Hit Rating

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/46314"> src="/image/view/46314/preview" alt="" width="200" border="0" />

Hit Rating in Patch 3.0

One of the simplest changes is the merging of +Spell Hit and +Hit on items. This change simplifies itemization for characters that used to need +Spell Hit and +Hit by providing one +Hit item stat that affects melee/ranged and spell hit all at once. The mechanic used for the +Hit stat does not change from what was previously found in the game.

This means that on your character sheet you will still have separate melee, ranged, and spell hit rankings, they will just all be the same number now. The percentage chance to hit from spell hit is still calculated differently than melee and ranged. However, the 1% chance to miss that could not be removed from spell casters is now gone.

For players that already understand how +hit works, feel free to skip ahead. For all of those that do not know how it works, details follow.

For hitting a target there is a hit table created by the game that is based off the following:

What this means is that against a target the same level as you are, you need to make up +5% to hit to remove the misses from the table if you are melee or ranged and 4% if you are a caster. When you have enough +hit % to not miss you are referred to as 'Hit Capped'.

Against higher level targets the numbers change slightly. The most common higher level target you will fight is a raid boss, which counts as 3 levels higher. Attacking a target three levels higher penalizes you with an additional 4% chance to miss if you are melee/ranged or 14% if you are a spell caster. This means that against raid targets you need +9% or +17% hit to be hit capped, depending on your character.

At this point it gets slightly more complicated because the amount of +Hit that you require to gain a +1% increased chance to hit changes based on your character level. The amount of +Hit for the most common levels are as follows:

All these numbers boil down to the following, a level 70 melee or ranged character with no talents or abilities that affect your hit chance needs +141.8 hit rating to not miss a level 73 raid boss. In Wrath of the Lich King raids at level 80 you will need +295 hit rating to gain the same +9% chance to hit and not miss raid bosses.

A level 70 caster with no talents of abilities that affect your hit chance needs +214.3 to not miss a level 73 raid boss. In Wrath of the Lich King the same caster will need +445.9 to not miss a raid boss.

Critical Hit

Critical hit chance is another simple change in patch 3.0. In the same manner as the +Hit rating, the +Critical Strike and +Spell Critical Strike stats on items has been combined. This means that adding +Critical affects your melee, ranged and spell casting, instead of just melee/ranged or spells. This makes it much easier for hybrid classes to gear up.

Even simpler than +Hit, +Crit grants the same +% to each of the three attack methods the same.

Haste

Haste is another very simple change in patch 3.0. It works exactly the same as the new +Critical Hit stat. It combines the old +Haste and +Spell Haste ratings into one item stat. In the same way as +Crit, +Haste grants the same +% to each of the three attack methods.

For players that already understand how +Haste works, feel free to skip ahead. For all of those that do not know how it works, details follow.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/46316"> src="/image/view/46316/preview" alt="" width="200" border="0" />

Haste in action on a Hunter

Haste simply increases the speed at which you can attack using the various methods that you have available to you. Many players do not understand how to calculate what exactly the change in attack speed will be though. To do this you use the following calculation which is applied to melee, ranged and spell attacks.

New Attack speed = Attack Speed / (100+ Haste%)/100

This means that if you have a 5% haste rating and a 2.4 attack speed it works out to a new attack speed of 2.28. In addition haste is added multiplicatively. This means that if you have multiple haste effects on you, they stack making them attack that much faster.

This is easiest to see with an example based on a hunter. Lets assume that the hunter has a base haste rating enough to grant a 4% speed increase. This will change that hunters 2.8 attack speed to a 2.69 attack speed. However if the hunter now uses the Rapid Fire ability, and a haste increasing trinket (such as Abacus of Violent Odds) they do not get to a 1.77 attack speed as you would expect. Instead the new attack speed is calculated based on each factor (passive item effects, trinkets, abilities, spells, etc) and the new speed passed on to the next factor. This means that in the example used the hunter would reach a blazing 1.65 attack speed. The more effects you can stack the more difference the calculation method makes.

Comments or questions? Email us ([email protected]) or post on our forums!

Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.