Best Legendaries for Tank Specs in Shadowlands Patch 9.0.5
Best Blood Death Knight Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Blood Death Knight Legendary is Superstrain or Crimson Rune Weapon.
9.0.2 had a single real choice of legendary for Castle Nathria and 9.0.5 looks no different, with
Superstrain providing a healthy amount of additional damage and Runic Power over time, scaling slightly off target count.
Crimson Rune Weapon could prove to be an appealing pick on some encounters, particularly the ones with constant tanking uptime (Altimor, Sludgefist, SLG, Council of Blood, Inerva Darkvein, and Denathrius to an extent). It really does require at least one target meleeing you nearly constantly to beat
Superstrain, however.
For Mythic+, the best Blood Death Knight Legendary is Crimson Rune Weapon or Superstrain.
9.0.5 will likely see a swap to
Crimson Rune Weapon; unlike raids, tanking uptime is virtually guaranteed, making the cooldown reduction (and therefore incidental rune gains from casting
Dancing Rune Weapon more often) much more impactful.
An additional perk of this is the ability to have a major defensive and offensive hybrid CD running for
every pull, instead of every other pull, thanks to this legendary. This may be strong enough to also open up some minor route changes to take advantage of this.
Superstrain remains a very valid option, but lacks on the defensive front compared to
Crimson Rune Weapon.
Best Vengeance Demon Hunter Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Vengeance Demon Hunter Legendary is Fiery Soul.
Fiery Soul remains the strongest legendary for progression raiding, with
Razelikh's Defilement for Kyrian and
Judgment of the Arbiter for other covenants being the highest damage for farm content. None of our legendaries offer a substantial DPS boost, while
Fiery Soul provides a massive survivability increase. None of the changes to legendaries in 9.0.5 have any major effect outside of
Darkglare Boon, but despite the doubling of its proc rate from 20% to 40% and refund on Fury, it remains behind in overall damage and is less reliable for survivability due to the randomness.
For Mythic+, the best Vengeance Demon Hunter Legendary is Fiery Soul.
Fiery Soul is now the strongest legendary for Mythic+ due to the extreme amount of survivability needed. While DPS legendaries are nice and can help time a key, currently the damage profiles in keystones are high enough that they require kiting.
Fiery Soul allows us to stay in longer, providing a larger DPS increase for the group before we need to kite away, as well as giving us a cooldown for the vast majority of tankbusters on bosses and difficult trash pulls. Similar to the raid situation, none of the legendary changes particularly affect the rankings.
Darkglare Boon gets a bigger boost here due to the powerful effects of
Metamorphosis, but it is still a less reliable option.
Best Guardian Druid Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Guardian Druid Legendary is Ursoc's Fury Remembered, Draught of Deep Focus or The Natural Order's Will.
Offensively,
Draught of Deep Focus is massively powerful on single target encounters, providing a huge boost to our catweaving damage allowing us to be one of the highest dps tanks in the game currently.
Defensively,
The Natural Order's Will, this is an absolute life saver on those extremely high damage taken encounters.
Ursoc's Fury Remembered, is a really well balanced legendary, providing a huge defensive boost on the more AoE or cleave heavy encounters while also giving us an excellent damage increase where
Draught of Deep Focus provides no value and
The Natural Order's Will is overkill.
For Mythic+, the best Guardian Druid Legendary is Ursoc's Fury Remembered.
Overall, this is the most valuable legendary, giving us that nice damage boost while also helping boost our self sustain so we don't have to waste valuable
Frenzied Regeneration charges on trickle damage. Also has the added benefit of letting us pull off some very impressive pulls when coupled with
Incarnation: Guardian of Ursoc.
Best Brewmaster Monk Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Brewmaster Monk Legendary is Stormstout's Last Keg.
Stormstout's Last Keg is the best all-around defensive option for raiding Brewmaster Monks, as it provides the most consistent blend of damage and defensive value. It makes the rotation simpler and more flexible, which makes handling mechanics less punishing.
Charred Passions is a superior option for dealing single-target DPS, and it’s a great choice for players who are on farm, or who are not being challenged defensively by a given fight, but it makes the rotation considerably less elastic, and thus is not as reliable of a defensive option. You have options, but
Stormstout's Last Keg is generally going to be the best choice.
For Mythic+, the best Brewmaster Monk Legendary is Stormstout's Last Keg.
