#0 - April 25, 2007, 8:38 p.m.
Players have done a great job of discovering the underlying formula for how critical strike chance and dodge chance are calculated.
Unfortunately an incorrect assumption has been made. It's been assumed that these chances were determined by a simple ratio. What they actually are is a linear equation (y=mx+b from introductory Algebra). In this case, the slope, or m, is 1/40 for level 70 Hunters as has been discovered. However, the part being missed is the intercept, b. The intercept is -5.45%. Every class has a different value for the intercept, and a different value at every level for the slope.
Prior to the Burning Crusade, Hunters had an intercept of 0. In order to keep that balanced so that typical level 60 Hunter didn’t have excessive amounts of critical strike chance, the slope was very very steep, at 53 points of agility per critical strike percent. That made Hunters critical strike chance improve very slowly in a way many Hunters complained about, justifiably. So we made the slope dramatically less steep.
However, with a less steep slope, the typical Hunter had more critical strike chance than we intended. In order to fix that, the intercept was lowered to a number below 0.
This is not a bug, but a deliberate design decision.
The net result is that as a Hunter gains more agility, they benefit from it far more than they used to, but the base starts lower. It means you get better with your gear and buffs more easily, an overall gain to the class. Also note that every class in the Burning Crusade has a non-zero intercept. If you examine the other classes, you can calculate theirs as well.