[Guide] Hit Rating & You

(This list was created by Zeisha, level 70 Night Elf hunter on the Suramar server. Date: 05/15/2007)

:: The Basics ::

Ranged physical damage uses a pretty different set of mitigations and, in some cases, lack thereof. Take a look at the difference between rogues and hunters for recommended Hit Rating, most rogues aim for 250 minimum! We don't get as much gear with HR on it that still directly improves our damage though, so things even out in the end. Here's how it works though:

:: 15.77 Hit Rating = 1% Hit (Most of the time you will see this as 15.8, but if you get a minor disparity, that 0.03 rating is why)
:: 1 Hit Rating = 0.063% Hit (Rounded down very slightly)
:: 79 Hit Rating = 5% Hit
:: 5% = Hit % needed to almost never miss same-level opponents.*
:: 142 Hit Rating** = 9.0% Hit
:: 95 Hit Rating + Sure Footed*** = 9.0% Hit
:: 9.0% = Max Hit % needed to "never miss"**** on Level 73 Boss Mobs. :: Weapon Skill - See Below (it's a little convoluted).

Also See - http://www.tkasomething.com/hitrating.php -- This HR guide has some more in depth info on weapon skill and some other explanations. Be sure and check it out.

* This gets altered in PvP because some opponents will have defense which changes that amount, but typically by a small amount.
** 142 HR is the currently “proven” standard for Hit % Cap.
*** Sure Footed is a 3 point ability in the survival tree that gives 1% to hit and 5% snare resist per point. Minimum 15 points in SV talents to get Sure Footed.
**** Never Miss is only on non-automatic misses, resisted shots, etc. Your standard shots will never miss the target, though they can be mitigated through specific effects.

So what does this mean for the "average" hunter?

It means that you need to know what you plan on doing. If you are going to be raiding, you really should aim for maxing out your Hit % as quickly as possible, because 1% Hit is a solid increase to overall DPS. Before counting crit (in regards to it's value to your overall damage) Hit's value is slightly over 1%, though including crit it is less than 1% since a hit is never a crit by Blizzard's calculation of hit/crit method.* If you only PvP, then you can get away with sticking to around 5%, which is much easier to do even in PvP specific gear.

* One Roll Method - The prevailing theory is that blizzard uses a one-roll system. What this means is the system "rolls randomly" one time to determine if the ability is a crit, miss, dodge, parry, block, etc... if it is one of those, then so be it. If it is not, then it is a regular hit. It's kind of hard to wrap your head around at first, but basically just think of it like this: Crits, Hits, and Misses are all mutually exclusive, and they have a "downward stacking priority" meaning that crit % takes over hit %, and hit % takes over miss %.

As a side note: Your pet will miss pretty often, and a lot of people see their pet miss via scrolling combat text and will think it's them missing.

That's really all there is to it as far as the basic ideas of hit and hit rating are concerned.

:: The Confusing Part ::

Diminishing returns... I hate, and at the same time love, that term. It really does cover a wide variety of problems with anything that is based on percentages. When you're dealing with probabilities, there is always a "curve" involved. One way or another, at some point, you simply stop getting as much out of gains as you were earlier on. That's how it works. Let's dive into the confusing part for a bit...

You start at a base of 5% to miss. This assumes same level, same skill to defense ratio (L70 is 350 to 350), and without any secondary modifiers. What affects this? Skill rating, Opposing Defense, Opposing Level, Hit Rating & Hit Percent, and secondary effects.

Skill Rating – Oh how things change, am I right? A ton of testing and research has been done in relation to the hit cap and how skill affects it. As of the latest revision of this guide, there is more information out there than I feel comfortable pouring into here, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

The first 5 Weapon Skill (Not skill RATING) count for 3% increase in hit!! 3%!!! This means that Trolls & Dwarves have 3% higher hit with Bows & Guns respectively. Awesome.

Skill Rating relates to Weapon Skill fairly simply: 3.9 Skill Rating = 1.0 Weapon Skill. In terms of actual game increases, basically figure every 4 Rating will give you +1 Skill. +5 Skill is the golden mark where you gain a monumental +3% hit.

