| Spell Hit Quick Facts |
|---|
|
- Not to be confused with 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. 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. Healing spells always hit thus healers do not need spell hit.
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. 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.
Patch 3.0 made it so that spell hit rating is now simply called, "Hit Rating"
Other than hit rating, a caster can increase chance to hit with talents, depending on class.
How to Improve Your Spell Hit Rating
If you don't have the time or patience to learn about spell hit in depth, here is a quick and dirty guide to help you acquire the necessary spell hit rating to maximize your dps against level 80 raid bosses.
Without any gear, buffs or talents a level 80 caster requires approximately 446 hit rating for spells to never miss. With a 446 hit rating raid bosses will never resist your spells unless they have special resistances against your school of magic, such as Shadow_(magic_school). You have at your disposal a variety of means to achieve this 446 hit rating.
Every spellcaster class can put points in talents that improve their hit rating. At level 80 a 1% to hit is approximately equal to 26.23 hit rating. If you talent your character to have 3% to hit, your hit rating increases to 26.23 * 3% = 78.69. Subtracting 78.69 from 446 gives you 367.31. This is the hit rating that you will need to make up from other sources to ensure that your spells will never miss or be resisted by a level 80 raid boss.
Sources of Spell Hit:
1. Gear - lots of level 80 heroic dungeon gear come with additional spell hit.
2. Gems - socket these into your gear to add more spell hit. They come in different varieties: common, uncommon and epic.
2. Talent tree - putting your points in a talent that increases your ability to hit lets you choose gear with other stats to increase your damage, like spell power. For example, a warlock can put 3 points in Supression to gain 3% to hit.
3. Balance Druid - the balance druid has a buff, 
[Improved Faerie Fire], which adds 3% to every raid member's hit (3% = 78.69 hit rating). Does not stack with a shadow priest's Misery
4. Shadow Priest - when this class activates the raid-wide buff Misery, everyone gains 3% to hit. Does not stack with balance druid's [Improved Faerie Fire].
5. Draenei - characters of this race give a 1% to hit buff to all party members. This ability does stack with [Improved Faerie Fire] and Misery but is not raid-wide.
6. Food - some foods such as 
[Snapper Extreme] and 
[Worg Tartare] will give you an additional 40 hit rating for 1 hour.
Because 446 is the maximum hit rating a spellcaster needs for their spells to never miss I recommend that you do not add any more hit rating after the 446 cap. Adding more will not increase your damage against bosses. Instead focus on maximizing your spell power and haste. The only exception is if the boss has known resistances to your school of magic.
If you are in a raid without a shadow priest/balance druid or there is no draenei in your party, it will be necessary to make up the lost hit rating through other means, such as gear or food buffs.
Spell Hit Rating Makeover (Mage)
Marcy the gnome mage wants to top her guild's raid dps charts in Ulduar. She formulates a unique talent spec offering huge critical hits but she is still unable to move above #5 in her raid's dps charts. She decides to add 3 points to 
[Precision] for an additional 3% to hit.
Marcy's guildmate John is a draenei shadow priest who raids with her frequently. With his company she gains an additional 3% to hit from his Misery buff and 1% to hit from his draenei racial ability 
[Heroic Presence]. Now Marcy has 3% + 3% + 1% = 7% to hit. 7% * 26.23 = 183.61 hit rating. Subtract this from 446 and Marcy still has 263 hit rating that she must make up. Being an aspiring chef she learns to cook Extreme Snapper, which gives her a temporary 40 hit rating for an hour and now she is left with a much more manageable 223 hit rating to obtain. Marcy runs a bunch of dungeons for emblem of conquest which lets her buy epic gear that she sockets with the best +spell hit gems that she is able to afford. She gets the remaining 223 hit rating and even has a couple of sockets left over to add spell power to her gear. Now Marcy is consistently at the top the dps charts in her raiding guild.
