Spell hit

Spell Hit Quick Facts

Spell hit increases the chance spells will hit Base chance to hit is based on level difference 96% chance to hit an even level target 83% chance to hit mobs 3 levels higher 87% chance to hit players 3 levels higher Chance to hit caps at 100% 26.23 hit rating per 1% spell hit at level 80 446 hit rating (17%) needed to hit the 100% cap against raid bosses 12.62 hit rating per 1% spell hit at level 70 215 hit rating (17%) needed to hit the 100% cap against raid bosses 8.00 hit rating per 1% spell hit at level 60 136 hit rating (17%) needed to hit the 100% cap against raid bosses Useful for PvE spell casters, especially in raids Very useful for PvP spell casters, albeit in smaller quantity. Irrelevant for PvE Healers and of limited use for PvP Healers

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 spell hit chance is calculated

The spell hit mechanic has been confirmed by Blizzard CM Eyonix. Base chance to hit is based on level difference between caster and target, starting at 96% for equal 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	+ 2% per point, 4% 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 is 83 (level 80 content). For casters doing heroics exclusively and not planning on raiding, use the 82 column, as that is the highest level of mobs found in heroics (i.e, bosses).

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.

Bonus % Hit	Hit rating needed at 80 (per target lvl.)				Notes
	80	81	82	83
0%	105	132	158	446	No talent bonuses or buffs
1%	79	105	132	420	Draenei [Heroic Presence]
2%	53	79	105	394
3%	27	53	79	368	Death Knight class with [Virulence] Mage class with Precision; arcane mages with [Arcane Focus] Priest class: Shadow-spec with [Shadow Focus] Shaman class with Elemental Precision Warlock class with [Suppression]
4%	0	27	53	342	Druids with [Balance of Power] Draenei death knight class with [Virulence] Draenei mage class with [Heroic Presence] and Precision; arcane-spec with [Heroic Presence] and [Arcane Focus] Draenei priest class: shadow-spec with [Shadow Focus] or Misery, and [Heroic Presence] Draenei shaman class with Elemental Precision and [Heroic Presence] Warlock class with [Suppression] and [Heroic Presence]
5%	0	0	27	315	Balance druids with [Balance of Power] and [Heroic Presence]
6%	0	0	0	289	Priest class: Shadow-spec with [Shadow Focus] and Misery Mage class: Arcane-spec with [Arcane Focus] and Precision Warlock class with [Suppression] and [Improved Faerie Fire]/Misery
7%	0	0	0	263	Druid class: Balance-spec with [Balance of Power] and [Improved Faerie Fire] Draenei mage class: Arcane-spec with [Arcane Focus], [Heroic Presence] and Precision Draenei priest class: Shadow-spec with [Shadow Focus], Misery and [Heroic Presence] Draenei shaman class with Elemental Precision, [Improved Faerie Fire]/Misery and [Heroic Presence] Warlock class with [Suppression], [Improved Faerie Fire]/Misery and [Heroic Presence]
8%	0	0	0	237	Balance druids with [Balance of Power], [Improved Faerie Fire] and [Heroic Presence]
9%	0	0	0	210	Arcane mage with [Arcane Focus], [Improved Faerie Fire]/Misery and Precision
10%	0	0	0	184	Draenei Arcane mage with [Arcane Focus], [Heroic Presence], [Improved Faerie Fire]/Misery and Precision

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
• How to improve your spell hit rating