Weapon skill Weapon skill represents your proficiency with a particular weapon . The basic formula for your maximum weapon skill at a particular level is ( 5 * level ) . Each attack which is not evaded has a chance to increase weapon skill , with low weapon skill , the skill gain rate is at or near 100 % , however the skill gain change begins to sharply decrease once the weapon skill cap is approached . At 10 % away from the cap , the skill gain chance is roughly 50 % , and gaining the final skill point can take hundreds of swings . The chance per swing seems to be unrelated to weapon speed , making low spead weapons better . Instant attacks like Sinister Strike and Hamstring help to increase your weapon skill faster . Note that attacking Evading enemies will not increase your weapon skill . It has been confirmed that intellect increases the rate at which weapon skills are learned . Before Patch 2 . 0 , this was listed in the tooltip but was removed shortly after that . If you want to level a weapon skill , try asking for an intellect buff or using a scroll which can help the process . Similarly , equip any gear you have that has an Intellect bonus on it — if you ' re a paladin , put on your Holy gear and cast Blessing of Kings ; if you ' re a shaman , put on your Elemental or Restoration gear . In Patch 2 . 3 , stats on melee weapons which granted an increase to weapon skill were replaced by an increase to expertise rating . Items which granted ranged weapon skill increases instead now grant increases to hit or critical strike rating . In " Cataclysm " weapon skill is removed as all weapon proficiencies available to the classes are learned from the start at full skill . Effects of weapon skill . Player attacking a mob . If your weapon skill is LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO the mob ' s Defense skill ( the mob ' s level * 5 ) . Applying these formulae gives the following base miss rate for a Level 80 character with a 400 Weapon Skill : At level 80 , 32 . 79 hit rating reduces your chance to miss by 1 % . Thus if you are a Level 80 character with a Weapon Skill of 400 , you need a Hit Rating of 263 ( 8 . 00 % ) to never miss a shot against a Level 83 boss ( or skull mob ) with a special attack or single - wield auto - attack . What this means is that there is a big + hit benefit to keeping your Weapon Skill within 10 levels of the mobs you are trying to fight . For example , by improving your Weapon Skill from 390 to 395 , you effectively reduce your chance to miss against Level 81 mobs by 3 % ! However , after getting to 395 , increasing your Weapon Skill the next 5 levels , to 400 , only reduces your chance to miss by an additional 0 . 5 % ( or 3 . 5 % in total ) . Prior to 3 . 0 , the base miss chance when your target ' s defense was 11 + points higher than your weapon skill was 1 % higher . Back then , there was a huge jump in miss rate reduction by going from , say , 349 to 350 Weapon Skill . This was the point where you switched from one formula to the other , and so this particular single point of Weapon Skill was worth a dramatic + 1 . 4 % hit against a Level 73 mob / boss . If your weapon skill EXCEEDS the mob ' s Defense skill , i . e . if the mob is lower level than you are . I . e . , for each point that your weapon skill exceeds your opponent ' s defense , your chance to miss , be dodged , be parried , and be blocked decreases by 0 . 04 % , and your chance to crit increases by 0 . 04 % . Effectively , you can consider weapon skill to be the inverse of the defense skill . Glancing Blows . Against mob s with defense roughly equal to or higher than your Attack Rating ( i . e . your weapon skill ) , you will have a chance to land a glancing blow instead of a normal hit . A glancing blow only occurs on white melee damage , cannot crit , and does less damage than a normal blow . If the attacker ' s weapon skill is " less " than his level * 5 , the damage reduction will be proportional to the difference between the attacker ' s weapon skill and the target ' s defense . Back before patch 2 . 0 , when Weapon Skill could be raised " above " your level * 5 from gear or racial bonuses , the damage reduction when a glancing blow occurred was reduced somewhat for each point of additional Weapon Skill . This is no longer the case . Mob attacking a Player . If a mob ' s weapon skill ( its level * 5 ) is EQUAL TO your defense , and you have no gear or talents that increase any of your defensive Ratings : For each point that the mob ' s weapon skill ( its level * 5 ) exceeds your defense , it gains the following : For each point that the mob ' s weapon skill ( its level * 5 ) is less than your defense : Crushing Blows . If a mob ' s weapon skill ( its level * 5 ) is at least 20 points higher than the target ' s level - capped defense ( the target ' s Defense skill capped at its level * 5 ) , there is a chance the target will receive a Crushing Blow . Dazed . If a mob hits a target from behind , and the target takes damage from the hit that isn ' t Absorb ed , there is a chance the player will be Dazed . The base chance for a level 30 + target to be dazed when hit from behind , if the mob ' s weapon skill is equal to the target ' s defense skill , is " 20 % " . This chance