Twisting Void Neck

Seat of the Triumvirate

Cord of Unraveling Reality Waist

Seat of the Triumvirate

Blind Oath's Seraphguards (TIER SET) Shoulders

Catalyst Akil'zon's Swiftness

Blind Oath's Leggings (TIER SET) Legs

Catalyst Sunfire Silk Spellthread

Defiant Defender's Drape Cloak

Magister's Terrace

Lightbinder Treads Feet

Skyreach Farstrider's Hunt

Blind Oath's Raiment (TIER SET) Chest

Catalyst Mark of the Worldsoul

Omission of Light Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Occlusion of Void Ring

Nexus-Point Xenas Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Emberwing Feather Trinket

Windrunner Spire

Entropic Wristwraps Bracers

Seat of the Triumvirate

Heart of Wind Trinket

Windrunner Spire

Spire of the Furious Construct Main Hand

Skyreach Arcane Mastery

Off Hand

This list consists of the best items that solely drop from Season 1 Raids. This list is not meant at being your Best-In-Slot list for raiding, use the Overall List for that.

This list is by no means a replacement for simming yourself. Depending on your previous Great Vault choices and the gear you have available, your BiS gear might look different in some spots than the below list.

TipsWhich Raid Items Do I Want Most?

Use this below list to help guide your farming priorities for raids.

• Gaze of the Alnseer: Our best trinket. Drops from Chimaerus, who also drops our Tier-Set chest, Off-Hand, and our BiS Boots.
• Eternal Voidsong Chain: Our best-in-slot Neck Item that we will be able to fully saturate the proc uptime of, in addition of slightly buffing the damage with Voidheart. This drops from the last boss of The Voidspire, Crown of the Cosmos.
• Eye of Midnight: Not only do we love Haste, but the additional defensive benefit of this ring makes it great for progression content. This drops from Midnight Falls, who also drops our BiS Weapons and one of our best trinkets, Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem.

Shadow Priest

1.3.

Best Raid Gear

Blind Oath's Winged Crest (TIER SET) Helm

Lightblinded Vanguard in The Voidspire

War Chaplain's Grips Hands

Lightblinded Vanguard in Voidspire

Eternal Voidsong Chain Neck

Crown of the Cosmos in The Voidspire

Whisper-Inscribed Sash Waist

Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas

Blind Oath's Seraphguards (TIER SET) Shoulders

Fallen-King Salhadaar in The Voidspire Akil'zon's Swiftness

Blind Oath's Leggings (TIER SET) Legs

Vaelgor and Ezzorak in Voidspire Sunfire Silk Spellthread

Draconic Nullcape Cloak

Vaelgor and Ezzorak in Voidspire

Dream-Scorched Striders Feet

Chimaerus in The Dreamrift Farstrider's Hunt

Blind Oath's Raiment (TIER SET) Chest

Chimaerus in The Dreamrift

Eye of Midnight Ring

Midnight Falls in March on Quel'Danas Eyes of the Eagle

Shirt

Bond of Light Ring

Lightblinded Vanguard in Voidspire Eyes of the Eagle

Tabard

Gaze of the Alnseer Trinket

Chimaerus in The Dreamrift

Voracious Wristwraps Bracers

Vorasius in Voidspire

Vaelgor's Final Stare Trinket

Vaelgor and Ezzorak in Voidspire

Belo'melorn, the Shattered Talon Main Hand

Belo'ren in March on Quel'Danas Arcane Mastery

Tome of Alnscorned Regret Off Hand

Chimaerus in The Dreamrift

Itemization

Enchants and Stat Priority

Looking to optimize your character? Check out our Enchant and Stat Priority guides for more information!

EnchantsStats

Shadow Priest has many great Trinkets to choose from throughout the season. The guide below is designed to help you understand which are best to target and what to expect from the trinket options in Season 1. 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. Be sure to get familiar with the Gear Upgrade System system.

This season, it will be very common to not use an on-use trinket. Due to the strength of our major cooldowns, we find ourselves typically favoring passive trinkets; the top ones are noted below. Certain cases do call for burst, so sometimes having an on-use trinket available can be useful even if technically does not sim for the best.

Shadow Priest Trinkets

Best-In-Slot - Gaze of the Alnseer
Runner Up - Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem or Locus-Walker's Ribbon
Best On-Use - Vaelgor's Final Stare or Emberwing Feather

There are lots of other competitive options out there, be sure to see the full rankings below.

• Voidweaver
• Archon

• Voidweaver
• Archon

Click for Shadow Priest Trinket Rankings

Ranking	Archon	Voidweaver
S Tier	Gaze of the Alnseer Vaelgor's Final Stare Locus-Walker's Ribbon	Gaze of the Alnseer Vaelgor's Final Stare Locus-Walker's Ribbon
A Tier	Soulcatcher's Charm Darkmoon Dominion: Hunt (Embellishment) Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem Darkmoon Dominion: Blood (Embellishment)	Soulcatcher's Charm Darkmoon Dominion: Hunt (Embellishment) Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem Emberwing Feather Darkmoon Dominion: Blood (Embellishment)
B Tier	Energy Siphon Darkmoon Dominion: Void (Embellishment) Emberwing Feather Drum of Renewed Bonds Heart of Wind Lightspire Core Crucible of Erratic Energies Reality Breacher Eye of the Drowning Void	Darkmoon Dominion: Void (Embellishment) Heart of Wind Energy Siphon Drum of Renewed Bonds Crucible of Erratic Energies Lightspire Core Reality Breacher
C Tier	Living Flame Wraps of Cosmic Madness Litany of Lightblind Wrath Void-Reaper's Libram Glorious Crusader's Keepsake Eye of the Broodmother Darkmoon Dominion: Rot (Embellishment) Flare of the Heavens Astalor's Anguish Agitator Scale of Fates	Eye of the Drowning Void Litany of Lightblind Wrath Glorious Crusader's Keepsake Wraps of Cosmic Madness Living Flame Scale of Fates Void-Reaper's Libram Eye of the Broodmother Darkmoon Dominion: Rot (Embellishment) Flare of the Heavens Astalor's Anguish Agitator

