Dark Pact, do or don't?

[Galith]

I currently run a 56/0/15 spec (as opposed to 55/0/16). Is it worth it to pick up Dark Pact?

Pro: I have found: A large amount of mana per cast, amazing for encounters with very high raid damage (you can use it without fear of death), and it puts less pressure on the healers.

Con: The biggest one is the pet is DEFINITELY always withing the yard rage (30?) which really REALLY blows. If the boss is facing towards you and your pet is attacking it from behind and you only have 30 yard range (and dark pact is 30) you have to move in even close, but on some fights that just doesn't really work out well. Most annoying example would probably the 2nd boss of ICC.

[kidvicious]

Don't.

[Kvn]

Dark pact is good in PvP where you have a large amount of spellpower and no spirit. In PvE, it yields less mana than life tap because you'll have upwards of a thousand spirit.

It's worth the one point to get if you're talking about PvP (which you aren't), if your felhunter is attacking someone it will restore its mana very quickly (assuming you get improved felhunter, which is worth it). Still you want to get improved life tap, but throwing a point in dark pact helps a lot. My dark pact yields nearly twice the mana of a life tap in PvP gear. I just said this little spiel because people probably under-appreciate Dark Pact.

[Dalco]

Don't. If you lifetap aoe heals (ex wild growth) should keep your hp at a comfortable level.

[gherkin]

I did. Dark Pact hits harder than Lifetap, and as I upgrade my Tier it will continue to do hit harder.

Personal choice imo. Amp Curse or (2/2 Imp Drain soul or 2/2 Imp Lifetap) or 1/3 Cataclysm or 1/1 Dark Pact are your options, at least in my opinion

[Dokoran]

Now that dark pact triggers the lifetap glyph, I really don't see what's wrong with doing it, the main reason why people didn't take dark pact was because they used life tap glyph, so it was pointless to take, now...it just comes down to preference.

[Glnger]

only if darkpact didn't trigger gcd o.O

[Kvn]

Life tap passed dark pact at a certain gear level. Raid buffed, life tap WILL return more mana than dark pact.

Dark pact returns: 0.96 * spell power + 1200
Life tap returns: 1490 + 3 * your spirit (not talented)

Raid buffed, during combat, I have ~4000 spellpower and 1100 spirit. Even if I didn't have improved life tap, which I do, life tap returns..

Nevermind, raid buffed, they are VERY close. With those stats above i'd get 5040 mana back per dark pact, and almost 4800 mana back per unimproved life tap. So at this point, it's 2 points for a better life tap or 1 point for dark pact. This allows me personally to move 2 points from improved life tap to fel concentration.. and I'm getting annoyed with spell pushback during raids.. so a dark pact spec would be a dps improvement.

[gerni]

I did. Dark Pact hits harder than Lifetap, and as I upgrade my Tier it will continue to do hit harder.

i brought this up in another thread. dark pact has proven a lot better for me especially with the lack of spirit on most of my gear now.

[Galith]

Do any of you also have issues with the 30 yard range?

[gherkin]

Do any of you also have issues with the 30 yard range?

Sometimes, but that's my fault. It means I have to get closer. Once I figure out my positioning on the fight I never have issues.

When the GM is screaming "MAX RANGE" on vent, it's for a reason. If you can figure out what that reason is, you may not have to be at max range all the time.

[Sullimo]

My warlock lacks raid experience, so I can't really comment on the 30 yard range issue.

However, I've found it to be helpful in PVP, where you don't necessarily want to life tap and damage yourself.

I find it to be a pretty situational ability, similar to how if I'm pvping I like to have curse of exhaustion, but if I'm doing PvE it's not really as useful to me.

[Woony]

My warlock lacks raid experience, so I can't really comment on the 30 yard range issue.

However, I've found it to be helpful in PVP, where you don't necessarily want to life tap and damage yourself.

I find it to be a pretty situational ability, similar to how if I'm pvping I like to have curse of exhaustion, but if I'm doing PvE it's not really as useful to me.