Stormstout's Last Keg is the best all-around defensive option for Brewmaster Monks in Mythic+. It provides the most consistent defensive value, and it is generally the best DPS option in Mythic+ trash pulls, which are typically shorter than raid fights and have a much higher mob count. It also makes the rotation simpler and more flexible, which makes handling mechanics -- or kiting difficult trash packs -- that much less punishing. Ultimately, it’s the easiest and strongest choice, and that’s a winning combination.
Best Protection Paladin Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Protection Paladin Legendary is The Magistrate's Judgment or The Mad Paragon.
For raid, the best defensive legendary is
The Magistrate's Judgment. It increases the value of your
Judgment, a spell that is cast very often, in terms of Holy Power gain. It adds a lot of flexibility because it makes it easier to maintain
Shield of the Righteous while having very high self-sustain with more
Word of Glory casts. It is a proc so there is some randomness involved, however over a longer raid encounter, it will average out and provide a significant survivability gain.
On the offensive side, the best legendary is
The Mad Paragon. It powers up one of your
Hammer of Wrath and allows you to extend
Avenging Wrath for a longer duration. It has great synergy with
Righteous Protector allowing for more uptime on
Avenging Wrath overall. It especially shines for single target or priority damage which are very important in raiding.
For Mythic+, the best Protection Paladin Legendary is Bulwark of Righteous Fury or Holy Avenger's Engraved Sigil.
For M+, the best offensive legendary item is
Bulwark of Righteous Fury.
Shield of the Righteous is now a larger part of the AOE damage kit and buffing it even more can provide significant results. Since
Shield of the Righteous has higher uptime and is pressed way more often, this legendary really shines in Mythic+.
On the utility or defensive side, the best legendary is
Holy Avenger's Engraved Sigil. It will give you more Holy Power, extra interrupts which can be useful in some dungeons, and some smoothing from
First Avenger absorbs. It's just an all-around solid legendary that can provide versatility that might shine more in a dungeon than in a raid.
Best Protection Warrior Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Protection Warrior Legendary is Reprisal.
The Wall has remained the most-popular Protection Warrior Legendary in
Castle Nathria, but its time in the limelight looks to be ending. The newly-revamped
Reprisal offers a massive increase in
Shield Block uptime, free
Revenge procs, and extra Rage. It’s a sure-fire frontrunner for most bosses in Castle Nathria, with the only possible exception being Sludgefist, who is not amenable to moving out of melee range and charging back in. It’s a great source of player power, and will become a go-to option for Protection Warriors in raids.
For Mythic+, the best Protection Warrior Legendary is Reprisal.
The Wall has risen in popularity in Mythic+, rivalling
Thunderlord in terms of popularity recently. Both options still hold a lot of value, but are getting eclipsed by the newly-revamped
Reprisal.
Reprisal grants a major increase to
Shield Block uptime, free
Revenge procs, and extra Rage. It’s a sure-fire frontrunner for nearly any tanking situation, and it’s absolutely going to become the go-to option for Mythic+ pushing Protection Warriors.
Best Legendary for Healer Specs in Shadowlands Patch 9.0.5
Best Restoration Druid Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Restoration Druid Legendary is Vision of Unending Growth.
Vision of Unending Growth remains the strong all-purpose frontrunner for raid as long as we are casting roughly 16-20
Rejuvenations every minute.
Vision of Unending Growth scales well with haste which means it'll continue to get better and better each raid tier. While
Vision of Unending Growth is great in raid it struggle in other types of content. If you're looking for a more general all-purpose legendary for all content then
Memory of the Mother Tree isn't too far behind in raid and works well in Mythic+.
Verdant Infusion was buffed in 9.0.5 to provide 2s more of HoT extension which can be quite exceptional especially when utilizing
Cenarion Ward. It doesn't really dethrone
Vision of Unending Growth for raid, but should be considered a more niche option for encounters where strong single-target healing is needed almost exclusively.
For Mythic+, the best Restoration Druid Legendary is The Dark Titan's Lesson (Healing), Verdant Infusion (Healing), or Circle of Life and Death (Damage).
When prioritizing only healing in Mythic+, both
The Dark Titan's Lesson and
Verdant Infusion are our strongest options.
The Dark Titan's Lesson is largely due to its overall synergy with
Photosynthesis as well as the efficiency of
Lifebloom especially when you factor in additional
Omen of Clarity procs. The newly buffed
Verdant Infusion does become a strong single-target healing option especially when double extending
Cenarion Ward though it can be somewhat disruptive when utilizing
Soul of the Forest. Unfortunately, neither of these two legendaries really help with our damage output which becomes increasingly more important at high key levels.
