The Black Temple is a legendary raid in The Burning Crusade, with the final boss being one of the most popular Warcraft characters, Illidan Stormrage. However, one boss encounter will leave players trapped and unable to progress if they do not prepare properly.
That boss is the seventh encounter of the raid: Mother Shahraz, due to the main mechanic of the encounter: Fatal Attraction. This ability will teleport 3 players to a random location and will deal shadow damage to all three until they are 25 yards apart from each other. To prepare for this, players will need to gear for Shadow Protection, and in this guide, we'll tell you how much you need and where you can get it from for the first few weeks of Phase 3.
Quick Links
- How Resistance Works in TBC Classic
- How To Gear for Shadow Resistance
- The Ideal Week 1 Shadow Resistance Set
- An "Alternate" Solution
How Resistance Works in TBC Classic
In The Burning Crusade Classic, all schools of magic can be fully "resisted", similar to how a physical DPS can "miss". Just like a physical DPS player can deal a glancing blow, a partial physical hit that doesn't deal the full amount of the swing, magic abilities can also be partially resisted. In Classic, gear can have certain amounts of resistance to a particular school of magic.
In TBC, there are binary and non-binary spells. Binary spells can either fully hit or be fully resisted. Non-binary spells can be partially resisted as well. Mother Shahraz's main mechanic, Fatal Attraction, is a non-binary spell, and because of that, players can opt into certain amounts of Shadow Resistance to prevent taking full damage from each Shadow Resistance tick.
In The Burning Crusade, achieving 244 Resistance is the minimum amount to grant you guaranteed partial resistance for any non-binary spell of that school of magic you have resistance to.
How To Gear for Shadow Resistance
Guaranteed Shadow Resistance
As you're completing your attunement for Black Temple, you will be granted the Medallion of the Karabor, which gives you +40 Shadow Resistance and a whopping 49 Stamina. Along with that, Priests can buff players with Prayer of Shadow Protection, and Paladins can use their Shadow Protection Aura, both awarding 70 Shadow Resistance. Note that these DO NOT stack with each other. With that being said, the medallion and buff will give you 110 Resistance, meaning you only need to achieve 134 Resistance from gear thereafter.
Reminder: Although attunements are account-bound on TBC Anniversary, this does not mean that the Medallion of Karabor will be. You should make sure that every character you want to progress into the Black Temple has finished the attunement just for the necklace.
BoE Shadow Resistance Pieces
The ideal slots to get Shadow Resistance pieces will be the Cloak, Bracers, Rings, and Helmet. A Shadow Resistance Cloak can also be given +15 Shadow Resistance through an enchant from player enchanters, and the Helmet can get +20 Shadow Resistance Enchant as well if they’re Honored with the Lower City. Every level 70 uncommon piece of gear with the suffix of “Shadow Protection” will give +21 Shadow Protection to it.
BoP Shadow Resistance Pieces
There are also a select few options for BoP Shadow Resistance pieces that players can get, mainly through opening prisons in the Netherstorm with Ethereum Prison Keys. This, actually, is also a way to get BoE pieces as well, however, for both BoP/BoE pieces, it's all one big roll of the dice. When you open these prison cells located west of Manaforge Ultris, you will either release a friendly NPC that will grant you certain reputation, or a hostile one that will drop Level 70 gear. If it is an uncommon piece, it will be BoE. If it is a rare piece, it will be BoP.
The rare slots will be available for the Cloak and Ring, while the BoE slots can be any other slot. The BoE gear will be of any random suffix (i.e "of the bear", "of the eagle", "of the sorcerer"), but this also includes "of Shadow Protection". The BoP gear will be a focus first on certain resistance, and THEN a random suffix. For example, the Shadow Resistance Cloak would be "Dark Cloak" and then "of the random suffix" after. The best cloak for a caster DPS would be the "Dark Cloak of the Sorcerer".
If you have the time and plenty of these prison keys, this is a great way to potentially get some of the best Shadow Protection pieces for week 1 of Phase 3!
Most Powerful Shadow Resistance Option
What is most recommended, however, to ultimately maximize your power while having Shadow Resistance, is having alternate pieces of gear such as your Tier sets that have sockets available on them, as you can socket Void Sphere into them, each sphere giving +4 Resist All. The best part is these Void Sphere are very easy to craft from Enchanters, as they only require two Void Crystals.
Shadow Resistance Enchants
Below is a table of every enchant where you can get additional Shadow Resistance for your character:
| Enchant | Slot(s) | Shadow Resistance | How To Obtain | Location |
| Formula: Enchant Cloak - Greater Shadow Resistance | Cloak | +15 | Drop: Void Shriekers (Enchanting Pattern) | Netherstorm |
| Shadow Armor Kit | Chest, Legs, Hands, Feet | +8 | Drop: Time-Lost Shadowmage (Leatherworking Pattern) | Sethekk Halls |
| Glyph of Shadow Warding | Head | +20 | Vendor: Nakodu, Honored with Lower City (Reputation) | Shattrath City |
| Void Sphere | Gem Socket | +4 | Crafted: 2 Void Crystals (Enchanters) | Player Enchanters |
Shadow Resistance Consumables
In Phase 3, Alchemists who are Honored with the Violet Eye can pick up the Recipe for Flask Of Chromatic Wonder, giving 35 Resistance to all schools of magic and increasing stats by 18 for 2 hours. Along with that, Alchemists can craft Major Shadow Protection Potion and can also craft Cauldrons of Major Shadow Protection, which is only obtainable by “discovering” this ability when randomly crafting Major Shadow Protection Potions.
The Ideal Week 1 Shadow Resistance Set
The below image provides an overview of a great Shadow Resistance set-up. They utilize extra Tier 4 and 5 pieces to place Void Sphere in, have a couple pure Shadow Resistance pieces on, have Shadow Armor Kit on available slots, in addition to having the Medallion of Karabor equipped.
Image credit: Sixtyupgrades.com.
Shadow Resistance After Week 1
After Week 1, players will be able to craft Shadow Resistance pieces from the new Faction: The Ashtongue Deathsworn, with gear available for all armor types. These pieces are also available once you reach Friendly and Honored with them, but require max skill level (375) to craft, along with a unique crafting material that only drops in the raid, Heart Of Darkness. These pieces are available for the feet, legs, belt, and glove slots. However, Heart Of Darkness drop rates are NOT very high, so it is best to still prepare your set beforehand, as you may be using it for a while.
An "Alternate" Solution
Should players NOT have Shadow Resistance ready for this encounter, if they are an engineer, then they have a second option. Engineers can craft two pieces of gear that can grant them protection from the Fatal Attraction Mechanic: The Night Invulnerability Belt or the Rocket Boots Xtreme. The former gives players an 8-second shield absorbing 4000 damage, while the latter grants players a 3-second 300% movement speed buff.
However, the boots can fail, which will just deal more damage to the player instead! It is only advised to use this instead of resistance if the majority of your group is experienced and familiar with this mechanic; if not, you should opt for Shadow Resistance instead.
We hope this guide helps you on your journey! Phase 3 Launches August 27th for The Burning Crusade Anniversary, so if you do not have your Shadow Resistance set yet, get on it!