Dark Pact is terrible in PvP, Affliction is allready bloated like fuck and your pet will go oom from Dark Pact (you don't get imp. felhunter in PvP, you have no points for it, shadowbite messes up devour gcd and sending your pet attacking something is like saying "here please kill it in 2 gcds behind a pillar")

[Deleted]

Hello, I'm not sur it has already be mention but while toying with affli build with DP or LT I have seen that scale factors in T9 profile seems to be better for DP build than LT build.
So I have run a simcraft on an T10 gear profile with affliction+LT Vs affliction+LT and the result is interesting:

- 12505dps for the affli+DP
scale_factors= Warlock_T9_56_00_15_DP Sta=0.0000 Int=0.5412 Spi=1.2058 SP=2.1743 Hit=2.3650 Crit=1.4499 Haste=1.9482 Lag=0.0000

- 12456dps for the affli+LT
scale_factors= Warlock_T9_55_00_16_LT Sta=0.0000 Int=0.5585 Spi=1.3051 SP=2.0955 Hit=2.4003 Crit=1.3529 Haste=1.8931 Lag=0.0000

So it seems according to simcraft that DP scales a bit better than LT(or at least the gear in this profile is more appropriate for DP than LT).
I have just taken the normal rotation of the LT build and changed LT by dp in the priority list.
The T10 gear was taken from one of the comment in the simcraft project.

Scale factors are different. I undersand why SP scales better with DP but don't understand the origin of the difference with haste and crit scale factors

http://elitistjerks.com/f80/t48311-s...3/#post1498695

Read for yourself, topic has more info on it. It's a personal choice I suppose, it doesn't really matter much. The person saying NO! as second is just a genuine retard, just dropped some comment without knowing anything.

Most likely DP will scale better then lifetap eventually. And it's more secure because you don't drop in HP, oh well. Just read the topic

[Jenerena]

I say Do, if it works out better for you.

Life tap gives (1460 + 3*spirit)*1.2 mana from your health (with 2/2 improved LT)
Dark pact gives you (1200 + 0.96*spellpower) of your pet's mana

Have a look at your stats raid buffed, and work this out. I worked out i got more mana back through Dark Pact. The range is not too much of an issue, if it is, use life tap, you still have it. The post above from EJ is also very useful.

With less and less spirit on our gear nowadays (none on T10) it will be harder to maintain high spirit levels whilst your spell power is always going up, so DP may win eventually (or already) depending on your spell power:spirit ratio.

[Wheres]

I went back and forth using Dark Pact, and Life Tap.

The mana back is pretty close, not a big deal.

Taking less dmg is nice, but you can usually be healed anyway.

The thing that made my decision was the fact that Life-Tap stacks the SP buff from my trinkets, whereas Dark-Pact does not. Between pulls when low on Mana, I can tap and keep my trinket up so I go into a fight with it fully stacked. With Dark-Pact it was falling off. (Not the biggest thing in the world, but it sure bugged me)

Also, for the others of you out there that like to keep their trinkets stacked Healing your pet will stack/renew stacks as well. I do this between pulls when I am at full mana. You can just click it and jump, as long as the spell gets cast.

[Jenerena]

I went back and forth using Dark Pact, and Life Tap.

The mana back is pretty close, not a big deal.

Taking less dmg is nice, but you can usually be healed anyway.

The thing that made my decision was the fact that Life-Tap stacks the SP buff from my trinkets, whereas Dark-Pact does not. Between pulls when low on Mana, I can tap and keep my trinket up so I go into a fight with it fully stacked. With Dark-Pact it was falling off. (Not the biggest thing in the world, but it sure bugged me)

Also, for the others of you out there that like to keep their trinkets stacked Healing your pet will stack/renew stacks as well. I do this between pulls when I am at full mana. You can just click it and jump, as long as the spell gets cast.

It is only the initial stacking of the trinket that needs to be considered. During a typical fight all your damaging spells should keep those stacks up no problem. I simply use rank 1 lifetap at the start of the fight to stack up my trinket, and use DP thereafter.