The spreadsheet seems out of date since most of those items are crit-heavy and crit is sh*t compared to haste for warlocks nowadays.

Really`? Even if you're deep destro or FG/emberstorm?

*Especially* if you're FG/emberstorm - it scales better with haste than any other build. And crit just isn't that valuable when you already crit about half the time.

I am FG/Emberstorm. currently, with FG out, firestone and fel armor = selfbuffed I have 2405 bonus damage, 276 hit rating, 29,38% crit and 222 haste rating. Are you sugegsting I should exchange my crit for haste as mucha s possible without losing oiut on the other stats?

It's never as clear cut as that - just make sure you value haste significantly higher than crit when comparing different gear options. Rule of thumb would be something like 1 dmg = 1 haste = 0.6 crit.

I took your advise and ended up loosing 85 spellpower and 1% crit, though gaining 44 hit rating and 150 haste rating. Would that be considered a good gearing choice?

Then would firestone be a worse or a better choice then spellstone with a FG/emberstorm specc?

I tihnk the correct answer is to look at what does more than half of your total damage. If it's DD (such as Incinerate/Shadow Bolt) use Firestone. If it's DOTs, use Spellstone.

i currently have the 2pc bonus, my damage is alright and my crit when procced is around 40% with a shadowbolt.
what i really want to know is, i need to upgrade my gloves, and ill take the valorous ones, i have the helm and shoulders, the chest would be replacing Digested Silken Robes. I am haunt ruin so how much would one actually benefit from the 4pc without demonic aegis? also, would you lifetap before you cast the first SB as a haunt/ruin lock?

Review your own WWS for a fight you want to consider. Count the number of Life taps, multiply by 10 and divide by the length of the fight. Take that percentage and multiply it by 300 spirit. Take the average spirit gain from the gear and multiply it by the weight you have for the stat.

Is this 4th bonus worth? Anyone with another opinion know?!

Simcraft shows the 4 piece bonus as worth 30DPS for me at my gear.

I have the Mantle of Dissemination in the bank atm, but while it has 30 more damage than the valorous shoulders, the switch from haste to crit, the loss of the 4 piece bonus and the need to regem back towards hit means it will likely stay there for a while at least.

For now, all simcraft does is apply the 4-piece bonus whenever you happen to need to life tap - it doesn't use sort of special life tapping strategy to maximize the benefit of the buff. I can imagine at least one strategy that would probably perform better:

1. Hold off on life tapping until you're OOM.
2. Life tap.
3. DPS for 9 seconds.
4. Repeat 2 and 3 until your mana bar is back to full.
5. Repeat from 1.

Support for a strategy like that is something I could probably implement in simcraft. Another issue entirely is movement fights: Whenever you have to move it'll probably be worth life tapping, even if you're already full on mana. That sort of benefit is something simcraft would have trouble modeling.

I am in the same situation.
I played 4xt7 and last week with 2xT7, nothing special, so i will go for 2xt7.
The shoulders are 21dps increase. but this are stable 21 dps, i like them much more then the bonus (but hate the look...). I would go for them and my vestment from sartharion, when i got dying curse. I am aiming the hood of rationality, it is an increase of 40dps and is definitely worth breaking 4xT7.

Using the dps values from the Dots and you thread

[Valorous Plagueheart Robe] (Naxx25) 288 dps
[Valorous Plagueheart Circlet] (Naxx25, Kel'Thuzad) 249 dps
[Valorous Plagueheart Leggings](Naxx25) 245 dps
[Valorous Plagueheart Shoulderpads](Naxx25) 199 dps
[Valorous Plagueheart Gloves](Naxx25) 166 dps

Compared to other non set upgrades:

[Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster] (Malygos25) 335 dps (+90 dps)
[Faerlina's Madness] (Naxx25, Faerlina) 276 dps (+27 dps)
[Gloves of Grandeur](Naxx25, Sapphiron) 192 dps (+26 dps)
[Gown of the Spell-Weaver](Malygos10) 297 dps (+9 dps)
[Mantle of the Fatigued Sage](Naxx25) 207 dps (+8 dps)

It would seem best to drop the pants from the Valorous set for the Malygos pants as those would be the largest upgrade?

