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Dark Bargain

Dark Bargain

Instant	3 min cooldown

Requires Warlock
Requires level 45

Prevents all damage for 8 sec, but when the effect ends, you take 50% of the damage prevented over 8 sec. Usable while suffering from control impairing effects.

Buff

Dark Bargain

Absorbed 0 damage.
Half this damage will be dealt when the shield fades.
8 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

8 seconds

School

Physical

Mechanic

Invulnerable

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

None

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

3 minutes

GCD

0 seconds

Effect #1

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

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Dummy
Value: 50
Server-side script

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Raid and Class
cooldown list.

Warlock DPS Guide

Comments

Comment by 00sugar

Note: Does not work for fall damage.

Comment by Alladin

This could be a grea spell for warlocks especially in PvP. It would be a bubble-like defensive cooldown which could allow warlocks to survive more a period of heavy burst and then soak-up half the damage over 20 seconds.

I'm personally looking forward to do PvP with my warlock in MoP with spells like:

Dark Bargain
Unending Resolve
Sacrificial Pact

Comment by peacelock

I can see it now, Bubblehearthing warlocks! I will finally be able to use my full set emotes while teleporting away from a sticky situation!

Comment by taurusb

still can be stunned, feared, incapacitated, polymorphed, etcetcetc

Comment by Ordayc

Some clarifications:

Technically, this spell consists of an absorption effect (for 8 sec), followed by a damage-over-time effect (for another 8 sec).
The corresponding DoT effect can be found here: Dark Bargain.
Since it only absorbs damage and does not make entirely immune to spells, you can still be affected by non-damaging abilities and secondary effects, including all crowd control.
The damage done after the absorption is in the Shadow school, independent of the school of damage received. It can be absorbed (e.g. with Soul Leech) and mitigated (notably Unending Resolve). It is not affected by PvP resilience, however.
As a result, this talent double-dips from damage mitigation. For example, if you have 10% damage reduction active for the duration of both effects, the following will happen: The incoming damage is reduced by 10% and will be absorbed by Dark Bargain. The absorbed part will then cause (half) damage, but this damage is again reduced by 10%, resulting in a total damage mitigation of 19%.
Even though the damage caused by the subsequent DoT is attributed to you in the combat log, it does not appear as your damage dealt in a battleground damage overview.
So far, I've been unsuccessful in finding an absorption cap (i.e. a specific amount of damage a warlock can take before Dark Bargain ends prematurely). For a naked level 90 character with 162k life, my shield was able to absorb 265k damage (164% of max health), which at least rules out a 100% cap.

Comment by Riencel

You can kill yourself with this ability.
Edit: For Demonology, this ability absorbs the self damage of Hellfire.

Comment by Vrakthris

In Patch 5.0.4 Dark Bargain's debuff is not doing 50% of the damage over its 8 second duration. This should be addressed in an upcoming hotfix.

Comment by Jarlax83

This is really awesome skill and as the kickback is dealt as shadow damage. becomes useful against all types, not just shadow and holy types. This combined with Unending Resolve and locks can survive massive amount of damage without our healthbar dropping much at all :D

Unending Resolve will also prevent damage from Dark Bargain so if Ward is on cd, resolve is second option to minimize the damage from kickback.

Comment by Xbander

There seems to be some misunderstanding about this talent, it doesn't deal damage to the attacker, it deals damage to YOU, the Warlock, applied as a DoT at 50% over 8 seconds instead of taking the damage all at once. It's still very easy to die by it.

Comment by Kanariya

It's worth noting that the damage dealt back to you can be partially resisted if you are using an item like Prismatic Elixir.

Comment by Corq

Very usefull in pvp. I took jarlax83's advise about the use of twilight ward upon debuff. Work great. Thanks dude.

Comment by rubberfish

An interesting property of Dark Bargain is that it belongs to the Physical school and cannot be prevented by a lockout. Divine Shield (paladin) and Ice Block (mage) can be prevented with Holy or Frost lockouts, but Dark Bargain cannot be prevented in that manner.

This might be surprising to many since most warlock defenses are locked out with Shadow (Howl, Shadowfury, Fear) and this is a very prominent exception. Other CCs/silences can, of course, prevent Dark Bargain.

tl;dr Dark Bargain is not part of any magic school and is unaffected by interrupts/lockouts.

Comment by LoreLearner

Dark Bargain's effect also covers the initial damage of .

Also, the normal time it takes to apply a bandage is the same as Dark Bargain's absorb duration (8 seconds).
Here's the macro I use for it:
/cast Dark Bargain
/cast Cauterize Master; Endless Healing Potion
/use Heavy Embersilk Bandage

If you're using Grimoire of Supremacy, Switch "Imp" to "Fel Imp"
Switch "Endless Healing Potion" to whichever healing potion is appropriate, "Healthstone", or delete "; Endless Healing Potion".
Switch "Heavy Embersilk Bandage" to whichever bandage you use.

It casts Dark Bargain, then if the imp is active, it casts Cauterize Master. If the imp isn't active, it will use the potion or healthstone (unless you delete that section: see above) After that, it will use the bandage.
It's great for times when the healer is busy keeping the tank intact.

Comment by Matthat15

Works while carrying flags in battlegrounds, Unlike divine shield, Giving you that extra 8 seconds to cap the flag unfortunately you can still be affected by CCs, Nonetheless, this has saved the day for me a few times when capping a flag :) Dunno if this is a bug or intended.

Comment by Resouler

I have a rly good question:

Why this warlockspell can't def against falling dmg?

Falling dmg dealing % of your maximum health. But this spell reduce 50% all dmg so when you land and the bubble goes away your hp have to go to 50% in 8secs that means you have to stay alive but it dont rly works. I dont know why. When i wanted to protect my warlock with this bubble from falling dmg i ~~died~~ instantly.

The interesting thing:

Paladins Divine shield protects you from falling dmg.

Check both's description: Divine Shield Dark Bargain

If anyone have a good answare feel free to answare my question.

Blizzard Failed Again.

Comment by Misy

In game you can see a little quote when you put your mouse over it: "All debts must be repaid...eventually." Shinfel

Comment by Soybeanie

So is this the ability they're using in World PvP to hearth out when they lose?

Dark Bargain

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