Will someone please tell me if -5 Corruption gear is good gear or not? Explain so an old man like myself can understand. I’ve looked around but am unable to clearly understand.
Are you saying your total corruption is at -5.
(I don’t think there is any gear that has a -5 corruption stat)
Item level with corruption is hard to calculate. The general way to do it is to find the DPS per point of coruption and compare that to the dps gain from the item.
Generally a good corruption is worth up to 20ilv (from the numbers I’ve seen). So a -5 ilv hit from a single piece of gear, assuming it has a good corruption and doesn’t make your overall corruption too high, is worth it.
Corruption is good and bad at the same time.
Look at the individual gear piece for text that describes the good. The purple text will tell you what the beneficial effect of the corruption is.
Once you have it equipped, hover the N’Zoth eye next to your item level. This will tell you what your current corruption is, what your resistance is, and what the resulting effect is.
Then it’s up to you to either wear the piece as-is (taking the good and possible bad), or to cleanse the piece, removing the corruption (again both good and bad).
As you get your legendary cloak higher and higher in level, your corruption resistance will go up, which will allow you to wear more corrupted gear with fewer negative effects.
Hope I helped. 
My Warlock got a set of 420 gloves with 20 corruption on it last night and the “Stars of something something” spell which I heard was pretty good. So I decided to try it even though he doesn’t have the cape yet and no anti-corruption. At 20 corruption you get slowed sometimes, and an eye stalk pops up and tries to shoot you inside a visible target ring you can easily avoid. The extra damage from the spell “Stars whatever” was worth the inconvenience. 5 corruption will only get you a short duration slow down, not a problem. There are good corruptions and worthless ones. You pick your fight.
I only picked -5 as an example. I still don’t understand about the + and -, which is it that helps fight corruption? Such as my Braser has +15 Corruption. Is that good or bad in my situation. I just don’t get this stuff. Guess I’m stupid.
I hear keep corruption around 30-40 and you’re ok.
There is no minus corruption in gear other than your cloak or using the new essences(essence resist doesn’t stack)
As a general rule if you get infinite stars, it’s God tier in raids
Twilight devestation is god in aoe
And all other corruptions are either useless or having an extra enchant
Also, you don’t want any corruption above 40 grand dillusion hurts a lot unless you are a mobile class or have a really good healer you trust
The eye corruption at 20 is really only a minor inconvenience, though some times it will get you killed (say wrathion you get the slow and you can’t get to the safe spot and are a Warlock or Pali who’s a wheelchair )
It’s great to get corruption gear and not have a way to off set it since you don’t have the cloak yet. Alt thing ya know.
I thank you all for the help. But I still don’t get it. I said I was stupid. 
Your cape will reduce corruption. If you click on your cape it will tell you by how much.
Some of your gear will have people text with +x corruption
Cape-corrupt items = net corruption
If you open you char portrait and click on the purple eye it will show you your corruption and what side effects are active.
If you have an item with corruption you can get it permanently cleansed in the heart chamber.
Okay, thanks Vodkanokers. Tell me one thing: is a minus corruption good for my toon or not?