Hit rating (shaman concerns)
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What is the hit cap?
Hit rating reduces the chance to miss, which is static. 15.77 Hit Rating = 1% Hit, or a 1% reduction in misses. Our yellow damage (Stormstrike, Windfury procs) has a 9% miss chance against bosses. 9% hit is the Yellow cap. Our white damage has a 28% miss chance against bosses. 28% hit is the White cap.
How much hit rating is needed to reach it?
We get 9% to-hit from talents -- 6% from Dual Wield Specialization, 3% from Nature's guidance. Thus, we can be yellow capped without any hit-rating on our gear. (Elemental off-specs will need 47 Hit Rating to cap yellow damage).
No spec of any other DPS class has this luxury. That's why other classes have meaningful hit caps and we do not.
The white hit rating cap for shamans with all hit talents is 300. For shamans with just dual wield, it's 347.
Why is it inadvisable to cap the hit rating for white damage?
Every item has a budget. In this budget, 1 hit rating is worth 1 crit rating, 1 expertise rating, 1 STR or 2 AP. Beyond the yellow cap, hit rating will only affect white attacks. All of these stats will affect all attacks at all levels of gear. When hit capped, Yellow attacks account for about 45% of our melee damage. When hit capped, White attacks accounts for about 55% of our melee damage. Hit rating is a relatively cheap, compared to, say, Crit Rating (which takes 22.08 rating to raise crit chance by 1%). However, because it affects such a small amount of our total damage, Crit Rating will always be better once yellow damage is capped.
The choice is rarely as straight forward as this, which is why having stat weights is so important. Gear is usually pretty well balanced between attack power, hit rating, crit rating and other DPS stats.
What role does hit rating play in Windfury damage?
1% hit rating will NOT provide 1% more Windfury procs. Hit rating can help reduce the time between windfury procs OUTSIDE of a Windfury cooldown period. I call this the "Windfury lag," and it's measured in seconds.
What about hit rating and the crit cap?
The crit cap is, essentially, your chance to hit. As such, the crit cap is 100% minus your chance to miss, be dodged, be parried, be blocked or deliver a glancing blow to an enemy mob. An enemy mob has a max 6.5% chance to dodge, a max 6.5% chance to parry and a max 5% chance to block. Blocks and Parries can be prevented by moving behind the mob Dodge and Parry can be prevented by wearing Expertise Rating gear, or taking Expertise talents. Not all mobs dodge, parry or block. A level 73 enemy mob has a 25% chance to convert a white attack to a glancing blow. This can no longer be reduced by any stat. Only white damage can be glanced. As a result, only white damage is realistically crit capped. Worst case scenario -- a shaman with 9% hit fighting a mob from the front, the crit cap is 38% A more likely scenario -- a shaman with 9% hit fighting a mob from behind, the crit cap is 49.5% It is possible to hit a crit cap when raid buffed. LotP is 5%, GoA is 3.48%, Major Agi pots are 2.3%, Seal of Crusader is 3%, each mongoose proc is 4.8%, for a grand total of 23.38% from buffs. This would leave a shaman crit capped with only 26.12% crit from gear and talents (albeit for only the few seconds of a double mongoose proc). However, it isn't terribly likely. Most shaman only get a few of these buffs, most have at least some hit rating, and any can use +AP potions over major agility. If commonly over 40% crit, and in real danger of hitting the cap, a shaman should consider swapping one of his mongoose chants for Executioner.
Why is my miss chance for yellow attacks in WWS not 0? Why is my miss chance for white damage not what I expect?
By default, WWS parses group misses together with dodges, parries and blocks and labels them all "misses." So your miss percentage will look higher than it really is. You can eliminate parries and blocks by getting behind the mob. To eliminate dodge, get some expertise.