can get as low as 0 % if the target ' s defense is high enough , or as high as 40 % if the target ' s defense is low enough . If the target is below level 30 , it ' s base chance to be dazed is less ; a level 10 target with fully trained defense skill only has a 7 % chance to be dazed when attacked from behind by a level 10 mob . Note that your defense skill is NOT level - capped for purposes of determining your chance to be dazed . It is possible to become undazeable while wearing tank plate gear . Player attacking a Player . Weapon skills are maxed in PvP combat . This means leveling a weapon skill for pvp is unimportant ; when attacking an enemy player , your Weapon Skill will always be considered to be your level * 5 , and your target ' s Defense will always be treated as his level * 5 ( before any Defense Rating from your target ' s gear is added in ) . Weapon skill does not affect your chance to hit other players in the battlegrounds or in the arena , but it still affects your hit chance against enemy players in world PvP or duels . Increasing your weapon skill ( at level 70 + ) . A good place to increase ranged DPS for higher level characters is Plague Sprayer in Zul ' Drak . They are level 80 Elites that fly above Kolramas . They have a high amount of health and the only attack they have is a plague beam that shoots straight down . The Primordial Drake Egg s in Sholazar Basin also work well for this ; they are high 70 ' s , and do not attack back . For ranged DPS ( bows / guns ) - Dr . Boom used to be an excellent choice - just bring enough ammo , and attack at will . Hunters had the best options with him due to auto - shoot . This no longer works as of 3 . 2 . Likewise , the unkillable Servants in the Blasted Lands no longer skill you up when they are in their unkillable state . Vendors in Dalaran sell white , low DPS weapons with extremely low attack speeds , making them great options for levelling weapon skill . If you have a relatively good health pool , you can skill up from the waves of creates inside the Violet Hold : Historical effects of weapon skill . The effect of weapon skill has changed several times over the game ' s history . Prior to patch 2 . 0 , some items granted extra Weapon Skill directly , making it possible to have a weapon skill in excess of your level * 5 . Back then , the formula shown above for your weapon skill exceeding your opponent ' s defense also applied in the reverse situation , i . e . when your weapon skill was less than your opponent ' s defense . After the Burning Crusade went live , but prior to patch 2 . 1 , CM Crezax made a post on the EU forums outlining the effect of weapon skill on higher - level mobs . Note that this refers only to monsters 3 levels higher than the player in PVE ( i . e . boss level mobs ) . Corresponding numbers for 1 and 2 levels higher than the player are not known , but are likely lower . These numbers given by the CM were questionable , and were rightly taken with a grain of salt . Additionally , the Patch 2 . 0 . 1 notes said : Presumably this was only for Weapon Skill over your level ' s natural cap ( Level * 5 ) , a state of affairs which no longer exists as of patch 2 . 3 . It was not known if you also got the additional 0 . 04 % crit chance per additional + skill . Since items with Weapon Skill or Weapon Skill Rating used to reduce your chance to miss , to be dodged , to be parried , and to be blocked , they could increase your " crit cap " as described in the Critical strike article . Historical : Increasing your weapon skill beyond ( level * 5 ) . Itemization . Prior to patch 2 . 3 , a few items in the game granted the wielder Weapon Skill Rating . Even then , though , itemization for + weapon skill was spotty . 2 . 0 . 1 Skill Rating conversion . Prior to patch 2 . 0 , instead of Weapon Skill Rating , items granted their wielder Weapon Skill directly ; e . g . a mace might say " Increases your skill with maces by 5 . " Under the new combat rating system introduced in 2 . 0 . 1 , those items now all had a Weapon Skill Rating bonus instead . It took 2 . 5 points of Weapon Skill Rating at level 60 , and 3 . 9 points of Weapon Skill Rating at level 70 , to increase your actual Weapon Skill by 1 . In applying the miss rate formulae listed in the " Chance to Miss " section above , fractional Weapon Skill levels were dropped , not rounded . So , say you had are a Level 70 character , and you equipped a piece of gear that gave + 15 Mace Skill Rating . In theory , this equated to 3 . 8 + Weapon Skill . And , in theory , Blizzard could have used the fractional . 8 in its subsequent calculations of hit and miss , or , perhaps , rounded it to 4 . 0 . But it didn ’ t work that way . Instead , the fractional . 8 Weapon Skill was simply dropped altogether . You got 353 Weapon Skill for purposes of all hit and miss calculations . Another interesting point was that if you are able to stack your Weapon Skill " above " 365 at level 70 , you ' d find that each additional point of Weapon Skill above 365 continues to decrease your chance to miss by . 1 % per Weapon Skill level . So if your Weapon Skill was 366 , your chance to miss was 4 . 9 % , if 367 , 4 . 8 % , etc . Pre - 2 . 3 Talents . Rogue s : Warrior s : Paladin s :