4.0.1 Death Knight Frost DW DPS Primer

Everything you want to know about ("casual") Death Knight Frost DW DPS, right here, in one article.  Or something like that.  Hopefully it'll at least get you started.  My goal is a bit different from the standard end-game raiding scene.  Mostly I run BG's with this toon, but it is also my alternate raider when needed.  Thus, my DK is designed to be respectable and fun, not the top dog.  If I want to /flex, I'll go on my 'lock, but that doesn't mean I want to look like noobsauce on this toon.

The Spec
With that in mind, I went with a 2/32/2 spec.

It's important to note that my aim is to be able to do two things well with this spec. The first, I'd like to be able to DPS in a PvE environment competitively. The second, I'd like to feel useful in PvP Battlegrounds. Thus, some points are chosen for that sort of utility, even though I know it makes my spec not "the best" raiding spec or "the best" PvP spec. It's a hybrid spec. For instance, my PvP needs are what entice me to spec into Chillblains and use the Glyph of Hungering Cold.  You may want to go another route if you're wanting a pure raiding spec.

If you checked out my preliminary spec right after the patch dropped, you may notice that I changed up my plans a bit.  Originally, I had taken Improved Icy Talons and Bladed Armor at the expense of the blood and frost talents that cause you to generate more runic power.  My thought had been that I never had a problem generating RP before, how much would these really help?

After mucking around on a dummy for a while, it quickly became apparent to me that without those talents, RP generation is just too slow.  I wasn't firing off nearly as many Frost Strikes as I'd like, and my DPS wasn't where I wanted it to be.  So I respecced, dropping IIT and Bladed armor in favor of RP generation talents.  I plan to get some points back into those talents soon, but for now this is what I believe makes the spec playable. 

The Glyphs
You can see from the link above that I'm going with:

• Prime: Howling Blast - To spread Frost Fever and, thereby, Chillblains. Awesome for keeping melee away from demolishers, etc.  Also great to spread out the deeps.
  
• Prime: Frost Strike - Less cost = More Strikes = Moar Deeps.
  
• Prime: Obliterate - OB tends to be my big finishing move in BG's.  Great idea to buff it.
• Major Glyphs - Pestilence, Strangulate, Hungering Cold- Pest will help in AoE situations to hit more folks.  Strangulate should be good against casters.  Hungering Cold for free is good stuff in a BG.  It works as both an interrupt and a freeze.  I find it incredibly useful.
• Minor Glyphs - Horn of Winter, Path of Frost, Resilient Grip - Minor's are decently useful for DK's.  First, there's nothing like extending your horn. Second, we make our water walking spell a bit more hardy.  Third, we more chances with our MK-Scorpion-like talent.  Not all that exciting, but could be useful. 

The Rotation
As most specs change from less of a rotation to more of a priority system, I want to break down what I do into two ideas: an Intro sequence and then Ongoing Priorities.  To me, DK DPS works best when you think of it as setting up, and then moving into a "maintain" phase, so that's how I'm going to approach it.  I'll start off as if we're just worried about a single target, and then note the changes for multiple targets later.

Intro: Howling Blast > Plague Strike > Blood Strike > Obliterate > Frost Strike

Ongoing Priorities:

1. Keep Diseases Up - With Rime procs and the glyphed HB, you should never have a problem with Frost Fever.  Keep an eye on when you might need to toss in a Plague Strike.
2. When the side auras for Killing Machine show up try to use an Obliterate or Frost Strike.  Obliterate is the better choice, but don't miss a proc waiting for it to show up.
3. When Rime procs, throw a Howling Blast (frost aura above your head)
4. Use FrS to dump your Runic Power whenever it caps or as filler when your runes are on cooldown.
5. Weave in Blood Strikes when your other stuff is on cooldown in order to convert some blood runes to Death Runes.  I like to try to keep one Blood rune as a Death rune at all times.  Just try not to have it where both of one type of rune are sitting unused.    
6. If everything else is good, then you should just be popping OB's every time they're up and dumping RP in between, watching for procs and the priorities above.  That should keep you busy enough.

Since HB costs simply a single Frost Rune now, it basically replaces IT (hence why I dropped the glyph).  You may want to keep IT handy for any situations where some AoE splash is a bad thing, but otherwise HB is the way to go.  If you're Dual Wielding like I am, you want to run in Frost Presence.  Otherwise, I've read where 2H benefit more from being in Unholy, but that's not what I'm doing here.  Check it out on EJ if you're curious, they have a pretty solid article that helped me out a lot. 

I know that in the course of my research, it was tough to figure out what DW weapons to use. So here's the easy answer: you want a slower weapon in each hand in order to maximize the damage of your special spells.  Since they're calculated with respect to your base damage, and your base damage is directly relational to the weapon speed, you want two slow weapons.  Why?  Let's say you have two weapons, each with the same "DPS" but one is fast and the other is slow.  In order to equalize the DPS, the slow weapons has to have more damage per hit.  Since specials are calculated on damage per hit, I think you can see why we say "go slow".

I don't really change up the rotation for AoE situations except to try to use more HBs when I can to maximize my damage.  You still will want to put up and spread your diseases, though with the Pestilence nerf and HB being glyphed, you only want to use Pest for this if you have more than a handful of targets.  Otherwise, you'll just want to PS and then weave HBs and use your normal RP dump (still FrS).  Also, you'll want to use Death and Decay when it's off cooldown, though watch your threat.  Utilize BS to keep Death Runes coming.  More Death Runes means more HB's and that's really the key here.

The Stats
Hit (until melee cap) > Expertise (until cap) > Str > Mastery > Haste > Crit > Agility > Hit (to spell cap)

Ewww numbers: Melee hit cap is 8%.  This governs almost all of our special abilities that are melee in nature (though not "white noise" attacks).  More hit will still help, as our spells can go all the way up to 17% before cap.  Our spells include HB and IT, so after melee cap this stat weight only falls slightly for us, probably being in between Crit and Haste until Spell Capped.  Expertise cap is 23 (Thanks, Stop!). 

It's also good to rune you weapon with Fallen Crusader (MH) and Razorice (OH).

Wrap Up
That's it for my DPS DK.  Pretty short and simple, which is how I do my lone max-level alt.  She's a great change of pace and I love to PvP on her.  I only raid on her if I run into save issues on my 'lock or just to knock out old content with newer raiders. 

I'm sure a lot of you could come up with better pure raid specs, feel free to leave 'em in comments to help others out who stop by.  Also, if you're a frosty DK like me, do you roll with the same rotation?  Same basic set up?  This is one toon where I know I still have stuff to learn.

