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Comment by Toldry

Another great drain tanking tool for affliction warlocks.

Comment by Archdmon

This is a severely devastating ability, being at the bottom of the Affliction tree, you have several DoTs to use along with it, dealing a lot of damage and healing yourself considerably. If the healing component is too affected by raid member's damage (it does not specify your damage only) a Warlock can be a lot more aggressive with mana usage by Mana Taping then using this along other of their life-stealing spells. In a duel..this is just too good.

Comment by Dhazy

The best part is that the spell lasts on the target longer than the cooldown, so you can just cast this every chance you get.

Comment by BoddAH

The sad thing with this spell is that it only lasts 12 seconds, deals mediocre damage and takes 1,5 sec to cast. The +15% damage boost is nice and while it certainly will be useful in certain situations, sadly this will eat a lot of global cooldowns you could spend spamming bolts (in addition to kepping all your other dots up) possibly even losing more than 15% of your raid dps due to this ; reapplying a 1,5sec cast spell every 12 seconds will have a huge negative effect on your DPS, I’m not 100% positive this spell’s beneficial effects are enough to compensate.

Comment by 152119

at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/basics/talents/wrath/warlock/talents.html
this talent have 15 seconds cd instead of 10

Comment by 178211

this spell isn't gonna be something you will cast ever time the CD is up in less its assigned to you in a lock/SP heavy group.

I'm not quite sure whether this would make a difference, from what I gather from the skills description it's only your damage that will be increased, other locks and SPriests have no benefit from your Haunt.

I do think it'll have many uses, but I'll let the theorycrafters....craft...theory about it and I'll just enjoy a delicious looking new talent come Wotlk.

Comment by 166358

if they made this stackable with others DoTs we would see some sick damage. 5v5 team idea:
aff Lock
Unholy DK
Shadow/disc priest
frost mage
resto shaman

Comment by 146819

This is probably the first Warlock spell that people are going to say is OP; either this, Metamorphosis, or Chaos Bolt.

Don't we deserve something to make up for all the "necessary" nerfs we have to deal with, at least to make up for all the nerfs based solely off of PvP that gimped us in PvE?

Comment by 166358

yeah, warlocks are UP:( underpowered.
Fear ha suffered enough nerfs! locks need this.

Comment by 178668

I was not sure if I should get this or ruin. But after reading how fun this spell could be from the previous posts I think it is now much more tempting to me. Sure wish I could get both, they are both so very tempting.

Comment by 137927

I may be taking this the wrong way, but the wording makes me think of supreme OPness.

When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing you for 20% of all damage done to the target.

I'm sure it will be changed soon enough, but it does not specify that only damage you have done goes into the 20%. As it is now it's "of all damage done," and of course, you're not the only one doing damage in instances and raids. I'm almost 100% certain that it will be changed to 20% of the damage you've done, or something similar, as 20% of all damage done just means you have access to a spell that can quite literally fully heal a tank in a 25 man raid that's at 1 hp and fully buffed, of course it goes to you and not them, but tanks generally tend to have a lot more health than the rest of the raid rolls and I'm just using them as an life example.

If it continues as it is now you could quite possibly heal yourself for over 50khealth in a 25 man raid at level 70 as 250k damage is quite easily done in 12 seconds in T6+ gear, and of course you have access to the 26% increased healing on the Demon Armor. My shadowbolts do over 10k damage when they crit as is, and I'm one of at least 10-15 dpsers. If it doesn't change then even I will have to call out how unfair that is! Then again, locks can truly be self sustaining in raids, and isn't that just fun!

Comment by Huginn

I was looking forward to a more PvP oriented talent in Affliction. It seems Haunt won't be nearly as helpful as Cripple would when facing melee, especially considering the cast time.
Even with Soul Link, affliction will lack survivability in WoTLK, as it does now.

Comment by 101989

OMG! Nefarion's the 51 point Affliction Talent? OP

Comment by 182514

I don't know about arenas but I do know something about BGs. There you need all the healing you can get, especially if you're the only person who cares about the length of your green bar. :P
Imagine a warrior/rogue/whatever pummeling you into the earth, you almost get killed then poof! you're back on full health! And if you're quick and there are enough enemies in range, you'll have approximately maximum health every 12 seconds. However, if the target dies without Haunt ending or getting dispelled, you won't get any healing, and that will happen every now and then. Still, with Haunt locks have a much bigger chance of leading the healing done list =D

PVE-wise, Haunt is very welcome, and can be a butt-saver in tight situations, when you eat a bad crit from a mob in a heroic and you're half dead and then you get healed for most of your hp - all by yourself. Everyone has different tactics, but Haunt will be part of it if you're soloing or facing a lot of mobs at a time (running and siphon life can give you enough time to proc Haunt and if dots are all around its only a matter of time until the mobs kiss the dirt). And with the updated Fel Concentration (works for UA and Haunt too, yepee!) its all the better.

