I'm surprised that Cowl of the Absolute features so highly on the list for helms. I'd have thought that with CSD's new found potency from 3.1, any helm without a meta would be at a significant disadvantage. Is this a relic of old modelling?

I think the only reason the head is rated so well is the insane amount of +hit on it. Any other Ulduar head would probably be better if you don't need the hit.

It really depends on how you plan your itemisation.

A BiS template is all good, but if from going from Naxx BiS to Ulduar BiS you have a point where you are missing 100 hit rating you will have a problem and be unable to use some new gear, which makes it pretty useless whatever its stats.

The first thing to take into account is to decide which set pieces you will use to get the UA bonus. Meaning, will you buy the robe which has 73 hit or no. That's a plannable upgrade, not depending on RNG or DKP. I was lucky to get the leggings on emalon very early, so I decided not to buy them and go for the helm for my two piece bonus. So I had to find my hit elsewhere and use Raiments of the Iron Council. (I'll likely still buy the robe later on, but it's the last emblem item I'll buy).
End result: the helm you're talking about is totally irrelevant in the choice I made for gear progression. Stats are not all that matters, Availability of other items and what you already have count as much. BiS is just a model, the road to reach it while still being useful to your raid meanwhile is more important than just grabbing items you won't be able to currently use.

That said, the main reason for me to avoid T8 is that it has only 107 haste for 5 pieces. I became addicted to my 19% haste and don't want it to go back too far. 2 piece bonus is just mandatory because it's too good, 5% crit on shadowbolt is less certain if I have to lose 150 haste to get it.

I don't understand why do you care about haste that much. Spell power is main scale factor for Affi and T8 gives much more spell power than T7, so keeping T7 just for haste is not good idea.

Sorry about the misunderstanding, when I'm saying I try to stay away of T8, it means I'm picking other (non-set) Ulduar replacements for T7, not that I keep it. I'd rather upgrade with SP+haste items than SP+crit, once hit is accounted for.

I am just curious as to whether [Elemental Focus Stone] is as good as it seems. I mean 108 hit seems like a bit much, personally id rather stay w/ dying curse because of the SP proc. Though if it deserves it place as number one should i try to get it or stay w/ dying curse. If it at all helps here is my armory: The World of Warcraft Armory

If I remember correctly there was talk somewhere about the best trinkets and dying curse came in second, after the trinket form OS 25 which was said to be the biggest dps upgrade

Quick question, thought it better fit here than the Simple Answers thread due to its specifics:

Does Haunt/Corruption and Shadow Embrace work the same as the similar Shadow Priest dot-refreshing talents?

IE, if you plan on never manually refreshing Corruption, do you always wait for two stacks of Shadow Embrace? I find that most people recommend getting 2 stacks up as quick as possible anyway (for obvious reasons) but I couldn't find any information on this specific mechanic being addressed.

Thanks!

guys now I have 2 pieces T8....should I change glyph of life tap with glyph of immolate ? or would 4 x T 7.5 be still better ?

You can't really move those points to other talents, because you have to reach Tier 4 somehow.
The only thing you have is fel concentration or the improved CoW.

I do not see how using an immolate glyph for an affliction build would help, nor why the hell you would drop the best glyph currently avaliable for an affliction warlock.

DoT's adjust their damage dynamically when calculating damage modifying debuffs on a target. So if you cast corruption, and then get 2 stacks of shadow embrace on a target, the damage will increase accordingly even though the corruption was cast first.

ok... then, just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, the reason this works differently for Shadow Weaving is that SW is a self-buff, and SE is a debuff? That makes sense. Thanks!

So, looking over the initial post again, I began to think about how much moving as affliction would be unfavorable because generally speaking 25% of the total damage output from 55/1/15 is from that 15 in destro. In relation to the amount of movement necessary to down bosses, enchanting Tuskarr's to boots is sounding better and better. But what about haste? Haste shortens those casts and, without having done any math, I would imagine you could steal a extra cast per minute just because of haste. It seems as though t8 is built for crit a bit more and appears to favor the destro tree. Although gemming spell power is the biggest overall dps increase, what is the likely hood that gemming Reckless Monarch Topaz would decrease dps for these fights where movement is necessary.

Basically, the math result is, you can gem dual bonuses liek the one you gave provided the slot bonus is 7 SP, which exists in some items. If it is less, it's a DPS loss.
Blizzard seems to have included "good" gem bonuses and "bad" ones to play with itemisation quality without altering items Ilvl too much. See how some 10 man hard mode rewards are red sockets with SP socket bonuses. they still are Ilvl 226, but they are better than those annoying blue sockets with 5 SP bonuses which are just absolutely and utterly useless, making the item in effect less than 226 in practice since math says "put a 19 SP gem in it anyway".

I have a quick question for you affliction locks.
I have read most of this thread and the PvE 3.1 raiding compendium, but i cannot find the answer to this question:
If heroism is activated below 25% is DS still the filler choice?
Or will SB spam during heroism always be the optimal solution even though target boss is under 25% ?

So it's directly affected by heroism? 30% faster ticks? in that case DS is a clear cut winner.
I dont have that feeling though, spamming seems more useful during heroism, but I understand that
its harder to notice the increased tick rate than spamming SB faster..

Does anyone else have any definite answer/math behind it? If DS ticks faster will DoTs also tick faster during heroism?

Edit: Ok, the answer to my question could easily be found via google or forum search, I am truly sorry for that. My mistake, I will do more research before posting questions in the future, report me if you feel obliged.

I found out that DS does benefit from any sort of cast speed increase (eradication), and on General Vezax that it hits twice as hard in half the amount of time. I have also seen my DS cast time reduced to 5 seconds during Bloodlust while stand in one of his crashes. With that said, I do believe DS is the filler of choice below 25% for affliction warlocks.

spell haste channeled spells - Google Search

Let me google that for you, and then report you for asking an insipid question that I'm pretty sure I've seen posted here before.

Oh neat, here's what you get for using the search function:
Warlock: Simple Questions/Simple Answers

Does this apply to crit debuffs, as well?

All debuffs.

nevermind