Page 1 of 2
1
2
LastLast
  1. #1

    Proper Haunt usage?

    Ok, so I know that with my DoTs I want to try and hit the sweet spot for Pandemic but what about Haunt? Does Pandemic affect Haunt? Should I be burning through my Soul Shards in order to keep Haunt up at all times and try to clip it to increase duration with Pandemic? Or should I be hoarding Soul Shards for when I have Bloodlust or Dark Soul: Misery up with trinket on use and pots?

    I know that you should never have full Soul Shards so that you don't waste Shadow Trance procs, but I'm finding that if I keep Haunt up at close to 100% while I have Soul Shards at the start of the fight, that during the middle of the fight I tend to go a long time without any Soul Shards, impatiently waiting for Shadow Trance to proc. So what is the proper usage of Haunt?
    "Once you stop caring what an arrogant, ignorant, idiotic little twat somewhere half-way across the world in a mouldy little basement with his mother yelling down at him to get off his arse and get a job is saying on the internet, you will find an immense calm overcome you. Suddenly the world will seem a brighter place and your mood will improve immediately."

  2. #2
    The Unstoppable Force Bakis's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Sweden
    Posts
    24,644
    There is no good answer really. There are a few simple rules though.

    • Dont sit on 4 shards and waste a possible shadow trance (at least not if you know you wont need 4 shards soon)
    • Something that grant shards are about to die sometime reasonably soon - use em
    • Since they are limited - try to sync them with lightweave, trinket procs etc for maximum damage
    • Keep any bloodlust (>20%) in mind - better save up some than being starved during bloodlust


    Those are the flimsy rules but it all comes down to lenght of the fight, adds/no adds, refund possibilities, burst needed/not needed.

  3. #3
    Deleted
    I agree with Bakis.
    Do not, by any means, fire up your last SS just because you have it for the sake of having Haunt up.
    As has been said, it comes down to a lot of factors, but as a general rule, try to be around 1-3 SS, use haunt when something procs, and anticipate heroism/BL, Dark Soul and so on, or encounter-specific (de)buffs. Those are the times when you want to have 3-4 Soul Shards to keep Haunt up.
    Oh, and no, Haunt is no periodic damage effect, so not affected by Pandemic. Don't clip Haunt.

  4. #4
    Also make sure none of your dots are under 10 seconds when you cast it, you want to be able to cast MG for the full duration of Haunt for maximum damage.

  5. #5
    Mechagnome
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Canterbury
    Posts
    731
    saw a vid that said you should only use haunt when your dots are empowered by a trinket proc or something similar. seems good advice to me

    (excepting when you have 4 shards to avoid wasting shard procs ofc)

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Tearor View Post
    I agree with Bakis.
    Do not, by any means, fire up your last SS just because you have it for the sake of having Haunt up.
    As has been said, it comes down to a lot of factors, but as a general rule, try to be around 1-3 SS, use haunt when something procs, and anticipate heroism/BL, Dark Soul and so on, or encounter-specific (de)buffs. Those are the times when you want to have 3-4 Soul Shards to keep Haunt up.
    Oh, and no, Haunt is no periodic damage effect, so not affected by Pandemic. Don't clip Haunt.
    Last I heard you WANT to clip Haunt because the Haunt debuff...works with Haunt.

  7. #7
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Inshabel View Post
    Also make sure none of your dots are under 10 seconds when you cast it, you want to be able to cast MG for the full duration of Haunt for maximum damage.
    This so something I am doing so that I can MG without the interruption of having to put dots up again

    Quote Originally Posted by Bakis View Post
    • Since they are limited - try to sync them with lightweave, trinket procs etc for maximum damage
    Now this is something that seems so obvious looking back but I was tending to use haunt when the first quote was true...gonna give this a try in some LFR..thanks!

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by cabana View Post
    Last I heard you WANT to clip Haunt because the Haunt debuff...works with Haunt.
    I don't think +25% Haunt damage is better than 1-2 ticks of MG with +25% damage.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Ridcully View Post
    I don't think +25% Haunt damage is better than 1-2 ticks of MG with +25% damage.
    Haunt has a 2 second refresh window in which you can clip it with no loss of uptime, so yes, you can clip it.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Ridcully View Post
    I don't think +25% Haunt damage is better than 1-2 ticks of MG with +25% damage.
    Even if it didn't clip, it's better than 1 tick of MG.

  11. #11
    Field Marshal
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    61
    Edit - I see it's already been discussed about Haunt clipping, but I'll leave my thoughts in anyway.

    For the start of a fight I'll curse, Haunt, Dark Soul, Soul Swap. Then after one or two Malefics I'll re-haunt and Soul Swap again, giving me a very extended duration for my Dark Soul'd dots. Then I just haunt when I get a proc so long as it's not too far away from being off the target.

