The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

Current % Hit level 80 level 81 level 82 level 83 Notes

What is Spell Hit?
Spell hit is a combat attribute that increases a caster's chance to hit with spells. Spell hit is primarily obtained from talents or gear that has hit rating. The more gear with hit rating a caster has the lower the chance the caster's spells will miss (i.e. an enemy resist the spells). With patch 3.0.2, spell hit is capped at 100%; with enough spell hit, it is possible to reach a state where it is impossible for your spells to miss. A spell that fails to hit is shown as a miss, while misses caused by a target's resistance is shows as a resist. Spell hit has no effect on healing spells, as they will always hit.

Spell hit rating is part of the combat rating system that was introduced with Patch 2.0 and the Burning Crusade expansion. Each point of hit rating increases chance to hit with spells by a percentage. The exact percentage per point is based only on the players level. When the player's level increases, the points of +hit rating needed to achieve +1% chance to hit with spells increases as well. Viz, the percentage contribution by each +hit rating point is reduced when the player's level is increased.

Other than hit rating, Warlocks can increase chance to hit with talents:

Suppression, a talent at the top of the affliction talent tree reduces your chance to miss with Affliction spells by 1% per talent point (up to 3/3 for 3%). Note, this only effects Affliction spells. Your Destruction and Demonology spells will be unaffected.

Cataclysm, a talent at second tier of the destruction talent tree reduces your chance to miss with Destruction spells by 1% per talent point (up to 3/3 for 3%). Note, this only effects Destruction spells. Your Affliction and Demonology spells will be unaffected

Note: Neither of these talents effect demonology.

For every point you have into these talents you reduce the hit cap by 1% (for the schools they affect) and you can subtract 26.26 point from the cap.

How spell hit chance is calculated
The spell hit mechanic has been confirmed by Blizzard CM Eyonix. Base chance to hit is based on level difference between caster and target, starting at 96% for even levels, and going up or down from there, capping at a maximum 100%. Furthermore, the chance to hit is different for mobs (PvE) and player (PvP) targets.

For example, a level 70 caster attacking a level 73 mob will have a 83% chance to hit with spells in PvE. Furthermore, a level 70 caster attacking a level 74 or higher mob decreases by an additional 11% per level in PvE, and by 7% in PvP. Players many levels below their target will always have at least a 1% chance of landing a spell. This means you will have the minimum chance of hit against PvE targets at least 11 levels higher than you, and PvP targets at least 16 levels higher.

For casters, 1% of additional hit amounts to 1% additional damage statistically, up to the cap based on level of the mob being attacked.

In heroic 5 man dungeons bosses, the highest level mobs in the instance, are level 82 elites. Against level 82 mobs you have a 94% chance to hit with spells. To make it 100%, at level 80, you need 158 hit.

In raid instances, bosses are level ?? elites. The ?? denotes a mob who is 3 levels higher than you, i.e. level 83. Bosses in raids are always 3 levels above you. Always. Against a level 83 mob you have measly 83% chance to hit with spells. This is almost a fifth of your casts being resisted and lowering your DPS. To make it 100%, you need 17% or 446 hit.

What's the hit cap at level 80?
The question that everyone wants the answer to! At level 80, the highest level mob currently present is level 83 (e.g. all Wrath of the Lich King raid bosses), a level 80 caster has an effective spell hit rating cap of 446. That assumes no other spell hit sources.

446 hit rating

(That's to give you 100% chance not to miss)

The following table summarizes how much hit rating is needed for a certain level, after all talents and buffs are taken into consideration. To use the table, first add up how much hit you already have (don't forget the possibility of a draenei in your group or debuffs on your target that can increase your chance to hit with spells), then look up that row to find the hit rating cap for targets level 80 up to 83. End-game raiding casters generally use the level 83 column, as the effective level of bosses are 83.

Current % Hit	level 80	level 81	level 82	level 83	Notes
0%	105	131	157	447	No talent bonuses or buffs
1%	78	105	131	421	Draenei Heroic Presence
2%	52	78	105	394
3%	26	52	78	368	Destruction warlocks with Cataclysm or Affliction warlocks with Suppression

To summarize:

To hit a level 83 raid boss at 80 you'll need +446 spell hit without talents, or +368 spell hit with full specced suppression or cataclysm. At level 80, 1% hit chance is gained from 26.23199272 points of hit rating. You still need 17% (untalented) to be capped, giving a cap value of: 26.23 x 17 = 445.91 = 446.

