I would think the effect of 1/2 Improved Soul Leech would be dependent on how much replenishment your raid currently has. If you're in a 25 man that is rich with replenishment I could see 1/2 being sensible to pick up the remaining 5% threat reduction. Uptime with 1/2 ISL is down to like 68% +/- depending on RNG so if replenishment uptime is a big concern to you (namely in 10 mans if you're the only one bringing it) I could see it being more feasible to drop 1 point from backlash.

1. ISL is not merely for replenishment. There is a mana proc that makes it valuable.

2. Remember that regular spellstone/firestones provide only a token amount of rating. You dont have master conjuror anymore. The comparison now is between dot dmg boost or dd dmg boost.

3. Dummy dps is useless information. For one, people dont state the specifics of their situation when providing a dummy dps scenario. Secondly, specs behave differently when exposed to raid buffs. Because of scalability, a certain spec can be dominant in a 10 player scenario while being overtaken by another high scaling although slow starting spec. Thirdly stating your achieved dps in a certain ulduar fight for that matter is also useless information without providing critical variables like fight length, gear choice, buff availability, presence of adds etc.

4. 13/58 being top is only due to its superior scalability compared to 40/30+1 variants because the latter specs are saturated with stats from master conjuror and demonic knowledge. At this point in your gear, demo or deep destro are so close that it would be up to your preference and each spec's compliance with certain encounters which will determine whats best for you. for eg, XT fights are mostly stationary which would favor decimation 1:1 weaving, whereas the constant switch in and out of heart phase disrupts your ability to use CoD with 13/58. Hodir fights favor 13/58 because you will constantly be in performance-enhancing buffs that your pet will not get, thus for roughly equal dps specs, the one less reliant on pet dps will scale much better in accordance with these buffs.

XT you would favor Decimation? I don't think so. How much of the fight is below 35%? like none of it. You come out of the 2nd heart phase in the high 20s, and out of the 3rd heart phase in the mid singles. And you get maybe 5-8 seconds below 35% on the heart before you have to deal with adds.

That being said I am actually curious as to which specs top out which fights. Simcraft is nice and all, but ulduar fights are so far off patchwerk that its value is not very useful. I think fight length and gear are important indicators but the assumption in 25-man should be that all buffs are covered.

If we're really going to go this off-topic, I could point out that 0/13/58 is OP for XT hard-mode.

But no, please, let's keep it on topic. I'm having trouble finding a single post on the last few pages that belongs here and not in the general PvE thread.

All specs should only be lifetapping when necessary, not for the buff.

A lot of the specs actually get a dps increase to lifetap just to keep the buff up even if you dont need the mana.

I'm pretty sure simulations showed this was only true for Affliction spec with Life Tap Glyph and 4pc T7.

Would it be possible for anyone to try and find the DPS value of [Spark of Hope], I'm mostly interested due to the absurd value demo has tied in with spirit (though I'm not entirely convinced that it's accurate) and due to the nature of Vezax.

[edit] On a completely unrelated note, here's some random gear things ive been looking into using the Wowhead weight scale. You need to give hit roughly a weight of 1 DPS to gain a total of roughly 13% hit. I'm trying to come up with a gear set that gets me roughly the right amount of hit while maximizing the other stats:

Items - World of Warcraft
(These are the 0/13/58 scale factors)

[top] TRINKETS

* Assuming 1 PPM on 10s trinkets
* Assuming stacking trinkets are stacked pre-fight
* Assuming use trinkets are used on cooldown
* Value of hit at 1 DPS per Hit rating

Item	SP	Haste	Hit	Crit	DPS
Flare of the Heavens	142	0	0	120	338.9
Illustration of the Dragon Soul	200	0	0	0	310.0
Scale of Fates	125	72	0	0	288.8
Eye of the Broodmother	125	0	0	87	279.9
Dying Curse	128	0	71	0	269,4
Embrace of the Spider	98	84	0	0	262.8
Elemental Focus Stone	87	0	108	0	242.9
Living Flame	84	0	107	0	237.2

[top] TIER PIECES

* Assuming Shoulders and Chest are defaults
* Assuming a hit scale factor of 1

Gloves BiS239 373.49=(72*0.63=44.64) + (64*0.83=53.12) + (117*1.55=181.35) + (74*0.99=73.26) + (16*1.32=21.12)
Gloves BiS226 315.40=(62.0.63=39.06) + (56*0.83=48.97) + (99*1.55=153.45) + (56*1.32=73.92)
Gloves Tier 8 309.37=(62*0.63=39.06) + (27*0.83=22.41) + (118*1.55=182.9) + (65*1=65)
Loss = 64.12 / 6.03