How spell hit chance is calculated
The spell hit mechanic has been confirmed by Blizzard CM Eyonix.[1] 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.
| Level Difference | PvE | PvP |
|---|---|---|
| - 4 | 100% | 100% |
| - 3 | 99% | 99% |
| - 2 | 98% | 98% |
| - 1 | 97% | 97% |
| 0 | 96% | 96% |
| + 1 | 95% | 95% |
| + 2 | 94% | 94% |
| + 3 | 83% | 87% |
| + 4 | 72% | 80% |
| + 5 | 61% | 73% |
For example, a level 70 caster attacking a level 73 mob will have a 83% chance to hit with spells in PvE.
Players many levels below their target will always have at least a 1% chance of landing a spell.
For casters, 1% of additional hit amounts to about 1% additional damage statistically.
Increasing spell hit
Chance to hit can be increased by talents or gear up to 100%. Hit rating is a stat found on gear that increases hit chance by a certain percent per point, based on level. At level 70, 12.615 hit rating is equivalent to 1% hit. At level 80, 26.232 hit rating is equivalent to 1% hit.
At level 80, the highest level mob currently present is level 83 (e.g. all WotLK raid bosses), so a level 80 caster has an effective spell hit rating cap of 446. That assumes no other spell hit sources.
Aside from gear with spell hit rating, chance to hit can also be increased through some buffs and spells. Draenei casters give an additional 1% hit to their group with [Heroic Presence], as well as debuffs like a balance druid's [Improved Faerie Fire] and a shadow priest's Misery. The following table lists some talents that also increase a caster's chance to hit with spells. Taking these effects into consideration lowers the effective hit rating cap.
| Class | Talent | Tree | Hit chance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Druid |  [Balance of Power] |
Balance, Tier 6 | + 3% per point, 6% max | All spells |
| Druid | [Improved Faerie Fire] |
Balance, Tier 7 | + 1% per point, 3% max | Target debuff* |
| Death Knight |  [Virulence] |
Unholy, Tier 1 | + 1% per point, 3% max | All spells |
| Mage | Precision | Frost, Tier 2 | + 1% per point, 3% max | All spells |
| Mage |  [Arcane Focus] |
Arcane, Tier 1 | + 1% per point, 3% max | Arcane spells only |
| Priest | Misery | Shadow, Tier 8 | + 1% per point, 3% max | Target debuff* |
| Priest |  [Shadow Focus] |
Shadow, Tier 2 | + 1% per point, 3% max | Shadow spells only |
| Rogue | Precision | Combat, Tier 2 | + 1% per point, 5% max | Poisons |
| Shaman | Elemental Precision | Elemental, Tier 6 | + 1% per point, 3% max | Fire, Frost, and Nature spells |
| Warlock |  [Suppression] |
Affliction, Tier 1 | + 1% per point, 3% max | All spells |
- Hit debuffs do not stack.
With Talents and gear combined, chance to hit with spells can reach 100%. Casters should keep this cap in mind when considering their gear. For PvE raiding, bosses are considered to be 3 levels higher than the caster, meaning that +17% is the most that will be effective. For high level arena PvP sufficient +hit chance is very important as missed crowd control like sheep, fear and cyclone can easily lose matches, however anything more than +4% to hit is typically excessive. Also see spell penetration for increasing chance for spells to land or to land unresisted in PvP. Note that some classes (for example Paladins, Rogues and Druids) can spec to gain extra chance to have spells miss them. Also, some abilities (e.g. - Cloak of Shadows, and spell resistance for binary spells) give the player using the ability extra chance to have spells miss as well. Extra spell hit does in fact mitigate this extra chance to miss, but is otherwise useless.