If you're prioritizing damage and healing in Mythic+ then you'll likely choose
Circle of Life and Death. The healing on this is actually fairly nice but does come with some efficiency issues due to the reduced duration of the HoTs (and DoTs). From a damage perspective this is a solid sustained damage option as
Sunfire and
Moonfire are a large portion of our damage breakdown.
Best Mistweaver Monk Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Mistweaver Monk Legendary is Ancient Teachings of the Monastery.
While there were no updates to the legendaries with 9.0.5, I did want to update the recommendation of the current best legendary. Previously,
Tear of Morning was recommended, and it is still a very solid choice, however, with the current dominance of Fistweaving as a playstyle, pairing this with
Ancient Teachings of the Monastery is a no brainer. You gain a solid amount of passive healing for casting
Rising Sun Kick which you would have been doing anyway. You will generally be running
Rising Mist also, so again, there is a large amount of synergy with the playstyle.
For Mythic+, the best Mistweaver Monk Legendary is Ancient Teachings of the Monastery.
Again, similar to the raiding updates above, I am switching the recommendation from
Tear of Morning to
Ancient Teachings of the Monastery for Patch 9.0.5. While there were no changes to the legendaries in this patch, the way that Mistweavers have adapted to Shadowlands and the healing pushes us more towards the Fistweaving playstyle. As such, you will want to focus on a legendary that best compliments this style. For that,
Ancient Teachings of the Monastery is the clear choice.
Best Holy Paladin Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Holy Paladin Legendary is Shock Barrier.
Shock Barrier is the best healing legendary, it simply does more healing than everything else due to our play style revolving so heavily around
Holy Shock. Absorbs are also very effective, due to their low overhealing.
For Mythic+, the best Holy Paladin Legendary is Shock Barrier (Healing) or The Mad Paragon (Damage).
Shock Barrier for healing, as you can reliably have the absorb up on all of your group while healing. However using
The Mad Paragon for damage, especially if you are Venthyr is a good option as well due to its damage contribution.
Best Discipline Priest Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Discipline Priest Legendary is Clarity of Mind.
In a raid environment Discipline will want to pursue the
Clarity of Mind legendary to add additional efficiency to their
Spirit Shell. Extended
Atonements on
Spirit Shell casts allows you to have additional
Atonements out on the raid allowing for a higher quantity of shields up. Despite the nerfs to
Spirit Shell coming 1in 9.0.5, mass absorb events preceding raid mechanics are still incredibly valuable and efficient.
The bonus 3 seconds to
Atonement duration that
Clarity of Mind brings allow you to more easily cast
Schism, the Venthyr’s
Mindgames ability and
Penance or
Mind Blast before your
Atonements start falling off. Those spells often make up the majority of your absorbs.
For Mythic+, the best Discipline Priest Legendary is Twins of the Sun Priestess.
Twins of the Sun Priestess allows you to share your
Power Infusion while still benefitting from the buff yourself, this can be especially helpful as you start a pull as that will often be when you cast it on an ally. You can use this bonus haste to stabilize the tank, multi-dot with
Purge the Wicked or contribute additional damage. It is a flexible legendary that incentivizes you to share your resources with others.
Best Holy Priest Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid and Mythic+, the best Holy Priest Legendary is Flash Concentration.
For 9.0.5 the Best Holy Priest Legendary for Raiding and Mythic+ is
Flash Concentration. Honorable mention to
Harmonious Apparatus which can still have a place, especially for those looking for a lower-maintenance playstyle.
Flash Concentration grants a substantial healing bonus to
Heal which has good synergy with your conduit in
Resonant Words and your talent in
Trail of Light. With the most recent buff in increasing
Flash Concentration's duration to 20 seconds from 15, this will reduce excess mana expenditure on
Flash Heal's and increase the likelihood that you'll have the free
Flash Heals from
Surge of Light to refresh the duration for free. It also makes it easier to maintain on boss encounters with high movement, once again saving you mana that you would have to spend if the buff dropped.
Flash Concentration is a must in higher level dungeons to more steadily contribute high and efficient throughput to your Mythic+ team. Tanks are still generally weak relative to the enemy forces in dungeons and as a result will require a lot of throughput to sustain. The more healing you can pour into your tank, the less they have to kite and the more effective ground-based AoE damage like a Mage's
Flame Patch are, killing enemies more rapidly. When it comes to healing
Prideful, you'll be healing your allies unevenly with
Flash Concentration but still very efficiently, allowing you to heal up to higher stacks more easily and for longer.