Reflections on Auctionator

I seem to have a strong desire to post "reflections" lately.  I mean, generally I first mention something when it comes to mind, then I go out and give it a good amount of trial, and then I want to report back.  Makes sense right?  I've enjoyed writing QotD posts as a sort of "series".  Seems to generate good feedback, and gives me a little something to switch it up, as it were.  As such, I'm going to start a new type of post around here that I'm going to refer to as Reflections.  They'll likely be short and personal, populated by opinions.  My goal is simply to relate the feedback I've had from trying things in-game.  I figure it might be useful to some people, and could generate some good comments.  So if you agree or disagree, would love too hear it.  Also, let me know if there are things you want to hear.  These aren't meant to be "how to" posts, but I have no problem following up on questions received.  Anyways, let me know if you have any strong thoughts.

For today, I want to reflect on the Auctionator addon I recommended last week. 

I love it.  It may single handedly turn me into an AH user.  Mind you, before I avoided the AH like the plague.  Auctioneer just seems too complicated for my tastes, and I abhor having to do any sort of market research.  I'm not playing the market.  I just want to sell the one or two things I picked up that are worth far more at the AH than at vendor.  I'm not looking to break into anyone's niche or keep a "flow" of income.  I just don't want to miss out on the random windfalls I get from doing random things.  Auctionator is perfect for that. 

It scans a single item you place in the "sell" window, and gives you a simple comparison of vendor vs. auction.  You can even run a full scan to have the advice ready for other items that you might come across.  Then, in the options, you can very simply set how much you want to undercut (say 5%, which is default and fine by me), and it does the rest for you.  You plop it in the sell window, hit sell, and it goes up as the cheapest on the market. 

Am I maximizing returns?  No way.  Does it mean you might undersell?  Sure.  But you only have to pay very minimal attention to get something priced to sell, which is my goal: to get the gold into my hands quickly.  I'd rather have 30 gold in my hand now than 40 gold in my hand a week from now.  Extrapolate that over the course of years of playing and I'm sure I've missed out on a ton of money, but I'm not in it for the money. 

On the other hand, the ease of use is really enticing me to farm up Saronite Ore on my DK and place it for sale.  It still sells for a pretty decent price, and no one really seems to be farming in Icecrown anymore.  Thus, it only takes like ten minutes to get a couple stacks.  I know I've expressed a displeasure with farming/selling in the past, but I'm not sure how it could get much easier.  I generally do it while waiting for my random PvP to pop.  I mean, if you click accept right away, you generally have to wait 2 minutes for the game to start anyways.  Ride out the timer and get a node or two in.  If you're like me, you'll still end up being a minute early.  Plenty of time to buff and be ready.

It just seems so simple and easy to use, it really fits my playstyle.  If you've been like me, trying to avoid the AH and the games surrounding it, I would encourage you to give Auctionator a try.  Ditch some of the more complicated AH addons and pare it down to something that works for you.  I've been quite pleased with it.  It almost feels like vendoring, which is what I was looking for.  I haven't mucked with any of the settings, but I haven't needed to.  Short of a scan, it does exactly what I need it to.

Though I must admit, there is one case when it doesn't work.  If you do the fishing dailies, you'll know that you can randomly get a Stormjewel.  These tend to sell pretty well on the AH, especially with folks regemming now.  Problem is, the actual "cut" stones from JC's aren't called Stormjewels.  Thus, the search doesn't really pick up what are essentially equivalent items, and when I went to sell mine, no Stormjewels were on sale (but plenty of the equivalent jewels were).  So, I had to do a little of investigation there, and it wasn't exactly something I was expecting.  Makes sense when you think about it, but took me a second.

Anyways, I just wanted to pass along some of my experiences.  Anyone else got any neat tricks out there with using Auctionator?

4.0.1 Demonology Warlock Primer

For some time now, I've been running my second spec as Demonology. I primarily use the spec for the dailies that I run, but I've also lately found it quite fun in Battlegrounds. The spec is a great spec, and it deserves to be broadcast in it's own right.  I will still (and probably always) raid Affliction, but Demonology has strengths where Affliction has weaknesses, making it perfect for an alternate spec.

The Strengths
What strengths, you may ask.  Here's just a few:

• Good Burst Damage.  
• Great finishing damage (under 35% you really heat things up).
• An engaging rotation.  Not just DoTs, but procs too.  
• High Survivability.  For a 'lock, it's the best you can get.
• A badass pet.  The Felguard really is the bomb. 

The Spec
Caught your eye yet?  Well, here's the spec: 0\31\5.

When reviewing this spec, recall my aim isn't necessarily to be the top DPS raid spec, but to have a solid spec that offers playability, survivability, and some fun AoE damage for when you want to pwn face.  It is always important to understand your overall goal before you spec.  This doesn't mean you can't tell me where you're going to put your raid points; I'd love to hear it and it might help others.

For my aims, I left out Improved Health Funnel, Mana Feed, and Master Summoner.  For IHF, I just generally don't use health funnel.  In PvE, it's usually not a big deal.  If you're an PvP person, this might be more useful for you.  For me, regular funnel works fine in a pinch, though I did end up glyphing it because there isn't a whole lot to choose from for minors anyways.

I didn't take Mana Feed because I feel like I have a ton of mana right now.  I can't see taking anything to help with mana consumption, because I'm hardly even life tapping as it is.  As for Master Summoner, demon summons are now made instant by burning a soul shard, plus the Demonic Rebirth talent weighs in with an instant, upon-death re-summon as well.  Thus, I didn't feel that Master Summoner was all that useful. 

I did fill up Bane and Improved Immolate.  I plan to use both spells a lot.  As I level, the difficult choice is going to be whether to go for Improved Corruption or Shadow and Flame next.  I like both talents, but am leaning towards S&F at this point.

The Glyphs
Here are the glyphs I'm going with:

• Prime Glyph of Immolate - Periodic damage increase by 10%, yes please.
• Prime Glyph of Incinerate - Provides a DPS buff for the spell you should be using during Molten Core procs.  I have Felguard now, but Incinerate seems to just be better.  Run your own tests on the dummy with each if you're curious.  Otherwise, Incinerate is probably the way to go.
• Prime Glyph of Metamorphosis - Increases you time in demon form by 6 seconds.  Longer is better.
• Major Glyphs - Shadowflame, Fear, Soul Link - I took Shadowflame and Fear because of the utility.  Soul Link increases damage shared by 5%, so it'll boost survivability as well.  I didn't see a whole lot would otherwise be useful, but these fit my aim.
• Minor Glyphs - Unending Breath, Health Funnel, Drain Soul.  All pretty worthless, so just pick what you think you'll use the most.  Warlock minors still suck. Health funnel at least stops pushback, which could be useful.