In dungeons/raids you'll die less often if you keep Haunt working - even if you have max hp already, its always reassuring to know that in 12 seconds you'll have a lot of hp.

To those worrying about dps: its a big help, because if you can catch up with the rythm of which spells to spam, you don't have to waste 5 precious seconds with Drain Life, you can start Life Tapping just 3-4 seconds before Haunt gives your hp back in a flash and you can go on spreading love and joy.

What I'm a little concerned about is aggro. I know that among pros this can't happen, but its wise to keep it in mind. So, if you spamm all the love you can at a bossfight, you'll be making $%^&loads of damage (especially if theres a shadowbolt crit then a nightfall proccing - you know the scene ;)) and thus aggro, even if you have Imp. Drain Soul and Destructive Reach. Not to mention that with Eradication our Shadow Bolts will be a lot faster, and that means even more aggro. Now, imagine this: you're there with the best possible lvl 70 gear at a bossfight. You spam the lock love and Haunt. Lets take the spell description seriously and imagine that Haunt will heal you for the 20% of all damage done to the target. You'll have a lot of aggro on you (considering what was mentioned above), and then, after 12 seconds theres a huge heal on you. And here comes the question: will you get the aggro for the healing done to yourself or not? It would be logical. If so, then you'll have so much aggro on you that not even Soulshatter could save your butt. Especially if its a bossfight with adds. And even if its the 20% dmg you've done, its still a lot, though it depends on the order of the spells you cast on the target.

Comment by 214

This is currently bugged up the wazoo with the latest build (8770 I think).

The damage is being multiplied far higher than what it should be. I tested it on my old poorly geared Warlock (instance blues, few misc kara bits) and my Corruption was ticking for 3700. Thank god I rolled my DK on the PvE server, that's all I can say!

Comment by 170073

Consider in instances or raids, shaman spirit links tank to a affi warlock or even better, to two affi warlocks, with this and life draining, the shaman is going to have a booring time.

Also just wonder the DoT damage done when improved shadowbolt is applied.

Comment by 76969

Using this in raids will be as if there is a permanent improved shadow bolt debuff.

Comment by 200533

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=IbxMdtrukitbuqobxczsM
nough said 2's warlock/rogue eeezzz

Comment by 161863

I don't know if you guys noticed, but it says ALL damage. In a raid With ~12 DPS, you'll be healing yourself for alot.

Warlocks will top healing charts :(

Comment by 134700

in the next expansion warlocks get another amazing talent

"soul ownage"
owns your soul, increases dot dmg by 10000% and you cannot resurect afterwards for 10 mins

Comment by Forsyte

Currently looking to the Blizzard official talent calc I can see words: "...healing you for 20% of all damage done to the target".

Comment by 178121

okay, this is great for locks in every way i can think of, dott a target, and just do damage.. when this effect wears, heals you for 20% health
thats a great effect... i really think this is OP but for 51 talent points, it makes sense to me.

Comment by 104502

currently, rank one seems to do more damage than rank 2, unless it's a tooltip error.

Comment by 214704

There is not only a problem with wording:

If Haunt heals your for 20% of all damage caused, it is immensely overpowered.
If Haunt heals you for 20% of the damage caused by Haunt, it does not heal you for a lot:

20% of 754+(Spellpower * Coefficent) (estimated by Beta players to be around 60%)

Assume 1500 Spellpower and a massive critical hit of Haunt (1508)...: 481 Healing.
If you do not crit, you gain on average: 321 Healing.

People should see this spell rather as a damage booster than a source of healing.

Comment by IronSoul24

The current beta build, 8982, has haunt returning 200% of the damage it did to the caster. A warlock with around 1500 spell damage will see this do around 2500 non-crit after talents are considered. This means that you would be healed for 5,000 hp on a non-crit, 7500 on a crit.

Comment by Epixx

does anyone know if you have to apply the dots after the haunt spell is applied or does it not matter?

Comment by WoWTheoryCraft

Current wording of the spell to avoid confusion:

You send a ghostly soul into the target, dealing 405 to 473 Shadow damage and increasing all damage done by your damage-over-time effects on the target by 20% for 12 sec. When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing you for 100% of the damage it did to the target.