Best Restoration Shaman Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Restoration Shaman Legendary is Primal Tide Core.
Even after patch 9.0.5,
Primal Tide Core still remains the clear best choice in Raids due to it and
Riptide being untouched. While it is not the most interactable or exciting legendary, its just very solid with the current state of
Riptide. With Necrolord you also get the great benefit of providing another
Riptide target for
Primordial Wave.
Doubling
Jonat's Natural Focus healing really helps that legendary out, and it will be able to situationally beat out
Primal Tide Core, but that's not going to be the case on the majority of encounters.
For Mythic+, the best Restoration Shaman Legendary is Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem.
Spiritwalker's Tidal Totem is a great option if you need another healing cooldown, which is very useful against
Prideful in particular.
Mana Tide Totem doesn't have a lot of use in M+ so it is nice being able to repurpose the totem as a flexible cd, since you can use it with either
Healing Wave or
Chain Heal depending on your needs.
With the 70% buff to
Earthquake in 9.0.5,
Deeptremor Stone should end up being a really strong legendary for damage output, the main question is if you can keep your
Earth Elemental alive for long enough to even get that damage out, as it will rip the threat of everything and possibly die a quick death.
Primal Tide Core remains the best option if you just want a passive and easy legendary.
Best Legendaries for DPS Specs in Shadowlands Patch 9.0.5
Best Frost Death Knight Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Frost Death Knight Legendary is Koltira's Favor or Rage of the Frozen Champion.
In a raid setting,
Koltira's Favor is generally the best choice. It's best in single target which is also your main concern in Raid.
Rage of the Frozen Champion is also a potential choice, especially in cleave scenarios such as Huntsman and Stone Legion Generals.
For Mythic+, the best Frost Death Knight Legendary is Rage of the Frozen Champion or Biting Cold.
Best Unholy Death Knight Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Unholy Death Knight Legendary is Deadliest Coil.
For Mythic+, the best Unholy Death Knight Legendary is Frenzied Monstrosity.
For Mythic+,
Frenzied Monstrosity is the best choice in essentially every scenario. It brings really good single target burst (almost as high as
Deadliest Coil), as well as big AoE damage increase. It's on-demand, impactful and versatile. Can't really ask for more.
Best Havoc Demon Hunter Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Havoc Demon Hunter Legendary is Burning Wound.
The recent 9.0.5 buffs really pushed
Burning Wound to the top of the charts in single-target damage. The legendary scales extremely well in raid encounters with adds spawning as you can simply target new adds and
Demon's Bite them to spread the DoT on as many target as you want making our cleave even stronger.
For Mythic+, the best Havoc Demon Hunter Legendary is Burning Wound or Darkglare Boon.
Similarly to raiding,
Burning Wound is our best single-target legendary but it scales extremely well with multiple targets which is great for M+ overall damage distribution as it helps our weakness (ST damage) the most while also providing a significant cleave bonus.
Darkglare Boon will outscale
Burning Wound if you are doing large quick pulls as you would simply not have the AoE be alive long enough for you to apply
Burning Wound to all the targets and tick long enough on them.
Best Balance Druid Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Balance Druid Legendary is Balance of All Things.
For Mythic+, the best Balance Druid Legendary is Balance of All Things or Primordial Arcanic Pulsar.
Best Feral Druid Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Feral Druid Legendary is Draught of Deep Focus.
The legendary buffs are more reasonable however not by enough to change your legendary choices realistically. For raiding
Draught of Deep Focus will continue to reign supreme on any single target fights, by a large margin. For fights where you can't use
Draught of Deep Focus however the legendary changes might be relevant. If you can't use
Draught of Deep Focus then the next few legendaries are all very close with some niche advantages between them,
Circle of Life and Death is the best AOE legendary among them,
Apex Predator's Craving shines when you can funnel into one big target,
Frenzyband with the buffs could potentially be good however for the most part the Cooldown Reduction portion of the legendary isn't significant enough to really matter at all, which leaves
Cat-Eye Curio without it's own niche, realistically rendering it null (unless you really want to use it i guess)
For Mythic+, the best Feral Druid Legendary is Circle of Life and Death.
For M+ nothing changes.