The Rotation
Before you do anything, make sure your buff yourself.  All 'locks should be popping on their Fel Armor, but you'll also want to make sure your Soul Link is active.  All specs have it now, so make sure it's up.  Good stuff.

Above 35% Health
Bane of Doom > Corruption > Immolate > Curse of the Elements > Shadowbolt Spam; Use Hand of Gul'dan to refresh Immolate; Use Incinerate during Molten Core proc.

It's pretty simple, only a few dots to keep up.  Doom is the way to go for Demo.  Use CotE if it's not covered elsewhere (Moonkin, Unholy DK, or other 'lock).  Also similar to my Affliction rotation, I like to get on the instants quick before moving to cast times.  This is pure preference here, as we don't have a spell like Soul Swap to worry about.

When Molten Core procs, you want to weave in three Incinerates. You may also want to use a Soulburn + Soul Fire for an instant cast here, but mostly just make sure you don't waste your MC proc.  Since MC will proc off Immolate now, it's important to keep Immolate rolling.  This is a change from when it used to trigger off of Corruption, however we still use Corruption since it will help our DPS.

Under 35% Health
At this point, Soul Fire will become a part of our rotation.  Once you see Decimation proc, then you should spam soul fire as much as possible.  We still want to keep our DoTs up.  Refresh them as needed, the same way you did above, just make sure you weave Soul Fires enough to keep Decimation from expiring.  It shouldn't be an issue in most cases.  Additionally, you don't have to do anything special when MC procs here, just keep using Soul Fire (unless I can find some numbers to tell me otherwise).

Metamorphosis
This is where you get to be big, purple (epic), and winged.  It is perhaps my favorite part of the spec, though it is by no means the "main part" as you've seen so far.  Meta is mostly a "Super Trinket" in that it does a whole bunch of cool stuff, primarily boosting your damage and armor.  Awesome stuff.  As such, we want to use it judiciously.  It has a rather short cooldown (especially when talented) that is similar to a trinket, so you should plan according.  The glyph makes it last longer as well.   I would not recommend macro'ing this into a spell as we do our trinkets, since the key to proper Meta usage revolves around situational awareness.

You see, with Meta usage, we gain access to new spells while in demon form.  The two we're actually concerned about are Immolation Aura and Demon Charge.  The aura will give you a >1k DPS DoT that radiates from you in melee range, and the charge will get you in range to use it.  You have to be aware that the aura is a pretty beefy AoE, so don't get yourself killed by pulling aggro.  Charging in, popping the aura, a Shadowflame, and then a mobile Hellfire amounts to a ridiculous amount of AoE damage.  Even my uber-geared pally partner has a hard time keeping the mobs off me when I do this.  It's also great for farming. 

Apart from the AoE goodness, you will just want to cast as normal.  If you're using this on a boss fight, say, then after you charge in (being careful not to get yourself cleaved or whirl-winded or something), pop the aura and a quick Shadowflame, then go back to your normal rotation.  If you're under 35%, use Soul Fire just the same.  There really isn't too much of a "trick" as far as when/how to use meta, you just have to be smart about it.  Any time you'd be gimping your normal DPS with things like moving, or strange "stop casting" mechanics, or awkward boss phases, you probably want to save you "Super Trinket".  After all, if you pop it and then have to stand there waiting while the Black Knight talks and rezzes and all that crap, then you've wasted some good bonus time.  Think of it as a personal Heroism (that you can use multiple times in a longer fight) that you have to try and use at the best times possible.  Also, don't forget to use this on trash too, since it's a pretty short cooldown.

The Stats
From the same thread as my Affliction post, I nabbed:

Warlock_401_Demonology        Sta=0.0167  Int=3.8362  SP=2.5270  Hit=4.7846  Crit=2.6957  Haste=2.5169  Mastery=2.4201

Thus, Stat priority isn't all that different from Affliction, except for one notable change:
Hit (until capped)>Int>Crit>Haste>Spellpower>Mastery>>Stamina.

As you can see, Crit is valued a lot higher than for Affliction.  Crit is simply going to be a better stat on this build.  After all, Crit is synonymous with "burst" and this is a burstier spec.  Gem, enchant, and stack accordingly.  Still, apart from those considerations, you still have to hit cap (at 17%), and those other stats are still pretty good for you.  Nothing earth shattering here.

Wrap Up
That's it for this primer.  I want to again voice thanks to Abigore, who introduced me to the spec.  He tends to take a more serious, raiding approach to the spec.  If you're interested, I encourage you to head over to his neck of the woods.  I tried to just skim the surface and give the basics, but even that started to get a bit lengthy.  This is a really fun spec.  I run a lot of random crap in this and it keeps me on my toes watching procs, buffs, and thinking about when to pop meta. The survivability can also come in handy when you find yourself pulling off of the tank (whether it be your fault or the tank's).  Plus, like I mentioned, it can be quite fun in BGs.  (I love popping out from behind a wall as a big scary demon... BOO!)  

As always, tips and feedback are most welcome.

HAOW: 4.0.3a Affliction Warlock Glyphs and Rotation

So we've already covered speccing, pet choice, and stat priority.  Next we need to talk glyphing and rotating.  This final installment on How to Afflict Others with Warlockery will cover the art of slapping stickers on your spellbook, as well as how to spin in circles with enough intensity to cause others to puke (no easy feat, I assure you).

The Glyphs
Previously, I had been running with the BoA, Haunt, and Corruption in my Prime slots.  Felhunter, Soul Swap, and Shadowflame contributed in the Major area.  Unending Breath, Souls, and Drain Soul rounded out my minors.  You'll see I made one change after running with these for a week, but otherwise I like my original choices.  Here's the breakdown.

Prime

• Glyph of Haunt - Chosen for the simple spell damage increase.  If you're specced Affliction, this one is a no-brainer as you should be frequently using Haunt.
• Glyph of Bane of Agony -BoA should be our main bane. Longer running means bigger ticks at the end and more damage.  This is good stuff.
• Glyph of Corruption - The extra Nightfall procs are only going to minimally help your DPS (to the tune of maybe 50 more DPS at 80).  My alternative here would be Lash of Pain.  Thanks to Poneria for pointing out my goof (LoP is Prime not Major), I will have to consider swapping this in here whenever I go Succy.  Totally worth it, as long as you have your Succubus out.  Luckily, glyph swapping is pretty simple and painless these days.

