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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 | lvl 80 | lvl 81 | lvl 82 | lvl 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:
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In PvP, the cap would be 1% - 27 hit
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In Herioc 5 mans, the cap would be 3% - 79 hit
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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:
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.
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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.
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
Neck
Shoulder
Chest
Back
Legs
Feet
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
Wrist
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
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
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)
Wand
Trinket
Ring
Enchants
Permanently enchant gloves to increase hit rating by 20. Requires a level 60 or higher item.
Permanently enchant gloves to increase hit rating by 15. Requires a level 35 or higher item.
Permanently enchant boots to increase critical strike and hit rating by 12. Requires a level 60 or higher item.
Permanently enchant boots to increase critical strike and hit rating by 10. Requires a level 35 or higher item.
Permanently enchant a melee weapon to increase critical strike and hit rating by 25. Requires a level 60 or higher item.
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.
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
November 22, 2008, 07:19 PM