Patch 12.0.5 brings two powerful voidcore systems designed to enhance your gearing progression:

• Nebulous Voidcore guarantees loot from your target boss or dungeon. While the specific item is random, you'll never receive duplicates, each new voidcore guarantees a different drop until you've collected everything available from that source.
• Ascendant Voidcore elevates your best gear beyond their normal item level caps. Use these only on fully-upgraded Hero or Myth Midnight Season 1 weapons and trinkets, or maximum-quality Radiance Crafted weapons and trinkets.

Seasonal Mechanics

Voidforge and Voidcores

Check our our guide on the Voidforge to learn how to acquire this powerful upgrades!

Go to Guide

Your Nebulous Voidcores are a valuable resource for targeting gear that would otherwise elude you. Your voidcore strategy should prioritize closing gaps in your current setup, keeping in mind what you have already obtained from the Great Vault and your raid progression tier. Spending voidcores on items you can access through higher difficulty content in the coming weeks is generally inefficient. Here is what you should focus on:

Voidcore Targeting Priority

1. Myth-track weapons (1H or 2H)
2. Mythic-track trinkets like Gaze of the Alnseer
3. Tier set pieces you are missing for your 2 or 4-piece bonus
4. High-impact slots from your BiS list

Your Ascendant Voidcores should follow this prioritization order (they only apply to weapons and trinkets):

1. Main-hand weapon
2. Gaze of the Alnseer
3. Other trinkets
4. Off-hand weapon (if used)

Don't overlook crafted weapon options, an embellished piece with the right stats can outperform a standard raid drop from a lower difficulty. When deciding between upgrading a Hero-track and Myth-track item, prioritize based on your progression pace. For example, if Mythic raids feel distant, boosting a Hero-track Gaze of the Alnseer or Vaelgor's Final Stare is worthwhile. As always, simming your character will reveal the exact value of each upgrade.

Crafting gear yourself or comissioning profession items is a great way to augment your characters power.

As a Shadow Priest we highly suggest crafting a weapon early, ideally with saved up Myth Dawncrests from the first few weeks of the season. While this weapon is not strictly best-in-slot, it is very powerful and extremely efficient use of your resources early on.

You can further push your character's strength by utilizing your two 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.

Shadow Priest Crafted Gear Priority

• Aln'hara Cane with Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt
• Arcanoweave Cord
• Any item you do not have on Myth track yet
• Craft an item with Arcanoweave Lining to replace your staff when you get a good enough weapon.

For more information about crafting gear you can visit our Professions page.

Even though we cannot craft the most powerful items, we can still craft gear with embellishments, making them more powerful than a typical item of that item level.

As a Shadow Priest, you have a few options for your two embellished slots, depending on what gear you currently have. You should use these crafted items to make up for any gaps in your gearing process or slots you need in particular.

If it was not clear, you can stack two of most embellished effects, which doubles the effects but not how often it procs.

The below breaks down your choice into 2-categories: Progression and End-Game. If you are starting out your progression journey, you should focus on items that are the most efficient when spending Crests. The End-Game setup is ideal for when you are specifically just concerned about crafting the best items possible at end-game availability without taking into account efficiency. Additionally, if you find yourself lucky with weapon drops the End-Game setup might make more sense for you as well. Be sure to sim the options for your character.

During Season 1 you can sockets to any Head, Waist, or Wrist item with the Radiant Jewelbinder consumable that you can get if you do not select any of the choices in your Great Vault. Not picking a choice will grant you tokens, six of which can be traded in for the Radiant Jewelbinder item that allows you to add a socket to the above piece of gear, if you acquired them in Season 1.

Dawncrests are a limited time-gated resource that you want to spend optimally to make sure your player power gains are maximized as you progress through the season. These Dawncrests can be used to upgrade gear to higher item levels. It is important that you prioritize your usage of them on items you plan on not replacing anytime soon, or that offer the biggest benefits.

Shadow Priest Crest Upgrade Priority

Weapon (1-handed or 2-handed) ➜ Trinkets ➜ Helmet/Chest/Legs ➜ Off-hand ➜ Shoulders/Gloves/Belt/Boots

These are not the only items worth upgrading, of course. They simply offer the highest DPS gain early into the tier when your upgrade currency is limited. Note that exceptions are possible, such as special items that have additional procs attached to them.

Throughout this page and elsewhere in our guide, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots. This is because every character is unique, and each gear piece you have access to can change what is best right now for you.

While we do offer recommendations for gear and trinkets, these are not complete replacements for simming yourself. The only way to truly optimize your character to that degree is by making use of the tools available!

Optimization

Simulations and Tools

For further reading on how to truly maximize your character's potential, check out our guide on Raidbots!

Go to Guide

Publik

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Publik, Shadow Priest theorycrafter and SimC dev at Warcraft Priests.