Majors

• Glyph of Soul Swap - A total must have for any Affliction Warlock.  Soul swap makes us beastly on trash and any fight where you need to swap targets.  Being able to not remove your DoTs when you swap is a great DPS bonus, plus incredibly useful.  It could be bad if you switched early and something didn't die for lack of DoTs.  This alleviates that concern as well. 
• Glyph of Shadowflame - I got this to be able to potentially slow the Valks in the LK fight.  We haven't gotten back to it yet after the forced patch reset, so I can't report much.  I don't see a whole lot I'd rather have in this slow though, and I like the utility of a spell we should be throwing in every now and then.  If you don't like this choice, Life Tap isn't a bad glyph, it's just that I haven't really found myself having any problems with mana right now and I'd rather have something useful.
• Glyph of Fear - Made a change here.  With CC being key in heroics, I think every Warlock needs to be running with glyph.  It makes Fear as good as a Sheep, and along with a nice focus macro makes you the cock of the walk.  Definitely worth the slot.

Minors

• Glyph of Unending Breath - To swim quicker I guess.
• Glyph of Eye of Kilrogg - It'd be nice to have an eye in the sky?
• Glyph of Drain Soul - Doesn't hurt...  See a theme here?  Yep, warlock minors still suck completely.  None are really gonna help your game, so just pick what you'll use.
  

The Rotation
Now that you've got your stickers on your spell book, let's bust open the blasted thing!  As we've come to expect, Affliction Warlockery will continue to be dominated by rotational thinking.  Some classes may rely on reactions to procs, but we are all about premeditated murder on this side of the spectrum.  If you've made it this far, you probably already know that aff'locks are for dots.   That's what we do and we do it well.  So here's the carousel of disease.

Before you do anything, make sure your buff yourself.  All 'locks should be popping on their Fel Armor, but you'll also want to make sure your Soul Link is active.  All specs have it now, so make sure it's up.  Good stuff.

Above 25% Health, Single Target
Corruption > Bane of Agony > Unstable Affliction > Haunt > Shadowbolt x2 &gt Curse of the Elements.  Spam SB until a refresh of each disease is needed (monitor them individually with a DoT timer.  Fortex or Xperl is great for this).  Life tap sparingly.  You don't have to worry about clipping for anything but BoA, so ideal refresh time is to start casing somewhere in the last two seconds to make sure you don't get any drop off.

After the initial set up, there are a few cooldowns to watch for as well.  First, we want to throw in an Improved Soul Fire whenever Soulburn is off cooldown, letting us cast it instantly.  ISF doesn't stack with heroism-like effects, so try to use it outside of those times.  Second, we want to use Demon Soul when it is off cooldown as well.  Finally, you may want to use Fel Fire to refresh your UA cast.  I use it exclusively.  There is some debate whether it's better to use FF or UA for a full refresh.  I fall firmly in the FF-user category.  When all is said an done, I think it provides me with better DPS.  When maths are done, I think it comes out to about the same with a slight skew toward UA. 

A lot of folks will want you to open up with a Haunt and SBx2 combo to get your SE and ISB stacks up early.  I am not one of those people, and here's why.  With the addition of Soul Swap to our arsenal, I believe it is in our best interest to get our "Big 3" up as soon as possible.  That way, if something starts to die more quickly than expected, you can inhale a swap and be ready to go.

The aforementioned folks will try to convince you that buffless ticks on your DoTs equates to a DPS loss.  I have my doubts about this.  Sure in a theoretical environment, this would be the case.  I mean if you just add everything up, I'm with you.  But often starting out with a nuke is a bad idea.  Maybe we'll crit and draw aggro.  Additionally, aren't we missing full ticks of DoTs while we're casting?  It would seem to me that if we slap up the DoTs quickly, it's safer from a Soul Swap perspective, and it'd be at least a wash in DPS as you'll get ticks while casting the other crap.  I don't think a simulation can take things like "am I moving into position" or "is this going to die quickly" into account.  And once everything is up, we're all the same.  The order does not matter.  There are no more rolling bonuses.  All of the spell buffs are percentage based modifiers which apply to every tick individually.  The only things you need to make sure to do before you start a rotation are your normal pre-fight buffs and trinket popping.

So my recommendation is to throw up the Big 3 first if they're not already there as part of a swap.  That's what makes the most sense to me  After that, I want to get Haunt and SE rolling.  This is when an early Nightfall proc is a sweet addtion.  Then, finally, I'll pop CotE on something.  Usually I try to put it on a later target, since with the talent Jinx it works as an AoE debuff now.  The less you have to worry about refreshing CotE, the better.  On a boss, just pop it on him.

After you get your stuff set up, you should be able to just watch a dot timer and refresh as needed (Corruption should always be refreshed by Haunt, but if you let it fall off, then make sure you get it back up).  Even if I were trying really hard, I realize I would never be able to perfectly line my spells up.  Not matter how I slice it, I'm still going to end up watching timers for each spell individually, so I don't bother with a castsequence macro.  I mean, what if fire spawns under me, then it's all gone to shit unless I sit still and literally DIAF (or am really good at macros I guess).  Simply using timers makes sense to me, but feel free to swap up the order as fits your playstyle.  What matters is that you use all of the spells mentioned above and keep them ticking the best you can with minimal down time.  How you execute best is up to you to decide.  (I can definitely offer tips and suggestions if you want to email or comment!)

For life tap, you want to use it sparingly.  Basically, the goal is to life tap only enough so that at the very end of a fight you're Out Of Mana (without having any downtime due to OOM).  Any extra life taps are lost DPS to Global Cool Down.  When I'm going to tap, I try to weave it in right after I cast a Haunt refresh.  The benefit to tapping right after casting Haunt is that you'll generally beat the fly time for the haunt spell and thus get a nice little heal to offset some of your tap.  Not freaking out healers or wasting the health regen is a good thing in my book.  I almost never succeed in the gold standard of OOM at the end, but I'm not ending over 50% either.  We have a ton more mana now, so with replenishment and such, it's been completely reasonable to never life tap.

Curse choice used to be a problem, but since we now can do a Bane and a Curse, it's not so much of an issue.  Use CotE and BoA, period, unless another 'lock is taking care of CotE, then you're off the hook.  Affliction talents buff BoA enough that it'll be better for us than Bane of Doom.  It's really this simple.  Also, don't forget you have Curse of the Tongues if you're on Crowd Control duty for something like Faction Champions (remember that? /shudder).  It's a good one to remember for any PvP like shenanigans.  Oh, and one more time: absolutely do NOT clip BoA when you use it.  You've probably heard it a million places, but the last tick does almost half of the spell's damage, so you'd be missing out on a lot and it still clips.  Just try to time your refresh for when it's over.  It'd be better to have a bit of downtime for that spell than to clip it.  (The other dots are not so prissy, but BoA must still run it's course prior to a refresh).