Head BiS226 426.57=(87*0.63=54.81) + (132*1.55=204.6) + (88*1.32=116.16) + (51*1=51)
Head Tier 8 371.65=(76*0.63=47.88) + (41*0.83=34.03) + (132*1.55=204.6) + (86*0.99=85.14)
Loss = 54.92

Legs BiS239 468.37=(98*0.63=61.74) + (168*1.55=260.4) + (77*0.99=76.23) + (70*1=70)
Legs Tier 8 445.47=(86*0.63=54.18) + (49*0.83=40.67) + (170*1.55=263.5) + (66*1.32=87.12)
Loss = 22.9

Ideal Combination: (-77.82 DPS)
Shoulders, Chest, Legs, Head.

If you do not have access to ilvl 239 gloves (Vezax hard mode): (-28.93 DPS)
Shoulders, Chest, Gloves, Legs.

[top] BiS and Hit value

Target hit: 262 / 289 / 341 / 367
The ideal boot enchant (stat wise) is icewalker, so we'll take those down by 12 for:
Target hit: 250 / 277 / 329 / 355

Slot	1hit=0.95DPS	1hit=1.00DPS
Back	41	41
Chest	0	73
Feet	0	0
Finger	0	0
Finger	42	42
Hands	0	0
Head	51	51
MH+OH / 2H	0	0
Legs	70	70
Neck	46	46
Ranged	29	29
Shoulder	0	0
Waist	43	43
Wrist	0	0
Trinket	0	0
Trinket	0	0
Total	322	395

This is roughly how much hit we want, it is best reduced by replacing the wand from freya hard mode with the wand from Vezax.

---

Assuming 4xT8 with shoulders, chest, gloves, legs:

Slot	1h=0.95	1h=1.00DPS
Back	41	41
Chest	73	73
Feet	0	0
Finger	0	0
Finger	42	42
Hands	64	64
Head	51	51
MH+OH / 2H	0	0
Legs	0	0
Neck	46	46
Ranged	29	29
Shoulder	0	0
Waist	43	43
Wrist	0	0
Trinket	0	0
Trinket	0	0
Total	390	390

This is slightly too much hit, we can get rid of it using the wand from Vezax instead othe wand from Hard mode freya.

---

Assuming 4xT8 with Shoulders, chest, legs, head:

Slot	1h=0.95	1h=1.00DPS
Back	41	41
Chest	73	73
Feet	0	0
Finger	0	0
Finger	42	42
Hands	0	0
Head	0	0
MH+OH / 2H	0	0
Legs	0	0
Neck	46	46
Ranged	29	29
Shoulder	0	0
Waist	43	43
Wrist	0	0
Trinket	0	0
Trinket	0	0
Total	274	274

This isn't enough hit on this set. You can get some back using the ring from hodir and the offhand from leviathan. If you don't have access to hard mode XT002 Deconstructor, you can also gain 36 hit by taking the bracers from Kologarn.

I just noticed a minor error in your post
You would more likely want that to be
Target hit: 262 / 289 / 342 / 367
The ideal boot enchant (stat wise) is icewalker, so we'll take those down by 12 for:
Target hit: 250 / 277 / 330 / 355

Since the 13% cap actually is at 341.02 points (see Spell hit - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft).

You're right, well, mostly anyway. But I had 341 hit for a good while and didnt miss a single spell throughout a couple of raids. RNG, I know, and the WWS's have now expired. But I'd say that either way getting +1 hit rating would not be a larger DPS increase than +1 other stat at that point.

Yes, we cant really assign a value to a point of hit rating because we are so far past the threshold of the importance of hit that we must now get it at all costs. (FYI that threshold was crossed somewhere around karazhan gear). More appropriately we should value hit as infinity until we reach a desired cap, after which it is worthless.

The best strategy to obtaining a bis set is to create a highest value set with 0 hit and work hit into the entire set slot by slot, with the highest priority being the items that lose the least amount of non-hit stats for the trade in of hit-rating. For eg, conq deathbringer helm-->collar wyrmhunter, where both items are surprisingly close in dps value when we assign a hit value of 0, thus such a switch would offer minimal dps loss while putting us 50+ hit rating closer to our cap.

It gets more complicated when you try to quantify the value of having 4pc, in such case there is no reasonable replacement for conq deathbringer helm.