Circle of Life and Death is too synergistic with feral's AOE kit and it would take a miracle to dethrone it.
Best Beast Mastery Hunter Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Beast Mastery Hunter Legendary is Rylakstalker's Piercing Fangs or Soulforge Embers.
9.0.5 brings several nice balance changes to the Beast Mastery legendries, with
Rylakstalker's Piercing Fangs and
Dire Command receiving some pretty substantial buffs.
Rylakstalker's Piercing Fangs specifically is looking to be quite strong, as it provides a solid DPS boost passively that benefits you in all situations, but the numbers are looking closer than expected.
Soulforge Embers is still the best choice for any multi-target scenario, especially for fights where burst windows matter more. For single target, the numbers are extremely close, and it is hard to say which will end up on top. Because they are so close, I would recommend
Rylakstalker's Piercing Fangs on single target because of how much easier it is to play with, but technically
Soulforge Embers might be the tiniest bit better with optimal play.
For Mythic+, the best Beast Mastery Hunter Legendary is Soulforge Embers.
Even with the new buffs to other legendaries,
Soulforge Embers is still going to be the best legendary for dungeons. The low cooldowns of
Tar Trap and
Flare mean that you have an excellent burst setup ready for every pull you do inside a dungeon, as well as solid sustained single target damage.
Soulforge Embers should be at its weakest on single target, but is still among the best, and only gets better when you add in more targets, making this a very easy choice at the moment for which legendary to take first if you value M+ dungeons. It is worth noting that
Rylakstalker's Piercing Fangs is an excellent alternative, and although it is slightly weaker for dungeons, does have a significantly easier playstyle.
Best Marksmanship Hunter Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Marksmanship Hunter Legendary is Serpentstalker's Trickery.
For Mythic+, the best Marksmanship Hunter Legendary is Surging Shots or Serpentstalker's Trickery.
Best Survival Hunter Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Survival Hunter Legendary is Nesingwary's Trapping Apparatus.
9.0.5 changes are extremely underwhelming seeing how the buff was too far too weak (especially compared to the magnitude of the buffs received by BM legendaries), and changes absolutely nothing, as the legendary rankings and usefulness remains completely unchanged.
Nesingwary's Trapping Apparatus is the best option on single target, as it offers a lot of focus, which is far more important for survival than for other two specs. However
Soulforge Embers is close to its effectiveness once you start doing AoE heavy encounters, and is a good "safe" choice for multiple types of content.
Wildfire Cluster is another easier option.
Latent Poison Injectors remains bad and not close to competitive despite the recent buff.
For Mythic+, the best Survival Hunter Legendary is Wildfire Cluster or Soulforge Embers.
When it comes to Mythic+
Wildfire Cluster is currently the best performing one, however
Soulforge Embers is close to it, when it comes to damage, and depending on damage patterns (AoE duration, number of targets, downtime between pulls) it might even have a chance of pulling ahead. As such Embers will be a good "safe" choice for multiple types of content.
Best Arcane Mage Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Arcane Mage Legendary is Temporal Warp.
For Mythic+, the best Arcane Mage Legendary is Arcane Bombardment.
Best Fire Mage Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Fire Mage Legendary is Disciplinary Command.
For damage, Fire's best overall Legendary is
Disciplinary Command due to the 5% Critical Strike damage buff made in 9.0.5.
Fevered Incantation is a very close second.
Disciplinary Command grants a Critical strike damage increase after casting a spell of each school that lasts 20 seconds, on a 30 second cooldown. Activate on cooldown unless
Combustion is coming off cooldown soon.
Frostbolt and
Frost Nova are the best spells to use to trigger the Frost component. Keep in mind that the
Rune of Power that auto-casts with
Combustion also counts. Since
Sinful Gladiator's Badge of Ferocity is flagged as being from the Arcane School, it also works to trigger the arcane component. If these are unavailable, you can also use
Shimmer,
Counterspell, or
Arcane Explosion. This is a very strong single target and AoE legendary. With the buff in 9.0.5, this is now our best.
Fevered Incantation is a close second in most situations.
Fevered Incantation is much less of a hassle than
Disciplinary Command, but behind it by about 3% in AoE and Single Target.
Fevered Incantation significantly improves the value of Critical Strike, usually bringing it up to the value of Haste and Versatility.
If you are building this legendary, I recommend building it with Critical Strike and Haste.
For Mythic+, the best Fire Mage Legendary is Disciplinary Command.