Under 25% Health 
The rotation stays the same except at this point you'll want to start using Drain Soul instead of your SB filler.  Don't worry too much about keeping the Improved Shadow Bolt buff up either.  DS will be doing a hell-ton of damage if your other dots are up.  So keep 'em up (DS should also help by refreshing Corr and UA).  The only caveat here is that if the baddie is about to die in the next 21 seconds, you shouldn't refresh BoA as it won't have time to run it's course.  Other than that, keep up the Big 3 and Haunt (which should refresh Corr and SE), and CotE for sure. It's also good if you can try to time your refresh casts to be immediately after a Drain Soul tick.  Just look for the abnormally large damage number on your screen (or get an addon that helps you. I don't use one, but suggestions welcome in comments).

Multiple Target Situations
If there are three or more targets, you should be thinking "Area of Effect" spells.  Now, this hinges a lot on your tank and the difficulty of the mobs.  If aggro is a problem, or if it is deemed best to down one target at a time (maybe CC is being used, maybe the leader wants a quick burn, whatever), then we'll just do our normal single target rotation (with Soul Swap!).  The difference in this case would be that you might be able to get away with throwing corruption up on the other targets, depending on the situation (the extra chance at nightfall procs is fun).  If you've specced into the Seed of Corruption talent, a Soulburn is a great (and effective) way to do that.

Also, proper target switching can really help your DPS as well.  Back in the day (which was a Tuesday), when people used to use CC, it was key to know when to switch targets.  Switch too soon and the first guy might not die, or the tank might not be ready and you'll find yourself munching mud.  Switch too late and you're gimping your DPS and taking longer to kill things (which I guess, given the name of the blog, isn't all bad, but we still want to do our job the best we can).  Being dependent on damage over time spells, Warlocks need to be highly cognizant of when to switch.  There is no hard and fast rule, but the goal should be that your dots would have started dropping off the instant the baddie hits 0%.   Thus, if it's got like 5% health left, dropping fast, and you don't have anything to refresh, you'll probably want to get set up on the next target.

Soul Swap makes switching a lot easier now.  With one quick, instant click we inhale our Big 3 to exhale onto the next target (starting them at full duration).  This really levels out our DPS into something respectable on trash and add fights.  All around, the spell is just amazing, especially with the glyph.  Switching targets used to count as downtime, but no more!  Now it's just a chance to get a free DoT refresh with a bonus set.  The ease of multiple target ramp-up now makes it more imperative than ever to watch out threat though.  You don't want to be that guy. 

Some of this may seem like a lost art to old warlock hands, since in the Wrath world (... of warcraft), a vast majority of your muli-target pulls were simple AoE groups.  Still, I wanted to start out with the more controlled, rarer multi-target situations because it's going to become increasingly important for to know. But lets be honest: we still love huge baysplosions of damage from straight AoE spells.  And for Affliction Warlocks, we have two main choices: Seed of Corruption or Rain of Fire. 

Seed of Corruption tends to be the better damaging spell for us, but not as easy to control.  The explosion area of seed can often reach outside of, say, a Paladin's consecrate and cause you to get unwanted aggro.  Thus, our AoE spell choice should be highly dependent on the situation.  If the tank clearly has everything locked down and you're not going to get stragglers, definitely make use of seed.  It will explode all over the tank-led dance party and cause you much glee.  Don't forget to toss in a Soulburn + SoC near the beginning to get Corruption up on all the targets too.  Great times, huge numbers!

However, if you have other adds wandering around, not clearly in the tank's control, use RoF.  It's sized to perfectly fit on top of a consecrate (or DnD), so if you're running with one of those tanks, you should be able to just rain on top of their aura with little fear of pulling the mobs off.  You may have to be careful not to just spam if your gear is significantly better than the tank, but, for the most part, the aura abilities of a tank can outstrip our RoF.  If you're running with a Warrior or Druid tank, just try to center your RoF on them as they lack for visual cues.

If you happen to be close enough, throw in a Shadowflame as well.  Again, be wary of aggro pull, but when you get a chance to go wild... man, we can put up some good numbers.  

Summary
So it's simple: In good AoE situations, use SoC (tossing in a SB + SoC).  In shaky AoE situations (where you want more control), use RoF.  Both will yield solid damage results.  If you've got a crazy situation where AoE is probably a bad idea, don't be afraid to switch to your single target rotation (using Soul Swap).  After all, a live 'lock has far better DPS than a dirt napper.  For single targets, get your dots up, s-bolt spam, and refresh as needed.  Make sure to the big 3: Corr, BoA, and UA, plus Haunt, and CotE.  Under 25%, switch from SB filler to Drain Soul.  Sho'nuff you'll be toppin' da meters (or at least doing your job). 

As always, questions/comments are welcome and I'll do my best to clarify anything I may have failed at in this attempt at 'splainin.

One Cataclysm Averted

Fulguralis woke up with a pounding headache. Rather, there were voices screaming in his head, causing it to ache. Frenzied voices. Chattering voices. Smooth voices.  Sexy voices.  What is this?

*     *     *

Spaz: Looklook!  He's-baaaaack!

Midnight: Mmm, thought we almost lost you there, Tiger. 

Sparkie barks happily at his master.

Berry Blue: Smoooth move, killin' the LK, man. TBC is really pissed off now.

Deegee: Dude, that was fly as fel.  Totally legit.

The minions stand around Fulguralis roughly in a circle, glowing green line crisscrossing the floor, connecting each of them. 

Fulguralis: What are you talking about?

Spaz: YouyouYOU!  You-keel-King-of-Liches!  You-LichedtheLich!

Midnight: I believe what he's attempting to inform you of is that you gave that Arthas fellow a sound whipping.

Deegee: Fo'shizzle.

Berry Blue: Man, you're so Red right now.

Deegee: STFU Berry Ballsack.

Berry Blue: Don't make me come over there.

A sharp pain causes Fulguralis to gasp.

Fulguralis: Shut up! You two are giving me a headache.

Midnight: Well, I should think so.

Fulguralis: Huh?

Midnight: We are in your head, as it were.