Hit Rating & Hit Percent - This is how you counter act any miss percentage you've built up against your opponent. Currently all gear with hit gains use Hit Rating, and there is one Hunter talent that directly adds Hit Percent (Sure Footed, noted above). See the totals at the top for more information on the numbers for these two.

Secondary Effects - There are times where you're just not going to hit... when the opponent is immune, shielded, during certain boss "phases" and so on. But if you are maxed on hit rating/percentage and none of these are active, you won't miss.

Ok, so now that we have the concepts... lets get back to those nasty diminishing returns. Beware: If you hate math, just skip this. :P

Lets say you are starting at 92.4% and no crit. You gain 1% to hit. What you're actually gaining is (1.00 / 0.924 = 1.082%) 1.082% DPS. Now let's say you're at 93.4% and you gain another 1% to hit. (1.00 / 0.934 = 1.070%) 1.070% DPS gain! Oh noes!! But wait... here's the good part of this. While you do suffer some minor diminishing returns, you will always gain at least 1% dps gain from 1% more hit until you hit 100%, then of course you gain nothing. To figure your DPS gain after crit, simply subtract your crit damage differential multiplied by your crit % from the DPS gain.

E.G.: 1.082% DPS gain pre-crit from 92.4 to 93.4. You have 20% crit and have Mortal Shots.
1.3 * 0.2 = 0.26
1.082 - 0.26 = 0.822% DPS increase overall.

If you understood that from conception to inception, then you can do the rest of the math yourself, but the really big thing to take away from this is this: When you gain 9.0% hit, you are gaining a ton of dps as well. Less annoying “miss” notifications and more damage? Sign me up.

Does this mean you should always have max HR? It has to come down to comparative value... crit and hit are completely mutually exclusive with blizzard calculations, if you miss, it's a miss... it's not a miss that could have been a crit. If it was a crit, it will be a crit. Confusing, I know, but it's important to understand that SOMETIMES it really is better for you to take the extra damage stats then to take the extra Hit... but only if it's a considerable difference, in my opinion at least.

-----

Because some people asked me to...

Assumptions:
- Average Damage per Shot of 500.
- Firing 100 Shots against a same level opponent with no +/- hit. So 5% to miss base.
- Weapon Speed of 3.0.
- 0% Crit (Obviously Impossible, go with it for a second)

Fire 100 shots over 300 seconds (3.0 speed)...
95 * 500 = 47500
3.0 * 100 = 300 Seconds
47500 / 300 = 158.33^ DPS

Gain 1% hit and do the same...
96 * 500 = 48000 3.0 * 100 = 300 seconds
48000 / 300 = 160.00 DPS
-- Gain of 1.66 DPS. 1% of 158.33 ~ 1.583. 1.66 / 1.583 = 1.048% increase in non-crit damage.

Gain another 1% hit and do the same...
97 * 500 = 48500
3.0 * 100 = 300 seconds
48500 / 500 = 161.66^ DPS -- Gain of 1.66 DPS.
1% of 160.00 ~ 1.600. 1.66 / 1.60 = 1.038% increase in non-crit damage.

This is how you start to understand the relationship of Diminishing Returns to % based valuation, but how Actual Value calculations have no diminishing returns. Your DPS went up 1.66 both times, but the relative % increase got smaller. I hate to confuse some of you, but this was requested.

Now let's add in 20% crit rate, and assume 5/5 mortal shots, and do the exact same thing...
75 * 500 = 37500
20 * 1150 = 23000
3.0 * 100 = 300 seconds
(37500 + 23000) / 300 = 201.66 DPS


Now gain 1% hit...
76* 500 = 38000
20 * 1150 = 23000
3.0 * 100 = 300 seconds
(38000 + 23000) / 300 = 203.33 DPS. Increase of 1.66 DPS (notice a pattern here :P).

1% of 201.66 ~ 2.02
1.66 / 2.02 = 0.821% increase in OVERALL dps.

Hopefully that clears some things up that people had asked me for (not just on the forums).