Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by Rituido

Not sure why the animation for this is just that god-awful rotating shield thing when they already have a flashy black-green demonic shield from the old Sacrifice. Hopefully just a placeholder.

Comment by 914661

Not magic, so cannot be dispelled. The health amount for all pets seems to be the same as for today on beta mop.

Comment by Riencel

In PTR it can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced.

Comment by Ordayc

This spell sacrifices your own health either if you have sacrificed your demon (Grimoire of Sacrifice) or if you simply haven't summoned any demon.
When you're demonless, using this spell requires some thought: First of all, this spell's effect is maximized the more health you have. However, while the life loss is permanent, the absorption effect is temporary and thus can expire without taking full effect. In the worst case, you end up self-inflicting more damage than absorbing, giving you a net loss of life. Thus, it is important to weigh how much health you have and how much damage you expect to take when using it.

Comment by QualityJeverage

Fun fact: In beta, the circle in the icon contained an upright pentagram. The obvious reason would be the religious implications of that symbol, but I haven't read anything official about the change. Just neat to know.

Comment by 1054725

Why is this recommended over Dark Bargain?

Comment by GucciGirl

Some info that might be useful to some:

This ability can be activated regardless of any crowd control on you or your pet, which makes it great when you know you're going to take alot of damage and your trinket is on CD.

I did some testing and here's what I found out.
These are numbers with my current gear + powerword fortitude(I had myself buffed by a priest since the imp gives a passive stamina increase and I wanted the other pets to benefit from that aswell).

This is the health of each pet both with and without Grimoire of Supremecy(+Glyph of Demon Training for felguard).
Note: (G) means Glyph (Demon Training)

VoidWalker........255.595
Voidlord.............306.714 - Highest
Felguard............170.396
Wrathguard........212.996
Felguard(G)........204.476
Wrathguard(G)...255.595
Felhunter...........170.396
Observer............212.996
Succubus..........170.396
Shivarra.............212.996
Imp...................127.787 - Lowest
Fel Imp..............170.396

This is the pets' total health and also the amount of absorbtion you will gain with each pet while they're at max health.
If you are running Imp, Sacrificial pact might not the best option to go for. However, running a Voidlord will give you a far superior shield.

Also worth mentioning:
-Using Dark Regeneration is a good alternative considering that it heals both you and your pet.
-Sacrificial Pact will have a 20 second duration after 5.1 up from 10 seconds.

Comment by 239561

This ability is extremely useful on boss fights that use aoe. Your pet is virtually immune to aoe damage and as such will typically have near full health if the boss is using aoe abilities allowing you to use this spell to its full potential. The cooldown is very reasonable as is the duration of 20 seconds so all in all it is a great option and can in effect make both you and your pet resistant to aoe abilities.

Comment by 761515

Ever since 5.2 dropped I've found myself using this ability instead of Dark Bargain like I used to. I'm a demonology warlock with Grimoire of Supremacy and the Glyph of Demon Training so my wrathguard only has 100k less HP than I do.

Since he has such a huge HP pool(for a demon) and it only takes 25% now I'm find that unless I set him on tank mode this ability is a much better damage absorber than Dark Bargain was; mostly due to it being a large shield from damage with little drawback. Dark Bargain had a habit of killing me when I wasn't paying attention. However since Sacrificial Pact takes from the demon's current hp this ability definitely gets worse if you pet draws aggro, which can cause trouble. Otherwise it's just a really great panic button with few drawbacks.

I don't think I'd recommend this ability to someone who either uses grimoire of sacrifice or someone who uses a pet with a low HP amount, like an imp, just because the amount of protection you get is substantially less so it works well as a panic button.

Comment by aislingual

As of 5.2, demonology can achieve the same effective-health shield as if they had cast this with no pet out and were at 100% health (thanks to Fel/Wrathguard having its health increased to match its corresponding Voidwalker/Lord):

Charred Glyph + increases the health of the Wrathguard by 20%. This will result in a pet who has ~75% of your health, plus or minus a few percentage points depending on your gear.

You will get a shield for 75% of your health with no cost to your own health - since replenishing the health of your pet is remarkably easy using Charred Glyph, you can almost certainly ensure that your wrathguard gets back to and stays at 100% health even in heavy PvP combat.

(Conversely, if you had cast this with no pet out and at 100% health, it would provide a 100% shield but cost 25% of your health, an effective-health shield of 75%.)

Comment by dermadark

Let someone else pay the price of your recklessness.

Comment by onlinewowhead

anyone else notice that it says its modified by the codex of xerrath? wonder what that means maybe they were gonna give it a fel green effect or something

Comment by 1107124

Best part: "SCHOOL:PHYSICAL", meaning ***IT CANT BE DISPELLED*** MWHAHAHAHALOLOLO

Comment by WhiteAlien

The question is: does this shield is calculated before or after resilience/power? From what I observed shield is applied before resilience reduction, because each time I pop it it's been destroyed almost instantly, forget about 20 sec duration.

Comment by MRTF

The absorb amount is currently beneficial if you don't have a demon summoned. I tried with all my demons and their absorb was only about half compared to my character's.

Example: with a demon 100k absorb. Without a demon 200k absorb at level 100.

PS. Overall the warlock class seems to be a letdown in the current prepatch. We lost our unique resource bars (demon power, burning embers). Demonology lost demon form (thanks a lot DHs >:/)!
And finally we have very few abilities left in our rotation, making it simple but boring to play...
Hopefully the honor talents will be able to compensate some of our losses.

Links WeakAuras Export

Dark Pact

Dark Pact

Talent

Instant	1 min cooldown

Sacrifices 20% of your current health to shield you for 200% of the sacrificed health plus an additional (Spell power * 2.5) for 20 sec. Usable while suffering from control impairing effects.

Buff

Spell Details

Duration

20 seconds

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

None

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

1 minute

GCD

0 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Absorb Damage (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, Physical, Shadow)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Dummy
Value: 20
PVP Multiplier: 1
Server-side script

Effect #3

Dummy
Value: 200
PVP Multiplier: 1
Server-side script

Effect #4

Dummy (SP mod: 5)
PVP Multiplier: 1
Server-side script

Effect #5

Apply Aura: Periodic Heal
Interval: 1 second (SP mod: 0.095964)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted
Can be used while sitting
Does not break stealth
Allow While Invisible
Do Not Display Range
Can be used while stunned
Usable while feared
Usable while confused
Do Not Consume Resources
Allow While Charmed
Aura Points On Client
Not In Spellbook Until Learned
Ignore Target Absorb Modifiers
Allow Class Ability Procs

Guides

Affliction Warlock Rotation Guide Affliction Warlock Talent Tree Build Demonology Warlock Talent Tree Build Demonology Warlock Rotation Guide Destruction Warlock Rotation Guide Legion Warlock Class Changes Raid and Class cooldown list [Archive]

Dark Pact

Buff

Spell Details

Guides

Related

Contribute