Timeless Azeroth

Gear & Stats

Shadow Priest gearing in early TBC revolves around reaching spell hit cap as quickly as possible, then stacking Spell Power aggressively. Shadow scales poorly with critical strike rating because most core damage sources cannot crit, so itemization is unusually direct: cap hit, then maximize Spell Power, with haste becoming more relevant later as it appears more frequently on raid gear and proc effects.

Shadow Pre-BiS

Shadow PvE BiS (Phase 1)

Stat Priority

Below the hit cap, Spell Hit Rating is your highest-value stat by a large margin. Once capped, prioritize Spell Power to maximize all DoT and channel damage. General priority: Spell Hit Rating (to cap) > Spell Power > Spell Haste (later phases / procs) > Spell Critical Strike > Intellect > Spirit > MP5 > Stamina. Hit cap notes: Bosses require 16% spell hit baseline, but Shadow Focus reduces the gear requirement to roughly 6% (about 75–76 spell hit rating). If you are grouped with a Draenei caster (Inspiring Presence), your cap is effectively lower, and you should be ready to swap out hit pieces to avoid wasting item budget.

Stats Explained

Spell Hit Rating

Spell Hit is mandatory until capped. Missing a key spell is a major DPS loss and also disrupts the pacing of your rotation. With Shadow Focus, you only need roughly 6% hit from gear (about 75–76 rating). Above the cap, hit provides no benefit and should be avoided.

Spell Power

Spell Power is your best DPS stat after hit cap. The majority of Shadow damage comes from spells that scale directly with Spell Power, including DoTs and Mind Flay, making it the most consistent throughput increase throughout the expansion.

Spell Haste

Haste becomes increasingly valuable as it becomes more available on later-phase items. It increases the number of Mind Flays you can fit between cooldown-based spells and can materially change the feel of your rotation during proc windows. Early on, haste is rare, but proc items like Quagmirran’s Eye can provide meaningful temporary haste that you should play around.

Spell Critical Strike

Crit is a low-value stat for Shadow because most primary damage sources do not crit. Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death can crit, but Mind Flay and key DoTs cannot. Do not actively chase crit, but do not avoid strong items simply because they include it.

Intellect

Intellect increases your mana pool (15 mana per 1 Intellect) and contributes a small amount of crit and regeneration via the TBC regeneration formula. It is not a stat you stack deliberately, but you will feel the loss of Intellect if you cut too much mana pool early in progression.

Spirit and MP5

Spirit improves regeneration and becomes more relevant if you ever run into mana problems. With Meditation, some spirit-based regeneration continues while casting. MP5 provides fixed in-combat regeneration and can be useful for sustained encounters, but generally ranks below Spirit when choosing between similarly strong items.

Stamina

Stamina is not a DPS priority. With proper threat management and Vampiric Embrace sustain, survivability is rarely the limiting factor. Consider stamina only when encounters include frequent random damage or when learning fights.