Effect of resistance
Spell resistance has a separate effect that is considered in addition to spell hit chance, and is based on a resistance stat for a specific school. In general a certain amount of resistance will mitigate a certain percentage of damage from a magic school. For binary spells that do not partially resist, the resistance mitigation is combined with the spell hit chance to give an overall percentage for the spell to land or be resisted. The chance to hit is multiplied by the mitigation factor from the resistance to give an overall chance to hit. For the following formula, B is base chance to hit with spells, H is increased chance to hit from gear and talents, and R is the mitigation factor given from resistance.
(B + H) * R
For example, a caster with 6% increased chance to hit, attacking a mob 3 levels higher (83% base chance) that has enough resistance to mitigate 50% of spell damage, the overall chance to hit with a binary spell is 44.5%
(83% + 6%) * 50% = 44.5%
For non-binary spells, resistance is computed as a second calculation after the spell hit chance is rolled. After a spell hit is determined, a partial resist calculation based on resistance is done, which can also result in a full resist. These two resists once appeared identically in the combat log, and there was no known way to distinguish a spell miss from a full resist. However, as of patch 3.0.2 the combat log now distinguishes between a spell miss and a resist.
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:
crit rate over all spell casts = 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:
crit rate over all spell casts = 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.
Hit rating chart
The following chart shows the total hit rating required to 2 decimal places for the range of spell hit % commonly desired. It is obviously not possible to achieve a fractional hit rating, and the decision to round up or down to an integer is left to the individual. See the hit rating caps for level 80 below for the rating required to reach 100% hits with spell casting.
| Level | Hit Rating Required | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 7% | 8% | 9% | 10% | 11% | 12% | 13% | 14% | 15% | 16% | 17% | |
| 70 | 12.62 | 25.23 | 37.85 | 50.46 | 63.08 | 75.69 | 88.31 | 100.92 | 113.54 | 126.15 | 138.77 | 151.38 | 164.00 | 176.62 | 189.23 | 201.85 | 214.46 |
| 80 | 26.23 | 52.46 | 78.70 | 104.93 | 131.16 | 157.39 | 183.62 | 209.86 | 236.09 | 262.32 | 288.55 | 314.78 | 341.02 | 367.25 | 393.48 | 419.71 | 445.94 |
Hit rating caps for level 80
A common question among casters is how much hit rating is needed to hit the 100% chance to hit cap. As stated earlier, this depends on the level of the targets one expects to encounter, and any talents that add chance to hit with spells. 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 83 (level 80 content).
Note: For Misery (Shadow priest ability) or [Improved Faerie Fire] (Moonkin Talent) affected mobs (often in 25 man raids), refer to 3 rows down (3%->6%, etc). Also, for [Heroic Presence] (if a Draenei is in your group) move one more row down.
The hit rating numbers in the above table are all rounded up to the next integer number. E.g. 26.23 (1% at 80) becomes 27, 393.47 (15% at 80) becomes 394. While this may seem counter-intuitive at first, the intention is to provide the number which will give 100% spell hit (i.e. the "hit cap"). If they were rounded to the nearest integer, some would still leave a small chance to miss, e.g. rounding 393.47 to 393 only provides 14.98%, leaving a 0.02% chance to miss. It is up to each individual to determine whether they are willing to tolerate that very small chance to miss, or if they wish to completely eliminate it. The assumption in the table is that it is desirable to guarantee that spells will not miss. The hit rating chart above provides the ratings to 2 decimal places for those that wish to consider the merits of rounding up or down in more detail.
As a rule of thumb, a level 80 player against a level 83 boss needs +26.232*k hit rating, to achieve +k% chance to hit with spells. That means that on 80-vs-83 fights each point of +hit rating contributes about +0.038% chance to hit with spells.
Also bear in mind that if you have a draenei in your group their [Heroic Presence] will get you one scale lower from where you where in the above table thus enabling you to swap 1% hit rating from your gear for more useful stats. The inspiring aura buff does not stack of course.
See also
- Resistance
- Spell hit gear
References
- ^ Eyonix 2005-10-05. +Spell Hit Chance. Retrieved on 2007-08-09.
| ||||||||||||||