Cap Cap , soft cap , or capture can refer to several different things depending on the context . PvP . Relative to battleground s or world PvP , " cap " may be short for " capture , " the capturing of an objective or object , such as a graveyard , flag , or tower . Many of these objectives require being physically held , such as a flag , or maintained dominance , in the case of a tower . Can also be used to mean killing a flag carrier . Level . " Cap " may also refer to the level cap , or the highest level that can be currently obtained . During the release of World of Warcraft , the level cap was 60 . The level cap has been raised for each successive expansion . In The Burning Crusade it was increased to 70 , and in Wrath of the Lich King it was further increased to 80 . Stats . Finally , " cap " or sometimes " soft cap " may be used when referring to gear itemization . For example , players theorycraft about the hit cap , the expertise cap , the dodge cap , the spell penetration cap , and others . A " hard cap " is a point beyond which a stat becomes useless . For example , 1400 armor penetration rating bypasses 100 % of all armor , so more rating has no effect . A spellcaster with 17 % increased chance to hit will never miss a boss , so this is the hard cap for hit rating for casters . A " soft cap " is either the point at which a stat stops providing a particular benefit but continues to provide others , or the point beyond which a temporarily active buff will push the stat over a hard cap . For an example of the first , a defense rating of 689 is sufficient to eliminate the chance of a boss getting a critical hit against you , so further defense will not have any effect on your chance to be critically hit , but will still increase your chance to parry , dodge , block and be missed by attacks . For an example of the second , a character with a Needle - Encrusted Scorpion will occasionally get 678 bonus armor penetration rating . If the character has 732 base rating , this will be sufficient to temporarily reach the hard cap of 1400 noted above . Further base rating will cause some of the Scorpion ' s bonus to be wasted . However , the additional rating will still provide a benefit when the Scorpion ' s proc is not active . Soft and Hard Caps at Level 80 . The following is an overview of some of the rating caps at level 80 . It should be noted that caps are often augmented by extraneous factors , such as buffs , talents , or racial abilities . One should therefore consult the main articles for an overview on what the cap may be in any given raid or PvP situation . Armor Penetration . The armor penetration hard cap against a raid boss is 1400 , which will remove 99 . 99 % armor . Block cap . Block cap refers to when a warrior or paladin tank has enough combined miss , dodge , parry , and block chance to push regular hits off the attack table , meaning that all suffered attacks will either be missed , dodged , parried , or blocked . In The Burning Crusade , this was a vital mechanic for tanks in order to remove crushing blows . In Wrath of the Lich King , raid bosses no longer perform crushing blows , but removing regular hits entirely may still be sought after by tanks . The block cap against a raid boss is 102 . 4 % , meaning a tank must have a combined 102 . 4 % chance to dodge , parry , block or be missed to push regular hits off the attack table . Critical Strike . The crit cap against a raid boss depends on the amount of hit and expertise rating a player has , because higher hit and expertise lessens the chance of an attack missing , or being parried or dodged , thus opening up more room for the attack being a critical strike . Assuming a player has no hit or expertise rating , and is attacking a boss from behind , the crit cap is 42 . 5 % for dual - wield attacks and 61 . 5 % for single - wield attacks . As a player obtains more hit and expertise rating , the cap number increases , but it may never exceed 71 % , as there will always be a 24 % chance of a glancing blow , and a 5 % chance of a crit suppression . Special attacks may not produce glancing blows , and will as such have an even higher crit cap . Defense . The soft defense cap for being uncritable against a raid boss is 540 defense skill , which requires 689 defense rating for a warrior or paladin which is at 400 defense skill with no gear bonuses . Death Knights may attach runes to their weapons which give them defense skill , lowering the required number of defense rating for a Death Knight to reach the soft cap . Uncritability may also be achieved through 5 . 6 % resilience , which requries a resilience rating of 460 . Additionally , resilience and defense may be combined to achieve uncritability . Note that defense rating , unlike many other ratings , does not become useless once the cap has been reached , as defense rating will always increase the chance of a block , parry , dodge , or miss . Expertise . The soft expertise cap against a raid boss is 26 , which is obtained through 214 expertise rating . For heroics and other 5 - man instance , this number is lower . The cap number may also be augmented by talents , glyphs ( for paladins ) , and / or orcish , dwarven , or human racial bonuses . For melee dps , the soft cap should be enough , assuming they are attacking the raid boss from behind . Generally only tanks need to worry about the hard cap , which will make them unparriable . The hard expertise cap against a raid boss is 56 , which is obtained through 460 expertise rating . Physical Hit . The hard hit cap against a raid boss for all single - wield attacks , ranged attacks , and special dual - wield attacks is 263 . The hard hit cap for a dual - wield auto - attack is 886 . For heroics and other 5 - man instances , this number is lower . The cap number may also be augmented by talents and / or the presence of a Draenei in the raid . Resilience . The current resilience soft cap in PvP is 1415 , which will reduce damage from a critical strike by 33 % . Exceeding this number is not wasted , however , as higher resilience will reduce the chance of being critically hit . Spell Hit . The hard hit cap against a raid boss for all spells is 446 . For heroics and other 5 - man instances , this number is lower . The cap number may also be augented by talents , debuffs on the target , and / or the presence of a Draenei in the raid .