Assuming 3 points spent in either suppression or cataclysm:

In PvP, the cap would be 1% - 27 hit
In Herioc 5 mans, the cap would be 3% - 79 hit
In Raid instances, the cap would be 14% - 368 hit

The effect of Hit chance on Critical Hit chance

Unlike the melee combat system, spell crit makes absolutely no difference to hit chance. All spells, regardless of whether they are treated as binary or not, roll hit and crit separately. Conceptually, the game rolls for your hit chance first, and if the spell hits you have a separate roll for whether it crits.

Overall chance to crit over all spells cast is thus affected by hit rate. To calculate overall crit rate, multiplying the two chances together:

Code:

crit rate over all spells = crit * hit

For example, a caster with no spell hit rating gear or talents, against a mob 3 levels higher (83% hit chance), and 30% crit rating from gear and talents:

Code:

crit rate over all spells = 30% * 83% = 24.9%

In addition, direct damage spells suffer from partial resistance, but again, that has no effect on whether a spell hits or not.

To clarify: hitting and critting are separate rolls, but in order to crit, you must first hit. Thus, increasing your +hit does increase your crit, indirectly. You could even say it indirectly increases your spellpower (since if you miss, your spellpower stat is irrelevant).

Further Reading:

In some situations should Hit rating be sacrificed?

Hit Cap in raids

In a raid, on top of your own talents to assist with you reaching your hit cap, there are other spells and abilities that can help you further. Unless you run with the same group consistently, you can not rely on these. But if you are fortunate enough to always have the biffs, it lowers your required hit cap even more.

Improved Faerie Fire - Druid talent in the Balance tree - Your Faerie Fire spell also increases the chance the target will be hit by spell attacks by 3%, and increases the critical strike chance of your damage spells by 3% on targets afflicted by Faerie Fire.

Misery - Priest talent in the Shadow tree - Your Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch spells also increase the chance for harmful spells to hit by 3% lasting 24 sec, and increases the damage of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by an amount equal to 15% of your spell power.

Heroic Presence - Racial ability of Draeneis (passive aura buff) - Increases chance to hit with all spells and attacks by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.

Note: Imp FF and Misery do not stack meaning if you have both a properly spec'd balance druid and shadow priest in the raid with you you will not receive a 6% increased chance to hit. Heroic Presence on the other hand does stack with Imp FF and Misery so if you have a Draenei and Boomkin and/or Spriest in raid you will recieve a bonus 4% chance to hit.

As you can see, the lowest hit cap for Horde mages is 289 while for Alliance it's 263. These are relatively low numbers and it may be entirely possible for you to put fewer than 3, even no points into Suppression and/or Cataclysm if your gear and raid set up are ideal.

Food Buffs

Snapper Extreme - 40 Hot Rating and 40 Stamina for 1 hour.
Spicy Hot Talbuk - 20 Hit Rating and Spirit for 30 min.

Potion Buffs

Elixir of Accuracy - Increases your Hit Rating by 45 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir.

Spell Hit Gear

Head

The Argent Skullcap - Reward from quest The Crusaders' Pinnacle in Icecrown

Hat of Wintry Doom - Created by Tailoring

Faerlina's Madness - Dropped by Grand Widow Faerlina in Naxxramas

Neck

Necklace of Fragmented Light - Reward from Disarmament in Utgarde Keep

Emeline's Locket - Reward from The Admiral Revealed in Icecrown

Amulet of the Malefic Necromancer - Reward from Poke and Prod (H/A) in Icecrown

Necklace of Taldaram - Dropped by Prince Taldaram in Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom Heroic

Chain of Latent Energies - Zone drop in Naxxramas

Thunderstorm Amulet - Zone drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Chain of the Ancient Wyrm - Reward from Judgment at the Eye of Eternity in the 10-person version of The Eye of Eternity

