Blood Pact vs Demonic Sacrifice

[Tarou]

i think it's been asked before, but i really couldn't find it, so... when you're the only warlock, is it better to use an imp instead of sacrificing?

sorry if it's a stupid question

[levinho]

If your group is geared never use imp as 21/40. Sometimes though, i get some sort of sick twisted enjoyment out of PuGing with really bad groups. Sort of a "How the heck will i survive this?" thing for me. That's usually when i bust out the Seduces or maybe Blood Pact. In those cases having no sacc'd pet is a threat reduction thing.

For that matter, Imp Imp is just a filler and i usually put a point in imp void and imp succubus because i value their utility more than imp's. I think that when things can be seduced the succubus is way more useful than the little bit of health imp will give you in instances.

[Debuff]

It greatly depends on the type of group, Tarou. Are you talking about in a 25 man raid? A 10 man raid? A 5 man heroic? A 5 man non-heroic? Questing?

It also depends on how hard the boss that you are fighting hits compared to how well geared your tank is.

[Tarou]

10-man raids and heroics, mainly. the guild just started running ZA, and it's a bit of a challenge for the healers... so it might be that i need to keep using the imp there for a while.

thanks for the advice, folks

[Debuff]

Originally Posted by Tarou

10-man raids and heroics, mainly. the guild just started running ZA, and it's a bit of a challenge for the healers... so it might be that i need to keep using the imp there for a while.

thanks for the advice, folks

Not necessarily. Keep in mind blood pact really only gives people a higher total hit pool. It's kind of like saying stacking int increases your dps since you have to lifetap less. Yes it does give you a bigger initial pool but considering you go through about 5 times your mana bar in a fight (or 5 times your health bar in damage taken), that initial amount doesn't make that much difference.

On the flip side, though, provided threat isn't a problem having increased dps will end the fight sooner and will have a direct effect on your healers. They will be able to heal harder knowing that they don't have to conserve mana as much.

From a neutral point of view though, it's likely that your healers are simple not used the the amount of damage that you guys are taking in. Do your best to ensure that you aren't taking unnecessary damage and in time your healers should get used to it.

[Medaho]

When my guild is in ZA, it depends entirely on what group I am assigned to. The RL will move me into the maingroup for Bloodpact for some ofthe boos fights.

Whenever I am in the second group, my feeling is that I am free to use whatever pet my 'lock heart desires.

[ashez]

my raid and group leaders know that I am the main source of DPS, so they usually put me in a group with mages (scorch) and boomkins for crit etc... having a pet out as a sacc lock is awful.
Last night in kara my group asked me to keep imp out for prince (not sure why that guy is so easy). Needless to say I barely won the damage battle, against a mage that has like 1150 unbuffed spell damage. (with fel armor i am 1200).
saccing imp makes all the diff.

[Thralock]

In a 25 man raid, it might be good to put an aff lock in main tanking group. Just note that tanks are healed often so the point is that the stamina increases the tanking buffer by a very decent amount.

Alas, last night in the eye, I was not aff spec'd (FG here), so my damage output was nerfed pretty bad. Lol, never got aggro though, thanks impy. If your FG and you've been given this role, make sure you get int, stam and motw on imp before you phase him - that way DK returns abit of damage - not alot but better then nothing.

[Purson]

I must be the only jerk around here, lol.

Being destro, I usually tell them they should've taken on an affliction lock if they're that concerned about it.

The imp only helps a little on poor tank / healer combos. In full raids there's enough other buffs available, and on small 5 mans the loss of dps creates even more problems.