    I always try to keep one in reserve, just in case something weird happens. When I start getting close to 20% for execute I try to have two saved up so I can Soul Swap and Haunt, giving me the most uninterrupted time on Drain Soul. I never have more than two after the start of a fight unless there is a mechanic where I need to save them.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tearor View Post
    Oh, and no, Haunt is no periodic damage effect, so not affected by Pandemic. Don't clip Haunt.
    So here's my thing - I know haunt doesn't extend duration like the rest, but would it be beneficial to clip it slightly? Would the damage from Haunt itself gain that 25% boost? It's a pretty hard hitting ability on its own so should you try and time it to get it in like previous clipped dots, in the last few seconds so you can harness that extra damage?
    Shoespoon!

  12. #12
    Mechagnome Kildragon's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Twisting Nether
    Posts
    674
    Is clipping Haunt for the 25% damage buff on Haunt better than not clipping it and using it with empowered DoTs while lightweave and/or trinket procs are up? What about Dark Soul? Do you want to always bank at least 2 Soul Shards right before a Dark Soul so you can go through the entire duration of Dark Soul with Haunt up?

  13. #13
    SimCraft says save no soul shards.



    actions+=/haunt,if=!in_flight_to_target&remains<tick_time+travel_time+cast_time&shard_react&miss_rea ct
    actions+=/haunt,cycle_targets=1,if=!in_flight_to_target&remains<tick_time+travel_time+cast_time&soul _shard>1&miss_react
    actions+=/soulburn,line_cd=20,if=buff.dark_soul.up&shard_react
    actions+=/soulburn,if=(dot.unstable_affliction.ticks_remain<action.unstable_affliction.add_ticks%2|d ot.corruption.ticks_remain<action.corruption.add_ticks%2|dot.agony.ticks_remain<action.ago ny.add_ticks%2)&target.health.pct<=20&shard_react

    Is it set at using haunt whenever possible and SB:SS at beginning of DS? I never bothered checking into the details of the command line.

  14. #14
    Mechagnome Kildragon's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Twisting Nether
    Posts
    674
    SimCraft is also written by other players, so they may have not come up with the optimal rotation. There are quite a few points here that were brought up and it would be interesting to see if someone far better with SimCraft than myself could model them.

    Some of the points were:

    -Clipping Haunt intentionally within the last 2 seconds to receive the 25% boost on Haunt itself.
    -Only casting Haunt when you have procs/CDs up, and staying at 3 or less outside of buffs.
    -Comparing the two points above i.e. clipping Haunt outside of procs vs holding the shards for procs
    -Banking in 2 shards close to a Dark Soul.

  15. #15
    I'd also like to know if it's more effective to refresh dots early so that you can get maximum uptime with Haunt/MG or if it's instead better to keep Haunt up when you get good procs regardless of MG/Huant uptime

  16. #16
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Tomed View Post
    I'd also like to know if it's more effective to refresh dots early so that you can get maximum uptime with Haunt/MG or if it's instead better to keep Haunt up when you get good procs regardless of MG/Huant uptime
    Rule of thumb:

    Refreshing dots early is a dps gain IF
    -It enables you to cast MG all through the duration of haunt
    -ideally if you refresh them after less than 0.5*[base dot duration] is left.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Tearor View Post
    Rule of thumb:

    Refreshing dots early is a dps gain IF
    -It enables you to cast MG all through the duration of haunt
    -ideally if you refresh them after less than 0.5*[base dot duration] is left.
    I follow this rule generally but take, for example, the beginning of a pull. I'll DS, SB/SS, Haunt then MG. At the end of the first Haunt most of my DoTs are falling just below half. Agony will make it through another Haunt + 100% MG up-time but UA and Corruption won't and I'll be forced to stop channeling MG to reapply my DoTs near the end of the Haunt if I decide not to refresh them early. It especially seems wasteful to refresh Corruption so early since still has about 7 seconds left before it falls but that might just be the old pre-Pandemic way of thinking.

    Consider a similar situation mid-way in the fight where your Jade Spirit or Yu'lon buff only has a few seconds left on it. My DoTs won't make it through another Haunt but many people say that keeping Haunt close to 100% up-time is important when you have Int procs. Do I break the original rule and refresh Haunt ASAP then refresh my falling DoTs or do I refresh DoTs that won't make it then cast Haunt? The first option means I'll have less than 100% MG up-time for Haunt but the second gives me full MG duration with Haunt however my Int proc is likely gone before the Haunt/MG start to take effect.
    Last edited by Tomed; 2012-11-02 at 08:51 PM.

  18. #18
    the other thing where pandemic helps is not only from casting when you get procs (lightweave, trinket, etc) but also just before they fall off to get a full duration of a procced spell. You essentially double your proc uptime this way, and are the only class in the game that can do so...abuse it lol.

  19. #19
    Deleted
    I was watching scrubbusters (Hyperia) the other night. he prefered to keep recasting MG rather than using the haunt proc. can anybody explain? .. it was on a regular basis, not trinket proc or bl or anything like that

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by ecliptix View Post
    I was watching scrubbusters (Hyperia) the other night. he prefered to keep recasting MG rather than using the haunt proc. can anybody explain? .. it was on a regular basis, not trinket proc or bl or anything like that
    You should pool your shards for DS.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •