Dump Alchemy/Herbs for Shadowweave Tailoring/Enchanting

[Lissa]

I'd have to agree with most. Tailoring is a good choice to pick up, as the specialization sets are unmatched pretty far into the raid progression.
Which to drop becomes something of preference. I kept alchemy (as a transmute spec) to help me get the mats for the spellfire set. I transmuted all of my mights, and used Earth -> Water -> Air to get 3/5 of the primals for just about every might for 5g a pop. All I had to grind was the fire and mana.
Herb will likely get you more money, but honestly the best money/time ratio comes from the daily quests rather than any gathering profession.

In my opinion, leveling enchanting isn't really worth it because the cost is so high and all that you get from having it yourself is the ring enchants (which are relatively minor compared to the total bonuses you get elsewhere).

Not that far truthfully. When they changed gear in Kara, Gruul, Mags, SSC, and TK around, Tailoring does lose it's luster quickly. In truth, Suppression is a skill that you should only depend on until you get your +spell hit up enough and the put the points elsewhere into other things as 50% to 60% of all Affliction Warlock damage is coming from Shadow Bolt still and Suppression does nothing to help in regards to that spell.

Here's a list of some of the gear that drops and when and why it beats other items:

Gloves - Handwraps of Flowing Thought - Attumen - Simply put, these gloves are the best gloves for any spec of warlock until you get to Tier 6 gear. The amount of +spell hit these gloves provide along with the +damage is really unmatched. With a Blue and Yellow socket, you can easily throw in a Glowing Nightseye and Veiled Noble Topaz (or if you get the gems from Heroics, the spell hit/damage from Mech and amythest from completing the Kara quests). Once fully gemmed and enchanted, these gloves provide stats of 30 stamina, 22 Int, of up to 22 Spell hit (up to 37 with enchant), and of up to 47 damage (up to 67 with enchant).

Chest - Robe of Hateful Echoes - Hydross - This robe, when you gem it properly, gives up about 13 damage to the FSW Robes, but gives you far more stats in other areas. When gemmed with a Runed Living Ruby and two Veiled Noble Topaz, you end up with 7 more spell hit, have more Int (16 more), and 2 less stamina while picking up a good amount of crit. While crit won't help you directly with DoTs, it will help you indirectly with putting up ISB on the mobs. Overall, RoHE edges out FSW even for an Affliction 'Lock when it comes to DPS.

Shoulders - Corruptor's Mantle - Void Reaver aka Loot Reaver - Like Robe of Hateful Echoes, you will lose about +5 damage on the Corruptor's Mantle, but you will gain more +spell hit which is helpful. With Veiled Noble Topazes socketed, the Corruptor's Mantle loses only 5 shadow damage to gain 20 spell hit while having more +Sta and more +Int. Overall, Corruptor's Mantle is a win/win for any Warlock spec over FSW.

Boots - Boots of Shifting Nightmare - Hydross - This is probably the one piece that can be argued either direction since FSW Boots have sockets and BoSN do not. You can get about +8 more Shadow damage with FSW Boots, but BoSN has 10 more spell hit. As such, BoSN has slightly better DPS possibilities and it has much higher stats than FSW Boots.

Some comments on the bosses, Void Reaver is fairly easy fight to learn and is fairly easy to take down. The hardest part of Void Reaver is getting to him, otherwise he's basically a pinata. Hydross is the first boss in SSC, but you will need tanks in resist gear to fight him (frost and nature). Attumen, well, you've cleared Kara, so you should be able to get these easily enough.

So, seeing that FSW can be beaten or equalled without going too deeply into raiding, why would you still want to look at tailoring? The reason is actually Spellstrike. Spellstrike is very difficult to equal prior to Tier 6 because of it's proc if you have 350 tailoring. The proc seems to fire quite often giving you 92 extra damage for 10 seconds (not sure if this has the hidden 3 times cooldown, but I see it fire atleast twice a minute meaning it gives you an additional 30 DPS. If you do not have tailoring, then getting Cowl of the Grand Engineer from Void Reaver can replace the cap, but you need to take down Karathress to get the Leggings of the Corruptor.