For all the same reasons listed above,
Disciplinary Command is the best Legendary for Fire Mages in Mythic+ as well as Raid. In Mythic+ it will be up for the start of every pull, but it does require additional considerations since it is possible to proc it out of combat by using Frost Utility spells.
Fevered Incantation is very close behind, and might be worth running in some cases where the additional considerations for
Disciplinary Command aren't worth the hassle.
- Triune Ward is the best Legendary for survivability, especially since each barrier spell has its own effects and absorb shield. Grisly Icicle is very useful and fun for solo content such as Torghast or World Quests, since it makes Frost Nova an unbreakable AoE root.
Best Frost Mage Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Frost Mage Legendary is Slick Ice for single-target, Freezing Winds for 2-3 targets, or Glacial Fragments for 3 or more targets.
For Mythic+, the best Frost Mage Legendary is Freezing Winds or Glacial Fragments depending on the average pull size.
Cleave and AoE dominate Mythic+, so we want to pick a legendary favouring that.
Freezing Winds or
Glacial Fragments are going to be our go-to options since they both excel with cleave and AoE.
Freezing Winds was already performing well in higher keys or dungeons with lower average pull sizes, but the buff coming in 9.0.5 I believe it will become the standard.
Glacial Fragments is still very strong where the average pull size is much higher.
Slick Ice deals great single-target damage, but is terrible outside of that niche, so not worth considering for M+.
Best Windwalker Monk Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid and Mythic+, the best Windwalker Monk Legendary is Invoker's Delight.
Best Retribution Paladin Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Retribution Paladin Legendary is Final Verdict for single-target, Tempest of the Lightbringer for AoE, or generically The Magistrate's Judgment / The Mad Paragon.
For Mythic+, the best Retribution Paladin Legendary is Tempest of the Lightbringer, The Magistrate's Judgment, or The Mad Paragon.
Best Shadow Priest Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Shadow Priest Legendary is Talbadar's Stratagem.
Shadow’s strongest legendary in Raid looks to continue to be
Talbadar's Stratagem due to its superiority in single target encounters. The recent buffs to
Shadowflame Prism have given Shadow options when it comes to legendaries to use in multi-target encounters, but the lack of relevant multi-target damage in Castle Nathria means it's unlikely to see much use outside of specific fights. Time will tell though, and
Shadowflame Prism will be a good choice if a fight ever calls for stacked cleave or 2-3 target AoE.
Honourable mention goes to
Twins of the Sun Priestess for its contributions to raid dps during specific burst windows, but not to the Shadow Priest as an individual. This legendary’s value and popularity has fallen off as Castle Nathria has gone on, but it still finds its uses here and there, and is likely to continue to in future.
For Mythic+, the best Shadow Priest Legendary is Shadowflame Prism.
Best Assassination Rogue Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Assassination Rogue Legendary is Doomblade.
With the buffs to
Doomblade, that legendary is taking a top spot in single target damage contribution. The bleed was buffed a fair bit and an armor reduction bug fixed. In case you are Necrolord, you get a bonus on top since the
Envenom bonus increases with
Serrated Bone Spike. I'd say
Doomblade is a great raid pick, however, our old favorite
Zoldyck Insignia still stays as something that is worth having in the bags due to being more situationally agnostic and giving a bonus for execute phases.
For Mythic+, the best Assassination Rogue Legendary is Zoldyck Insignia.
In dungeons, the top legendaries all look very close numerically and can depend on preference, affixes, and pull sizes or durations.
Zoldyck Insignia is possibly the best general option that looks strong. That said,
Mark of the Master Assassin is a good pick if you can get a lot of restealths and the two single target focused legendaries
Doomblade and
Dashing Scoundrel aren't bad at all either.
Best Outlaw Rogue Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Outlaw Rogue Legendary is Celerity.
Despite 9.0.5 buffs to legendaries below it closing some gaps,
Celerity stays the unbeaten best legendary for every situation. Outlaw Rogues won't really have to look at doing any gearing adjustments and can instead look into multi-spec options if they want to do so.
For Mythic+, the best Outlaw Rogue Legendary is Celerity.
Celerity continues to be the strongest legendary in any situation. In dungeons,
Mark of the Master Assassin can be considered a solid bursty alternative if you can restealth very often though. (On that front, please note that the crit bonus was changed in 9.0.5 to only affect class abilities, it does not work with Necrotic Wake weapons anymore.)