Fulguralis looks down, noticing for the first time that he is all in black, floating in the center of the shape made by the lines in the floor.  From above, it is seen as a pentagram.

Fulguralis: My head?

Berry Blue: Where else you think we be chillin' when you ain't lettin' us out?

Deegee: Yeah, dawg.  You tell 'im.

Berry Blue: Can it, Reddy.

Deegee: Whatevs.

Fulguralis looks around at his minions, and the hazy chamber that is, apparently, his mind.

Fulguralis: So, why am I in here and not... out there?

Midnight: Sugar, you took a swan dive off the platform of the Frozen Throne.

Berry Blue: Yeah, plus you were bleedin' somethin' fierce.

Fulguralis: Am I dead then?

Spaz: NonoNO!  Not-Dead.  If-you-were-dead-thanwe-would-notbe-stilhere.

Midnight: Surprisingly coherent for the little guy.

Spaz: I-havemy-moments.  Zoom-zoom-zoom! Gogogogogogogo!

Deegee: WTF, dude.

Berry Blue: Chill.  We'll be back in the act soon enough.

Fulguralis: What do you mean?

Midnight: It's quite simple really.  You cause enough pain to someone and their mind fractures.  Warlocks are especially vulnerable.  

Fulguralis: So my mind is broken?

Deegee: Nah dude.  Check it.  Does it look busted to you?

Deegee gestures vaguely at the four walls of the room.  There don't appear to be any cracks.

Deegee: We had to hold this bitch together, ya know what I'm sayin' brah?

Fulguralis: No, I really don't.

Berry Blue: It's like this, you crack up, we get tossed back to the fiery pits most of us cats call home.

Midnight: Right, it's decidedly more pleasant here, even if we have to put up with you.

Berry Blue: You wouldn't believe how many blokes be tryin' to get in on this gig.  Hell, while we were shoring things up, they damn near pulled the ole switcheroo on us.  We weren't too sure we was gon' make it back in time.

Midnight: Lucky for you we decided the pain was worth it.  Mmmm, pain. 

Spaz: And-the-candy! Ohsomuchcandy! Candy-candy-candy!

Deegee: And brewskis.

Sparkie yips happily.

Midnight: He said, "and mages."

Fulguralis looks at each in turn.  It was odd to see them so happy.  His near death experience must have been quite a scare for them.  Not that he was thinking too fondly of his minions, mind you.  Just well, um... 

Fulguralis:  So, ah, how do I get out of here so that we can all just get back to the way things were?

Berry Blue: Just wake up.

For some reason, to Fulguralis that last bit came as a growl out of his minion's mouth.

Fulguralis: What was that?

Midnight: Wake up. 

A growl again.

Spaz: Wake up.

Deegee: Wake up.

Sparkie:  Wake up.

Did Sparkie just talk?

*     *     *

"Wake up," the voice growled again.

Fulguralis's eyes snapped open, and he found himself staring directing into the - muzzle - of a wolf.  Big teeth glistened in the moonlight.  So many teeth.  Yet, strangely, they didn't continue downward to devour his face.  

"There you go," the creature spoke, and, even more oddly, smiled.  It grasped him around the shoulder and helped the Warlock into a sitting position. 

"Who - what - who, are you?"  Fulguralis asked.

"Call me," the creature said, pausing for a moment, "Mr. Wow."

DK Specs, Fuu's Debut, and 310% Flying Cheap(er)!

The above represents perhaps the most auspicious title I've ever had around here.  I mean, usually I stick with one topic, or go with some form or "Randomness is Random" title.  Here I have three distinct, and pretty much unrelated, writing points.  Could be crazy.  You've been forewarned.

Why am I rambling about the title?  Well, as you may have surmised, the title is generally what draws people in.  Also, it makes for easy search and find via a service like Google.  That's why for information that I want to get out to more than just the regulars, I tend to have a more mundane heading.  People search for things like "4.0.1 class spec", and not "Ful's Cavalcade of Hilarious and Insightful Talent Spending."  Not that I'm in any sort of position to give other burgeoning bloggers advice... it's just something to keep in mind as we go into Cataclysm and are looking to get helpful information in the hands of the people looking for it.

With that said, no one is likely to search for "Fuu's Podcast Debut", so what's that doing in there?  Well, she mentioned it earlier in the week, and it's now up!  For you tanky types out there, I'm sure it's worth a listen.  I haven't even gotten to hear it yet, so I'll be perusing it with the rest of you when I get a chance to hit up the link.  There is a link right?  Yes, I'm sure and I'll pop it in here as soon as someone can get it to me at work (I'm, of course, blocked), or we find it at home tonight.

edit:  There were a few issues with the podcast being available on iTunes. It finally showed up. Here is the link to his website at The Guardian Tank. I believe that it starts working with your main media player (Quicktime, Windows Media Player, etc.) If you would like to download it directly to your iTunes or Zune, you can search for the Program; The Guardian Tank. The Episode is called: Tanking Mastery 3 (Master Tank: Fuubaar). Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, issues finding/ downloading. <3 Fuu

Fuu is the podcast queen.  If there is a podcast, she's probably listened to it.  I, on the other hand, am terrible about listening to podcasts.  It's probably why I've never been invited to one. I've tried, I really have, but I'm just a reader through and through.  I love talking to others, but just listening is like torture to me.  I want to interact!  Moral of the story: direct all podcast questions to Fuu.  I'm just the odd scribe she lets out of the dark cupboard under the stairs every now and then.

If you're here for the prospect of 310% flying at a discounted rate, I have great news.  Commenter "Ben" tipped us off last week that you could potentially get the required training for a much more modest 4k gold at Valiance Keep (for Alliance, Horde I believe is in Warsong Hold or something).  Of course, the discount comes from having an exalted reputation with the folks out there.  I know it's one of the Wrath groups, not sure which one though.  I earned exalted with all of them through the Argent Tournament a while ago.  In any case, there is a trainer right next to the flight point in Valiance Keep that will give you the same training as the dude in Dalaran, only with a 1k discount if you're exalted.  Totally a deal, and got me my 310% perhaps two weeks earlier than I'd thought at the rate I'm going.  Big thanks to Ben for the great tip!  

Finally, if you're here for DK specs, I've been a bit busy with Warlocky stuff and haven't really gotten to spend much time with my alt-DK.  I have, however, worked out some preliminary specs.  I've only used the DPS one in game so far, running around doing some dailies.  I'm rather scared to try out my tanking now that I have to go to a whole new tree.  Plus, I still only have DW weapons and there really isn't a DW tanking option.  I suppose you still can (and I will until I lock down a solid 2H weapon), but it's not nearly as cool or "niche" as it once was.  In any case, I wanted to pass along the links for both of these specs for any interested parties.  I'm definitely looking for feedback and will be updating those guides in the upcoming weeks as well.  Warlockery comes first 'round here, but I don't plan to abandon my PvP toon and alternative tank.

Preliminary 4.0.1 Death Knight Tanking Spec Here.  Some notes:

• Talents were hard for me to pick here, seemed like there was a lot of good stuff.
• I focused on things that would give me survivability (not worried so much about threat right now).
• Blood Boil could be a great AoE spell for us (as opposed to relatively trivial before).
• Epidemic seems important to me to pick up.
• Since I specced for survival, I tried to glyph more for threat.  Seemed to work out best.

Preliminary 4.0.1 Death Knight Frost Dual Wielding DPS Spec Here.  Some notes:

• I've yet to really figure out a rotation, it seems like I'm constantly rune starved.
• I made this spec with PvP (BGs) in mind.  Thus, some of the talent choices reflect that.
• Glyphing seemed easier or this than the tank, just buff your DPS.
• Diseases seem to last a heck of a lot longer, plus we have that new strike that refreshes them.  I've not been able to fit it all together nicely yet, but haven't had a lot of time to spend with it either.  Advice appreciated.

I don't usually get to do nearly as much research for my DK as I do for my 'lock.  It's just the way things go.  Still, I wanted to post up my spec plans with the hope of getting feedback.  At the very least, I think they're good starting points.  Death Knights saw a huge amount of change with the 4.0.1 revamp, so it's going to take me a bit to get my mind around them all.  It just doesn't feel very smooth right now, but that could simply be due to lack of practice as well.  I hate feeling clunky, don't you?

HAOW: 4.0.3a Aff'lock Pet Choice And Stat Priority

At this point we've covered speccing, and will soon cover glyphing and rotating. That leaves us really with two remaining fundamentals to cover what I would call the basics: Pet Choice and Stat Priority. With so many minions at our disposal, it's important we know how to use them in the correct situation to maximize our effectiveness.  Also, it's imperative that we understand what changed with stats in 4.0 if we have any hope of gearing correctly come Cataclysm.

Pet Choice Guide
As usual when creating guides, I find myself wading through the EJ forums to see what they've mathified.  And, also as usual, the choice is hardly as clear cut as some might have you believe.  In fact, there seems to be little in the way of new information.  DPS-wise, minions appear to have been left relatively in tact by the 4.0 patch.  Before we get into that, let me start with a baseline explanation on how I approach pets.  Copied from posts before, here's my mantra:

Do I always have the "best" pet out? No. Some nights I just run with what's simple so I don't have to think about it. At most, warlock pets (as affliction) are only going to give you a couple hundred extra DPS over the course of a raid night. It's nothing to scoff at, but it's not absolutely vital either. I like to think of it along the same lines as bringing the right elixirs or buff foods. They are things that some would call a "must" to every raid, and they certainly help, but you really have to know your class, spec, and rotation first before getting the most out of those littler bonuses. It depends a lot on the seriousness of your raiding/playstyle.

This guide is going to focus on the pet choices from the standpoint of a the Affliction Warlock. If you are thinking demo/destro, you'll have to look elsewhere (though some of this may help you as well). What this means is that we're looking at the following choices of pets: Succubus, Felhunter, Imp, and Voidwalker.  The Infernal and Doomguard are still with us, but they don't replace a pet, come our for 45 seconds, and share a 10 minute cooldown.  Thus, they're almost more of a trinket pop than anything else right now.

We can immediately eliminate one of those choices right off the bat: the Voidwalker. While this pet can be quite useful solo'ing, it is basically a tanking pet, not a DPS pet. It really has no place being out in a raid unless in extreme/strange situations. (I personally have seen a warlock take it upon himself to VW pull every mob in a run, but I wouldn't recommend it).

I'd like to find some concrete numbers that compare the pets, but everything I've seen so far is highly dependent on what talents you're taking and other details.  As such, here is what I believe the hierarchy of pure DPS to be, highest listed first:

• Infernal - First for AoE situations.
  
• Doomguard - First for Single Target situations.
• Succubus - Especially if you pick up the low hanging fruit (talent) in the Demo tree.
• Felhunter -However, remember what he may lack in pure DPS... he does provide a buff.
• Imp - Untalented for me.  When this guy is talented as in a Destro build, he gets a lot better, but I'm inclined the let the Destro's have him. 
  

I mentioned about the Infernal and Doomguard, but I continued to list them above just to give an idea of where they stand.  For their short duration, they will provide a significant DPS boost, and they won't replace our regular minions.  It's really a win-win.  Thus, we must know when to call them forth. I find it helps to think of them like poppin' a healthstone. You're generally only going to get to do it once a fight, so you want to save it for those critical times when you're trying to beat an enrage timer or could really use the extra boost.  Using it during a Heroism: perfect.  Makes the decision simple.  If you don't have a Heroism, just use your big warlocky brain.  Try to make sure you bring them out so that they get the full 45 seconds of fight time, but otherwise, it's always going to be a boost. The cast is instant now, so you don't really have to worry too much about mucking up your rotation.

Trick of the trade: When the first AoE hits for the Infernal, it can stun non-immune mobs. This can be quite useful in situations. Think last wave of the Halls of Reflection.  The Lich King is breathing down your backs and you're, literally, up against a wall.  You've got adds all over the place and your tank is probably crapping themselves. You drop this big guy right on the group, stunning them, damaging them, and giving the little boost your group needed to victory, escaping the LK's clutches one more.

For the regular minions, I generally run with the Felhunter. With the addition of Demon Soul to our arsenal, I've found that this pet synergizes the best with my Affliction playstyle.  I believe the Succubus may still take top honors in a pure math contest, but in my comparisons, the Felpup is better.  Since the Demon Soul benefit for your pup is a straight bonus to DoTs (as opposed to a bonus to shadowbolts), I think it makes sense.  I'm probably not the best S-bolt weaver, but, by the Shadow, my DoTs shall run uninterrupted!  Thus, you can consider me a Felhunter guy.  The Succy can be useful for solo'ing with her CC utility, which I've made extensive use of, but if I'm in a dungeon or raid, the Felpup is coming out. 

Bringing up the rear is the Imp. This guy does two things that may make you consider using him. First, he'll give everyone some bonus health. This does not seem to stack with the Warrior buff, but sometimes is worth having when you're sans Warriors. Secondly, he's ranged. Sometimes, your melee pets just aren't going to cut it (aka Onyxia air phase), so you need a ranged buddy. That's when you should think Imp.

