There's no rule to haunt usage, especially when you can also SB: SS.

People here are forgetting - as usual, it seems - that when you have dots up and something procs (let's say.. Power Torrent! Because we all secretly miss the rainbowglow of it), your dots don't get updated to reflect that proc - not until you recast them.

So sure, go ahead and cast Haunt when you have a proc up, fact is only Haunt's initial damage will benefit from the proc, your current dots won't.

Therefore, don't just waste Haunt cause you have a proc. That's not productive. Use haunt when you have dots up that tick for a LOT. For example, start of the fight, typically: Prepot, Hero, Lightweave, Jade Spirit/Windong(s), Trinket 1, Trinket 2, and Dark Soul. Now this is juicy Haunt time. But... There's a but:

What happens at the start of fight is this:

You go in. You curse. A lot of people Haunt. You SB:SS. At this point you're lucky to have any proc at all. Your dots therefore tick for shit. You start Grasping. NOW everything is proccing. Hero is up.. You pop Haunt, you pop Dark Soul, you grasp, with all those nice buffs and procs.... ...And none of your dots are benefitting from them.


So essentially, what seperates a good lock from a bad lock comes down to your insight in your buffs, procs, etc - this goes for all specs, obviously, but even more so for Affliction because of Haunt. It may definitely be a good call to refresh your dots early with SB:SS if you have tons of really good stuff up. It may also not.

Furthermore, insight in your own behaviour is usually the best road to DPS increase, and for Affliction, dps increase usually means better soul shard management. I for one, for example, know I tend to SB:SS a lot, and I'm pretty sure that's not always a dps gain. I need to tone this down. You could fraps yourself and watch your fight back - this too can really help to gain insights in when you're using your shards.