Best Subtlety Rogue Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Subtlety Rogue Legendary is Finality.
9.0.5 does not change anything for Subtlety Rogues when it comes to what legendaries are good in what situation.
Finality is the best all-rounder and strong in any situation.
Akaari's Soul Fragment can beat it slightly in pure single target situations as an alternative.
For Mythic+, the best Subtlety Rogue Legendary is Finality.
For Subtlety,
Finality will continue to be a great option in any situation and thus my recommendation. That said, in dungeons where you can restealth fairly often,
Mark of the Master Assassin is a solid and bursty alternative worth carrying in your bags.
Best Elemental Shaman Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Elemental Shaman Legendary is Windspeaker's Lava Resurgence.
Windspeaker's Lava Resurgence was the legendary that surprised us a bit. It's in first place in single-target scenarios and not by a small amount either. Free
Lava Surge procs is no small deal in a world where
Lava Burst is currently tuned to hit extremely hard. With how much Elemental tends to rely on single-target/funneling performance in raid to shine, this will be the legendary of choice outside of those specific fights that favor
Skybreaker's Fiery Demise.
For Mythic+, the best Elemental Shaman Legendary is Skybreaker's Fiery Demise or Echoes of Great Sundering.
With the nerf to
Echoes of Great Sundering and the rising strength of
Storm Elemental, both
Skybreaker's Fiery Demise &
Echoes of Great Sundering can perform well in Mythic+ at the moment. Which is better for you will depend on the group, how organized you are, and how high the key you're pushing is. In general, Echoes will be better for lower keys & PuG keys, while
Skybreaker's Fiery Demise will gain value the longer trash mobs live and the more comfortable you are with the group you're in.
That said, with 9.0.5 there is no longer a sufficient reason to run
Windspeaker's Lava Resurgence in any Mythic+. Prior to the patch there was an argument to be had for high Tyrannical keys where the make-or-break point could easily be your single-target damage.
Echoes of Great Sundering is now only about 2% (as opposed to the previous 6-7%) behind it on single-target now though, and provides an excellent mix of single-target & AoE.
Best Enhancement Shaman Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Enhancement Shaman Legendary is Doom Winds.
Your Legendary selection is one of the most important factors for Enhancement currently, because of how significant some of the gains are. As it stands,
Doom Winds is unlikely to fall off because the landscape of
Castle Nathria loves both cleave, burst AoE and burst single target, and no other choice holds a candle to it in those situations despite it losing out to some picks in overall sustained damage metrics.
The important thing to note is while only one Legendary effect was manually touched, the buff to
Lava Lash has a significantly higher value for certain picks compared to others. As it stands going into 9.0.5 then, a breakdown of all of the spec-specific choices is:
Witch Doctor's Wolf Bones - for sustained single-target this gained a lot from
Lava Lash buffs with a full suite of supporting picks in
Magma Fist,
Hot Hand, and
Elemental Spirits has a real chance to break out in future encounters that are less focused on burst windows - one to look out for.
Primal Lava Actuators - has a good chance to get some use, but it's always going to be a niche case for funnel fights which are often few and far between, and it sacrifices a lot to make use of.Legacy of the Frost Witch - doubling the damage increase to Stormstrike is still not enough to make this compete, and it has no mechanical advantage to exploit relative to other choices so as it stands right now, is still bottom of the pile sadly.
For Mythic+, the best Enhancement Shaman Legendary is Doom Winds.
While Legendaries are really important for Enhancement, as it stands right now despite many changes that both directly impact legendaries (
Legacy of the Frost Witch buff) or indriectly (
Lava Lash impacting
Primal Lava Actuators and
Witch Doctor's Wolf Bones) not much seems like it will change. The mechanical dominance of
Doom Winds as both a flexible burst and AoE tool has no real competition from other picks, and Mythic+ gives ample room for it to thrive.
Best Affliction Warlock Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Affliction Warlock Legendary is Relic of Demonic Synergy.
The only real recommendation for pure raiding at the moment is
Relic of Demonic Synergy. While it might not be the top overall damage increase on some of the more aoe-focused fight, this legendary doubles down on what affliction's raid strength is - focused single target damage.
For Mythic+, the best Affliction Warlock Legendary is Malefic Wrath, Perpetual Agony of Azj'Aqir or Relic of Demonic Synergy.
