Shadow Priest gearing guide

Patch 10.0.5 Last Updated: 7th Mar, 2023
Jaerv Shadow Priest Author
Jaerv

Gear

Tier Set

    The first Tier Set in Dragonflight is very simple and will not heavily change how you play the spec

    The only small change to your gameplay you can do is with the 2set. Where full channeling Mind Sears at 100 insanity with 3 stacks of the Tier Set, is slightly better than instantly casting it on 50 insanity.

    Trinkets

     (This is not a priority order, just the different trinkets that are worth looking into)

    Horn of Valor: Drops from Halls of Valor

    Voidmender’s Shadowgem: Drops from Shadowmoon Burial Ground

    Furious Ragefeather: Drops from The Nokhud Offensive

    Whispering Incarnate Icon: Drops from The Primal Council in the Vault of the Incarnates (Very Rare)

    Eye of Skovald: Drops from Halls of Valor

    Conjured Chillglobe: Drops from The Primal Council in the Vault of the Incarnates

    The best pairings are

    Whispering Incarnate Icon & Furious Ragefeather (If you have all 3 buffs of Whispering Incarnate Icon)

    Voidmender’s Shadowgem & Furious Ragefeather

    Horn of Valor & Furious Ragefeather

    Crafted Gear (Embellishments)

    The top Embellishments for Shadow are:

    1. Elemental Lariat
    2. Blue Silken Lining

    There are a few options that are kind of close to Blue Silken Lining as the second option, and some people might ask "why we would use that when we spend a lot of fight under 90% health?".

    The answer to that, is that all the options are kind of low in value, and they all have downsides to them.

    • Blue Silken Lining has bad uptime on certain bosses
    • Potion Absorption Inhibitor gives you all the extra duration of your potion AFTER your cooldowns
    • Amice of the Blue forces you to use Tier Set legs, which has the 2 worst stats possible

    You’re basically just comparing the least bad of a few bad options, and Blue Silken Lining is on average the best for all content. Because, even if you have bosses where the uptime is low, you will have it up during your cooldowns almost every time; because of how much self healing a Shadow Priest has during cooldowns.

    Order of crafting:

    1. Weapon if you do not have a 418 weapon
    2. Elemental Lariat
    3. Ring (can put Blue Silken Lining on this one)
    4. 2nd Ring or an item level increase (such as Legs/Belt/Boots/Bracers)
    5. Whichever you didn't craft as the 4th

    Should I craft a 2H staff or a 1H?

    While there is no difference in value between the 2 assuming you have the same item level, a 1H is more efficient for a few reasons.

    A main-hand only costs 1 Spark instead of 2.

    The main-hand holds 2/3rd of the value in stats, so crafting a 418 Main-Hand and farming a Off-hand in mythic+ and upgrading it to 415 is incredible efficient.

    Since it only costs 1 spark instead of 2, it lets you get another full piece, which is a bigger increase in value than that of a ~3 item level difference on an off-hand.

    It opens up your vault to be a lot more efficient, since any 1H, any off-hand, and any staff will be an instant upgrade. Compared to if you had crafted a 2H with your spark, and you got a 1H or an off-hand in the vault, you would have to farm the 2nd part of the the combo instead.

    Revival Catalyst

    The gear you craft in the Catalyst has set stats, and here is a list of what stats every piece has for Priest:

    • Head - Haste/Mastery (Tier Set)
    • Shoulders- Vers/Haste (Tier Set)
    • Back - Haste/Crit
    • Chest - Haste/Crit (Tier Set)
    • Wrists - Mastery/Vers
    • Hands - Mastery/Crit (Tier Set)
    • Waist - Crit/Vers
    • Legs - Crit/Vers (Tier Set)
    • Feet - Haste/Mastery