#0 - Feb. 26, 2008, 10:07 a.m.
All spell casting classes have a base chance to "miss" with spells vs bosses (said to be level 73) of 17%.
This means as standard, your spells have an 83% chance to hit the boss (this has nothing to do with resistances). As a caster you do not see the "parry/dodge/miss" that melee sees, they are all covered by "resist" for spells.
Your aim is to minimise your chance to miss. To do this, we gather +Spell hit items or gems. The maximum chance to hit you can get with spells is 99% meaning that there will ALWAYS be a 1% chance to miss, nomatter how much hit you have. So we aim to gather 16% chance to hit from gear.
This 16% can be reduced using talents.
Arcane focus in the arcane tree reduces your hit cap with ARCANE SPELLS ONLY by 2% with each point, to a total of 10%. This means with arcane spells and 5/5 arcane focus, you should aim to have 6% increased hit chance from gear (if using arcane spells as your main source of dps)
Elemental Precision in the Frost tree increases your chance to hit with FROST AND FIRE SPELLS ONLY by 1% with each point, to a total of 3%. This means that with 3/3 elemental precision, you should aim to have 13% increased hit chance from gear (if using fire/frost spells as your main source dps).
The Math...
12.6 Spell hit rating is equal to 1% chance to hit with spells.
Therefore...
Base Spell hit Cap of 17% = 17 x 12.6 = 214.2 Spell Hit Rating Needed.
Remembering that the last 1% is something that we can not remove we get:
Effective Spell Hit Cap of 16% = 16 x 12.6 = 201.6 Spell hit rating needed (rounded up to 202).
For Arcane Spells Using 5/5 Arcane Focus:
16% - 10% = 6%
6 x 12.6 = 75.6
= 76 Spell Hit Rating rounded up (arcane spell hit cap)
For Frost and Fire spells using 3/3 Elemental Precision
16% - 3% = 13%
13 x 12.6 = 163.8
= 164 Spell Hit Rating rounded up (frost/fire spell hit cap)
* Arcane Focus only afects arcane spells while Elemental Precision only affects Frost and Fire Spells maxing both out will not lower your hitcap further than mentioned above.
** There is/was a bug with Elemental Precision that granted an extre 3% (as well as the standard 3%) chance to hit with frost spells. Meaning for frost:
16% - 6% = 10%
10 x 12.6 = 126
= 126 Spell hit Rating (Frost spells only if the bug still remains).
Other factors that may affect your hit..
Gear, Gems and Enchants are not the only sources of +hit (speaking from a raiding point of view). Elemental shamans with the 41 talent point totem, "Totem of Wrath" will grant anybody in its party 3% spell hit and crit, so beg your raid leader for an elemental shammy. Alliance also have the dranei aura. Some more maths to follow!
Base with wrath totem
16% - 3% = 13% (Wrath totem deduction)
13 x 12.6 = 163.8
= 164 Spell hit rating for base cap with wrath totem
Fire with 3/3 elemental precision and wrath totem
16% - 3% = 13% (Wrath totem deduction)
13% - 3% = 10% (Elemental Precision deduction)
10 x 12.6 = 126
= 126 Spell hit rating for cap with fire spells using wrath totem.
Frost with 3/3 elemental precision and wrath totem
16% - 3% = 13% (Wrath totem deduction)
13% - 6% = 7% (Elemental Precision deduction)
7 x 12.6 = 88.2
= 88 Spell hit rating for cap with frost spells using wrath totem
Arcane with 5/5 Arcane Focus
16% - 3% = 13% (Wrath totem deduction)
13% - 10% = 3% (Arcane Focus deduction)
3 x 12.6 = 37.8
= 38 Spell hit rating for cap with arcane spells using wrath totem.
Alliance being that bit luckier if that shaman is also a drenei whose racial gives his/her party 1% hit chance have the following caps:
Base: 201.6 - 12.6 = 189 = 189 Spell hit cap with dranei aura
Base: 163.8 - 12.6 = 151.2 = 151 Spell hit cap with wrath totem + dranei aura
Fire: 163.8 - 12.6 = 151.2 = 151 Spell hit cap with dranei aura
Fire: 126 - 12.6 = 113.4 = 113 Spell hit cap with wrath totem + dranei aura
Frost: 126 - 12.6 = 113.4 = 113 Spell hit cap with dranei aura
Frost: 88.2 - 12.6 = 75.6 = 76 Spell hit cap with wrath totem + dranei aura
Arcane: 75.6 - 12.6 = 63 = 63 Spell hit cap with dranei aura
Arcane: 37.8 - 12.6 = 25.2 = 25 Spell hit cap with wrath totem + dranei aura
The last bits of information can be quite useful for your gear selections. For example, if your raid leader does give you the shaman, your hit cap is lowered by 3%, therefore having the full hit cap for your spell type is a waste, you could drop 3% hit rating from gear and take some more damage or crit in its place.