Take those comparisons with a grain of salt, since they depend a lot on how much hit you have/need/want (and Faerlina's hat lacks a metagem too). That being said, yes, it's generally accepted that the legs are the weakest part of our T7.5 set - but it might not be as clearcut as it looks.

I'm not sure that waiting OOM before life-tapping and do it every 9 sec is realistic.
Indeed, I use to LT while I don't have any debuff up(2pT7,dying curse, solar cadran,MC,...) and I think it's better to keep LT this way than trying to LT every 9 sec and lose 1.5 sec during trinket proc...
I would rather wait to loose enough mana and then double LT when I don't have any debuf. This seems to me more reasonable than the way you do.
Your opinion ?

It's also important to note that if you do not need the hit, the Gloves of Grandeur are a downgrade from Valorous. The gear listings are comparing among single pieces and always assuming you need more hit; if you are already considering offset pieces, this is not always the case.

You are overestimating the percentage-based damage increase. The Firestone gives you 1% DD-damage and 49 crit rating, which is 1.07% crit. The Spellstone has 1% dot-damage and 60 haste rating, which equals 1.83% haste. Considering the heavy diminishing return of crit today (raid buffs), the Spellstone should be superior even for talent builds which focus on direct damage. If you spec into Master Conjuror, the advantage of the Spellstone becomes even more obvious.

Quick question, which I haven't been able to decide on.

Would keeping the Valorous Robe and gloves and replacing the legs with Leggings of Mortal Arrogance be a good choice, instead of replacing the robe with Sanctum's Flowing Vestments?

Ive been aiming for that setup, since according to the values I got from the spreadsheet, Valorous robe -> Sanctums is less of an increase over Valorous Legs -> Mortal Arrogance.

The other option for myself is replacing my Bindings of the Expansive Mind with Unsullied Cuffs, Shoulders of the Fatigued Sage with Mantle of Dissemination, and change my Valorous Legs to Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster.

Either way, I'm aiming for 2pT7, while replacing pieces for better upgrades, and I'm not sure what is optimal.

This sounds good in theory but you will rarely be able to follow this in a real scenario. In addition, if I know bloodlust is coming I will try to keep my mana relatively high. Losing GCDs and valuable seconds of bloodlust to Life Tap isn't very optimal.

Taking a selection of only the 5 pieces of tier gear and removing one item to determine if it's "worth it" to use 4 piece bonus is not the way to determine this. You need to take all your gear as a whole in to consideration. If losing a certain piece means you have to give up too much hit rating or gain too much hit rating because of your other item slots then your set bonus assumptions are moot.

Take this set of gear as a fairly optimal complete set (2 PC in tact):
Head: [Hood of Rationality]
Neck: [Wyrmrest Necklace of Power]
Shoulder: [Valorous Plagueheart Shoulderpads]
Chest: [Gown of the Spell-Weaver]
Cloak: [Pennant Cloak]
Wrist: [Unsullied Cuffs]
Gloves: [Valorous Plagueheart Gloves]
Belt: [Leash of Heedless Magic]
Pants: [Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster]
Feet: [Arcanic Tramplers]
Ring: [Lost Jewel] or [Band of Channeled Magic] (nearly identical in terms of dps)
Ring: [Signet of Manifested Pain] (always use)
Trinket: [Dying Curse]
Trinket: [Illustration of the Dragon Soul]
MH: [The Turning Tide]
OH: [Matriarch's Spawn] or [Accursed Spine]
Wand: [Plague Igniter] or [Wand of the Archlich]

Come up with a fairly optimal 4 PC included set (it will differ from mine by more than 2 pieces I can almost assure you!)

Then compare the total stats between the two sets and use one of the formulas provided earlier in this thread to see about how much benefit the 4 piece bonus provides in an average fight and add that to your 4 PC included set stats.