It's important to note that the Improved Imp talents do quite a bit to help the little guy's DPS. I am not personally specced that way (it's a Destro lock thing), so if you are or want to be, you will probably have to modify my advice a bit. I'm not sure he overtakes a talent Succubus, but I haven't gotten at any concrete numbers yet.

Also, recall that all pets are "free" now.  No longer do we need to watch our shards when having "learning" nights, still only to be left at the whims of our Imp.  Hoorah!

And that's that. Quick recap for those of you in the cheap seats:

Pet Choice Hierarchy

1. Infernal - When you want a quick AoE boost.
2. Doomguard - When you want a quick single target boost.
3. Felhunter - When you aren't running with a Mage and a Priest, and if you find it works best with you Affliction playstyle.
4. Succubus - When your raid doesn't need your buffs, especially if you talent/glyph it.
   
5. Imp - If you need ranged or you decide to talent for it.

Stat Priority
The second part of today's article is going to focus on Affliction Warlock stat priorities.  This is meant to guide your gear selection criteria.  I'm not big on gear lists, as I usually just make the best of what comes to me (though I will sometimes pass along my emblem purchase wish-list).  If you're the type that likes to farm an instance to get that Best In Slot item, then by all means, have at it.  Where I'm playing, I can get by with smart choices on not so best in slot gear, and preform admirably.  A simple understanding of stats is really all you need to decide on just about anything.

I maintain that the easiest way to keep gearing simple is to be sure you understand the weights of each stat as it goes towards our DPS. You don't have to do tons of research to break this one down. In fact, I'll give you the link that got me started down the road to simplicity. Nibuca, who has long been my favorite affliction warlock did the gruntwork for us many moons ago. You can find that particular article here. It's one of my faves (still and still).

She does a wonderful job of explaining things, and I have found using a similar method to be very effective. The simplest way to get started, in my opinion, is to get the addon Pawn, use "good" values, and, for the most part, trust the numbers that it kicks out.  The addon even lets you compare two pieces. However, I never want to advocate blind usage of an addon, and we should strive to at least have a basic understanding of what's going on, even if we use an addon to make life easier.

In that spirit, lets look at what the stats are really telling us. Pawn basically allows the user to add a weight to each stat, so it can calculate how they go together and give you a simple value for comparison. Obviously, different stats will weigh in differently for how they effect our DPS. Ignoring the weights for everything except for major stats, we get the follow weight relationships.

Warlock_Affliction_PreRaid   Sta=0.0262  Int=2.9937  SP=2.4187  Hit=1.5690  Crit=0.9617  Haste=1.2767  Mastery=0.9037

I pulled the numbers from the EJ simulation thread found here for 4.0.3a.  The author indicates it's from a "pre-raid" geared Affliction Warlock*, and this was the simulation run that most closely mimics what I believe to be my spec.  These numbers are mostly arbitrary, in that it's not so important what they are, but whats vital is how they relate to each other. Therefore, we can set a simple priority ranking of stats that looks like this:

Hit (until capped) > Intellect > Spellpower > Haste > Crit > Mastery >> Stamina.

Recall that spell hit cap is 17% raw.  Mousing over the stat in your character screen now not only gives you percent, but also lets you know what your misses will look like at the next three levels (important for raiding).  For Affliction Warlocks, we want 17% straight up.  That'll let us hit everything we need to hit.  For non-warlocks, melee hit cap is 8%, fwiw.  Everything after spell hit cap is completely wasted.  Not like defense or other "capped" stats where it's still kinda useful just marginally less.  Wasted.  As in, you get no more benefit.  Therefore, a good thing to do is try and swap in gems and enchants, or reforge to supplement your gear and "overstack" as little hit as possible.

It's interesting to note how far Spellpower has fallen.  It used to be our best stat.  Now, you want to hit up Int (and all the stats in between) first.  Also note that Int is nearly double Crit for Aff'locks.   Thus, if you're looking at two pieces and one bumps you up by 1 Int but the other bumps you up by 2 Crit, you would get nearly the same DPS gain out of each piece.  That's a very cut down example, but it illustrates what we're looking at I think. An addon like Pawn makes this very simple, but we can also keep in mind the relative weights and make an informed decision on our own. It make take a little more work, but at least we know what's going on.

Haste is a neat case too.  DoTs have changed how they use haste so that now you have certain "plateaus" of increased damage.  The scaling goes up in a stair-step look rather than a smooth line.  Check out this great post from Cynwise for a lot more (wonderful) information on this phenomenon.  The short version, though, is we'll probably shoot for a certain amount and tweak other stats once we get just over that stair step.  I'll try to follow up with that number when it solidifies.  For now, you're not going to having anything bad happen by stacking haste as usual.

Finally, it's important to note that Spirit does not show up on that list.  It is now, officially, worthless to us Warlocks.  Dump it.  Regem it.  Reforge it.  Do whatever you need to do to get rid of it.  Sure it might help with mana regen, but due to stacking Int we should have a huge pool, and we always have Life Tap.  Spirit stacking is to Warlocks what melee attacking is to Hunters.  Just don't do it.

You can apply the same principles to talents and gem slots. If they increase a certain stat, you can check out the ratings and compare your trade-offs. I don't have specific numbers for talents, but gems are a bit easier to compare (Pawn does this for you based on what's in-game): you just need to figure out what gem you'd like to put in, and then you'll know the stats you're looking at, and it's back to a basic stat comparison.

I would certainly recommend proper usage of the Pawn addon as well as a perusal of Nibuca's wonderful article, but the point here is that we obtain a basic understanding of what is really going on with this sort of breakdown.  Thus, we should always be able to find our way in the dark.

If you understand the stat weights, it's simple enough to come up with your own "shopping list" for the emblem gear.  I can often be found at the vendors, comparing the boosts from different pieces.  It's not uncommon to find that higher ilvl gear isn't as great as what you already have because of how you're doing your stats.  That's pretty much how I felt about the entire T9 set.  Where'd the haste love go?

Got any questions or comments about these two topics?  Hit me up in comments and I'll do my best to respond, even if it's quite lengthy. 

*Note: Better gear changes stat weights because of diminishing returns and other miscellanea. You'd really have to download, install, and run your own Simulationcraft to get your personal, perfect numbers. I don't do this, but rather "ballpark" it to try and make an intelligent decision. This is also why I don't blindly rely on Pawn or BiS lists: to some extent gear choices will not always work the same for everyone, though we can pretty much all end up in the same place.