Now the question:

Does "healing you for 100% of the damage it did to the target" only apply to the initial damage, or the additional 20% DoT damage as well?

Comment by Abomb

wait so let me get this straight u use it and it causes say 1500 from a crit then u canst it again and it crits so when the efect wheres off will it heal u for 3000?

Comment by 256454

I had three questions about Haunt when I read through comments on this page, and could only find one answer, sadly.
I found the answers to the other two from a good Haunt-spec warlock on my server (EDIT: also tested these myself after respeccing):
HUZZAH:

Will Haunt buff dots retroactively? (Or will you have to apply dots after the 20% debuff is down for them to take on that extra damage?)
Does the "100% of damage it did to the target" affect only the initial shadow damage, or also the 20% buffed DoT damage?
Will it heal when being refreshed? (If not, will the healing carry over to the end of the next Haunt?)

Comment by RedwoodElf

Note that, unlike most "damage-into-healing" effects, this one heals MORE if you use it on a lower level target.

SO use it on the lowbie adds, rather than the boss, if you need more healing in a pinch.

Comment by 211544

That poor, unsuspecting swine.

Comment by Boneflesh

According to 4.1.0 PTR patch notes, damage is being increased by 30%.

Comment by tarthur1

I'm not quite sure how the game labels the healing affect, but recount (a dps meter), while it lists this, this, this and this as heals (ie, seen in the healing done tab), this spell's healing effect doesn't show up. I also checked absorbs and it wasn't there either. I assume that this has to do with the fancy "apply auras", "effect #26.34" and whatnot business blizzard likes to do with spells.

My speculation is that the healing can't crit and isn't affected by healing spell power (technically, the heal is affected by by damage spell power since that affects the initial damage which reflects as the heal); no matter what, the healing done will always be exactly what damage you did when you cast it as far as I've seen. Again, since recount doesn't catch the affect under any of it's tabs, it's hard to really keep track of it and I don't care that much.

Also, the +20% DoT damage (as obvious as this may be) DOES affect the damage of drain life and drain soul.

Comment by 746780

Good way to keep your mana high during combat without making healer wasting mana to your life tapping. Just before the duration ends (not sure if re-applying heals, if does, it's even better), use life tap and you get as much health back with this as you lost when tapping.

Comment by guatafu

Duration: 12 seconds
CD: 8 seconds

Can you have more than one Haunt at a time?

Comment by Kanariya

Haunt now increases all spell damage done, instead of just Shadow DoT damage. It is something you do have to think about casting now, as it costs a soul shard. But, with Charred Glyph and Corruption you should be able to ideally keep this up for a majority of the time. Obviously, its best use is when your target is below 20%, or a serious burst phase. There's no cooldown on Haunt, and its damage has been significantly increased.

The only unfortunate change is, Haunt no longer returns to you.

Comment by Mathrotthill

With 5.4 Haunt has been slightly changed. It no longer increases damage done by all of your spells, but only the damage from your shadow DoTs. The damage boost is greater though, and Haunt itself causes much more damage than it did before, making this spell your main priority when spending Soul Shards.

Comment by trojbd

*!@#ty at 110 but while leveling this spell is insane. You will one shot all world mobs and can beat tanks on meters in low level dungeons just spamming this. This goes on cooldown though if the mob dies while the bolt is travelling so watch for that.

Links WeakAuras Export

Haunt

Haunt

Talent

2% of base mana	40 yd range

1.5 sec cast	15 sec cooldown

A ghostly soul haunts the target, dealing (68.75% of Spell power) Shadow damage and increasing your damage dealt to the target by 10% for 18 sec.

If the target dies, Haunt's cooldown is reset.

Buff

Haunt	Magic

Taking 10% increased damage from the Warlock. Haunt's cooldown will be reset on death.
18 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

18 seconds

School

Shadow

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

Magic

GCD category

Normal

Cost

2% of base mana

Range

40 yards (Long)

Cast time

1.5 seconds

Cooldown

15 seconds

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect #1

School Damage (Shadow) (SP mod: 0.6875)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Mod Damage From Caster % (127)
Value: 10%
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #3

Apply Aura: Mod Damage Taken From Caster Pet %
Value: 10%
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #4

Apply Aura: Mod Damage Taken From Caster %
Value: 10%
PVP Multiplier: 1

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted
DoT Stacking Rule
Can Proc From Procs
No Caster Aura Icon

Guides

Affliction Warlock DPS Guide Affliction Warlock Talent Tree Build Shadowlands Warlock Leveling Guide

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