Circle of Arcane Streams - Dropped by Sartharion in The Obsidian Sanctum

Encircling Burnished Gold Chains - Sold by Vendors in Dalaran, purchased with Emblems of Heroism, which drop in 10 Man raids. (Wrath of the Lich King Badges)

Hateful Gladiator's Pendant of Ascendancy - From PvPing

Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Ascendancy - From PvPing

Shoulder

Mantle of the Corrupted - Zone drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Mantle of the Fatigued Sage - Zone drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Heroes' Plagueheart Shoulderpads - Warlock Tier 7 Robe from 10 Man Raids

Valorous Plagueheart Shoulderpads - Warlock Tier 7 Robe from 25 Man Raids

Chest

Robes of Lightning - Reward from quest What ever it Takes! in Halls of Lightning.

Raiments of the Titans - Dropped by Loken in Halls of Lightning. (Yellow Socket for +Hit)
Water-Drenched Robe - Dropped by Ichoron in The Violet Hold

Ebonweave Robe - Created by Tailoring

Turtle-Minders Robe - From Kalu'uk Quartermasters in Howling Fjord and Dragonblight

Gown of Blaumeux - Zone drop in Naxxramas

Heigan's Putrid Vestments - From Heigan the Unclean in Naxxramas

Gown of the Spell-Weaver - From Alexstrasza's Gift in The Eye of Eternity

Heroes' Plagueheart Robe - Warlock Tier 7 Robe from 10 Man Raids
Valorous Plagueheart Robe - Warlock Tier 7 Robe from 25 Man Raids

Back

Shroud of Akali - Dropped by Gal'darah in Gundrak

Cape of Seething Steam - Dropped by Volkhan in Halls of Lightnint

Dark Soldier Cape - Sold by Duchess Mynx the Ebon Blade Quartermaster in Icecrown

Dark Shroud of the Scourge - Dropped by Noth the Plaguebringer in Naxxramas

Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Ascendancy - From PvPing

Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Ascendancy - From PvPing

Legs

Leggings of Atrophy - Dropped by Anub'Rekhan in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Legwraps of the Defeated Dragon - Dropped by Sapphiron in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster - From Alexstrasza's Gift in The Eye of Eternity (25 Man)

Feet

Boots of Impetuous Ideals - Zone drop in Naxxramas

Xintor's Expeditionary Boots - Sold by Vendors in Dalaran, purchased with Emblems of Valor, which drop in 25 Man raids. (Wrath of the Lich King Badges)

Hands

Lava Burn Gloves - Dropped by Lavanthor in The Violet Hold

Ebonweave Gloves - Created by Tailoring

Gloves of Dark Gestures - Dropped by Anub'Rekhan in Naxxramas

Gloves of Grandeur - Dropped by Sapphiron in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Gloves of the Fallen Wizard - Zone Drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Wrist

Preceptor's Bindings - Zone drop in Naxxramas

Bindings of the Expansive Mind - Zone Drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Wraps of the Astral Traveler - Sold by Vendors in Dalaran, purchased with Emblems of Valor, which drop in 25 Man raids. (Wrath of the Lich King Badges)

Waist

Sash of the Wizened Wyrm - Sold by Cielstrasza the Wyrmrest Accord Quartermaster in Dragonblight

Belt of Unified Souls - Dropped by Meathook in The Culling of Stratholme Heroic

Flowing Sash of Order - Dropped by Loken in Halls of Lightning Heroic

Girdle of Bane - Dropped by King Ymiron in Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic

Cincture of Polarity - Zone Drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Plush Sash of Guzbah - Sold by Vendors in Dalaran, purchased with Emblems of Heroism, which drop in 10 Man raids. (Wrath of the Lich King Badges)

Weapons / Off Hand

Cursed Lich Blade - Dropped by Novos the Summoner in Drak'Tharon Keep Heroic

Telestra's Journal - Dropped by Grand Magus Telestra in The Nexus Heroic

Flameheart Spell Scalpel - Sold by Archmage Alvareaux the Kirin Tor Quartermaster