Realistically, for Mythic+ it's going to be a tossup between the same three mentioned at the start of the guide. will be the best for single target and focused single target damage,
Perpetual Agony of Azj'Aqir will be the best for general aoe damage, and
Relic of Demonic Synergy will be a middle ground between the first two. Look at the composition of the group you'll be playing with most often and make your choice based off of that.
Best Demonology Warlock Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Demonology Warlock Legendary is Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning or Relic of Demonic Synergy.
For Mythic+, the best Demonology Warlock Legendary is Forces of the Horned Nightmare, Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning, Relic of Demonic Synergy, Implosive Potential, or Grim Inquisitor's Dread Calling.
Legendaries again remain the same as previous depending on the weekly affix, you shouldn't feel pidgeon holed into one or the other.
- Forces of the Horned Nightmare: A flat chance to duplicate your previous Hand of Gul'dan is strong for multiple reasons; firstly it is just a free cast of damage in AoE, secondly it also duplicates the number of imps summoned which funnels damage to your Summon Demonic Tyrant, Implosion and overall Wild Imp damage.
- Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning: The pacing of most Mythic+ in Shadowlands is such that having (on average) a 60 second Summon Demonic Tyrant cast is quite strong. Being able to constantly use your major cooldown as a source of damage on the majority of trash pulls and still have it available for the boss is very impactful.
- Relic of Demonic Synergy: This legendary has a very high uptime on both you and your Felguard despite it being listed at 3PPM. A flat 15% damage increase doesn't have any major downsides especially with such a high uptime. If you don't want to really focus on tracking anything this would be the best option for you in M+.
- Implosive Potential: 5% Haste per imploded Imp is quite significant in M+ where most packs will be 4-5+ mobs and your primary AoE is Implosion you will be cruising with essentially a free 20-25% Haste buff for all trash. The minor Haste bonus you can squeeze out of it on bosses also still provides some benefit for you even though this legendary is primarily an AoE option.
- Grim Inquisitor's Dread Calling: The 1% buff to this legendary has made it quite relevant for M+ especially when paired with Dreadlash giving your Call Dreadstalkers the ability to AoE with amplified damage.
Best Destruction Warlock Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Destruction Warlock Legendary is Cinders of the Azj'Aqir.
Cinders of the Azj'Aqir is one of the few legendaries that actually changes the way you're playing your character, and it's definitely for the better! More
Conflagrate casts means more
Backdraft stacks, making the spec faster and more fun to play. Another viable option is
Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning allowing you to have your Summon Infernal on a significantly lower cooldown, potentially pairing up better with certain encounters and other cooldowns or trinkets
For Mythic+, the best Destruction Warlock Legendary is Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning.
With the changes made to the Destruction Warlock talent tree in Shadowlands, we now have multiple strong talents we can combine to make a very powerful setup for Mythic+. This is furthermore empowered by
Wilfred's Sigil of Superior Summoning. A lot of the power of Destruction lies in our
Summon Infernal cooldown. The combination of these new talents allowing you to generate and spend even more shards than before, combined with the reduced cooldown of Infernal makes for an extremely strong burst spec.
Best Arms Warrior Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Arms Warrior Legendary is Signet of Tormented Kings for Venthyr or Enduring Blow for other Covenants.
For Venthyr,
Signet of Tormented Kings is best for single-target alongside the
Ravager talent, due to the lower cooldown and greater frequency in proccing buffs. This leads to a great deal of increased rage, which is then used to fuel
Condemn spam.
For other covenants,
Enduring Blow edges out
Signet of Tormented Kings slightly due to the inability to spend rage as quickly outside of the execute phase, although both remain competitive choices. With it,
Mortal Strike retains a prominent place in the execute phase, being used on cooldown in order to proc
Colossus Smash.
In multitarget situations with enough targets, both specializations will instead use
Signet of Tormented Kings, similar to Mythic+ below.
For Mythic+, the best Arms Warrior Legendary is Signet of Tormented Kings.
Best Fury Warrior Legendary in Shadowlands
For Raid, the best Fury Warrior Legendary is Signet of Tormented Kings, followed closely by Deathmaker.
Signet of Tormented Kings is best for single and multi target encounters alongside the
Bladestorm talent, due to frequently triggering cooldowns. Although it does complicate the rotation slightly due to wanting to ensure
Enrage is active before using cooldowns and encouraging cancelling
Bladestorm in order to use
Condemn or
Rampage at max rage, the benefits are enough to make it worthwhile.
For Mythic+, the best Fury Warrior Legendary is Signet of Tormented Kings.