Sulfur Stave - Zone Drop in Naxxramas

Watchful Eye - Zone Drop in Naxxramas

The Soulblade - Dropped by kel'Thuzan in Naxxramas

Haunting Call - Zone Drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Surplus Limb - Zone Drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Greatstaff of the Nexus - From Alexstrasza's Gift in The Eye of Eternity (25 Man)

Ward of the Violet Citadel - Sold by Vendors in Dalaran, purchased with Emblems of Heroism, which drop in 10 Man raids. (Wrath of the Lich King Badges)

Deadly Gladiator's Focus Staff - PvP Arena Item

Wand

Wand of Blinding Light - Reward from quest The Cleansing Of Jintha'kalar in Dragonblight

Frail Bone Wand - Reward from quest The Rider of the Unholy in Icrcrown

Ancient Measuring Rod - Dropped by Loken in Halls of Lightning

Wand of the San'layn - Dropped by Prince Keleseth in Utgarde Keep Heroic

Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians - Zone drop in Naxxramas (25 Man)

Trinket

Rune of Infinite Power - Reward from the quest Mystery of the Infinite, Redux in Dragonblight

Mark of the War Prisoner - Drops from Cyanigosa in The Violet Hold Heroic

Ring

Ring of Northern Tears - Created by Jewelcrafting

Enchants

Enchant Gloves - Precision

Permanently enchant gloves to increase hit rating by 20. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Enchant Gloves - Precise Strikes

Permanently enchant gloves to increase hit rating by 15. Requires a level 35 or higher item.

Enchant Boots - Icewalker

Permanently enchant boots to increase critical strike and hit rating by 12. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Enchant Boots - Surefooted

Permanently enchant boots to increase critical strike and hit rating by 10. Requires a level 35 or higher item.

Enchant Weapon - Accuracy

Permanently enchant a melee weapon to increase critical strike and hit rating by 25. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Titanium Weapon Chain

Attaches a chain to your weapon, reducing the duration of Disarm effects by 50% and increasing your hit rating by 28. Does not stack with other similar effects. Attaching the weapon chain causes the weapon to become soulbound.

Arcanum of Power

Permanently adds up to 22 spell power and 14 spell hit rating to a head slot item. Does not stack with other enchantments for the selected equipment slot. Requires The Sha'tar - Revered

Gems

Yellow
Rigid Amber +4 hit
Great Golden Draenite/Rigid Golden Draenite +6 hit
Great Dawnstone/Rigid Dawnstone +8 hit
Great Lionseye/Rigid Lionseye +10 hit

Rigid Sun Crystal +12 Hit

Perfect Rigid Sun Crystal +14 Hit

Rigid Autumn's Glow +16 Hit

Rigid King's Amber +20 Hit

Green
Lambent Chrysoprase +5 hit (and +2 mp5)
ViVid Chrysoprase +5 hit (and +6 stam)

Orange
Veiled Flame Spessarite +3 hit (and +4 spell power)
Veiled Noble Topaz +4 hit (and +5 spell power)
Veiled Pyrestone +5 hit (and +6 spell power)
Shining Fire Opal +5 hit (and +6 spell power)

November 22, 2008, 09:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
Kiralyn Character Info Kiralyn 80 Human Warlock Mal'Ganis US PvP Guild: Self Titled Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 0.13.58	What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? I've seen a variety of posts about working out how to hit cap and still maximize DPS, and a couple templates of what a 'Best in Slot' gearout would look like, but no real instruction on how to evaluate this yourself. I've been fighting back and forth, and finally decided to put some numbers to it. Rather than report my results, I thought it would be better to post the methodology. To start, I decided that ultimately what I needed to know was how much theoretical damage I would be losing for every point of hit I picked up on an item, and use that information to decide which items give the best return. The first thing you need is item rankings assuming that hit is valued at zero. In Leulier, this is easily accomplished by sorting the 'Items' tab with the second button on top, which ignores hit. This will assume a hit value of zero and rank your items accordingly. On this page I usually look at the 'DPS Diff' column to compare loot against what I'm wearing. For this, we want to look at the absolute difference between two items, so we'll use the 'Value' column instead. We'll look at our MH weapon, because that is obviously a bad place to drop an item for hit rating. The value listed for me for Turning Tide is 757.14. Soulblade, the best hit item (find by looking down the hit column on the sheet until you see something with hit) has a value of 645.67. That's a difference of 111.47. If we divide that number by the amount of hit we gain, in this case 30, you get a number that shows the amount of value we gain for each point of hit we pick up, 3.715. We'd lose almost 4 damage for each hit gained, which is a pretty bad deal. The basic formula to apply to any slot is: (non-hit item value - hit item value) / hit So I got 3.715 for my MH, which is a good top end. At the other end, Dying Curse clocks in at .14. From a simple logic check, this makes sense as Dying Curse is one of the best trinkets in the game. Those two items make up our inside and outside bounds, and everything else falls in the middle. Obviously the lower the number the better return the item is. I plugged in the best in slot item and the best hit item in each slot into a spreadsheet made to calculate these values, and got the following ranking for best hit items... Dying Curse: .14 Wyrmrest Necklace of Power: .24 Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster: .52 Surplus Limb: .57 Gown of the Spell Weaver: .63 The hit on those items alone will put you at 317, or just over 12% from gear, and represent the best places to sacrifice more attractive pieces of gear for items with hit. As always, your mileage will vary. Using values from your spec and raid buffs in Leulier will give you better results. Also, it isn't always possible to pick up the exact pieces you want, and this will allow you to evaluate other items you may have access to. Hopefully this can help some people who are fighting around the hit cap.

November 22, 2008, 09:19 PM	#2 (permalink)
Kusasi Character Info Kusasi 80 Undead Warlock Nordrassil Euro PvE Guild: Simia Infinata Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 0/40/31	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? Hehe nice post, I thought I'd seen all this info somewhere before, looks like you've combined a lot of info from the posts in the now closed topic and WoWWiki. I see you've quoted my post in there where I state that the hit rating cap is 446. But above that in big red letters you've stated that it is 447. So it's still a little ambiguous. I guess we'll only know for sure when someone has managed to reach that value with their gear and can see that tooltip which says "Increases your spell chance to hit a level 80 target by [~]17%." I'm quite certain it is 446 but we'll see in time I guess. Thanks for the post!

November 22, 2008, 09:43 PM	#3 (permalink)
Crypt Status: Guide Writer	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? I think it's a great post Akasha. And will hopefully stop people needing to post new threads asking what the hit cap is every day.

November 22, 2008, 09:46 PM	#4 (permalink)
Angelina Status: Member	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? Excellent post, thankyou. I will be showing my fellow clothies in the guild this!

November 22, 2008, 09:47 PM	#5 (permalink)
Smok	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? Half the gear is from high end raids. Naxx 25 and higher. Surely there's some items you can get prior to entering the raids where you really need it?

November 22, 2008, 10:17 PM	#6 (permalink)
Akasha	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? That's the gear list I found by sifting through WoWhead with different filters. There is probably a good chance I missed some, so if anyone knows of any, please let me know. __________________ Whether you're a forum expert, newbie or just want a good laugh... Everyone can learn something from : Posting And You... They're, there, their? Wear, were, where? Test yourself!

November 23, 2008, 03:57 AM	#7 (permalink)
pomus Character Info pomus 80 Gnome Warlock Lightbringer Euro PvE Guild: Seducing Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 53 1 17	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? i wish all posts were so friendly to mathematical cripples like me. sticky this, i'm sure im not the only one who will need to have a 10th look at it

November 23, 2008, 04:36 AM	#8 (permalink)
Maluber Character Info Maluber 80 Human Warlock Thunderhorn Euro PvE Guild: Silk n Steel Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 51/0/20	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? Great post Akasha, i was wondering what the value is since dinging 80 :D

November 23, 2008, 10:28 AM	#9 (permalink)
Sidora Character Info Sidora 70 Human Warlock Dalaran US PvE Guild: Epix Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 0/21/40	Re: What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? 2 things... First, Akasha, your mouse-over link to "The Rider of the Unholy" shows the quest and not the actual reward. Second...do they still have the automatic 1% chance to miss that you can't overcome like it was in BC? Which would make the cap 99% chance to hit??? Sorry if this was noted and I missed it, I've been out of game for a while and just came back to the den YAY! __________________ When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before. - Mae West
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