Spell hit Spell hit is a combat attribute that increases a caster ' s chance to hit with spell s . 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 are shown 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 . Prior to Patch 3 . 0 , Hit Rating only increased your chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks ; a separate stat , called Spell Hit Rating , increased your chance to hit with spells . 3 . 0 unified both ratings together , and now Hit Rating increases your chance to hit with both spells " and " melee / ranged attacks . Besides hit rating , a caster can increase chance to hit with talents , depending on class . Calculation . 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 . 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 can amount to more than 1 % additional damage statistically . This is due to mobs being able to partially resist your spells when you are bellow hit cap in addition to your miss rate . 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 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 . " With Patch 4 . 0 . 1 , many of these talents were changed or removed . This sections needs to be reviewed and updated . " 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 . The base miss chance versus any player target of the same level is 4 % , however certain races have an increased 2 % chance to be missed by certain spell schools ( nature for Taurens / Night Elves , shadow for Draenei / Undead , arcane for Gnomes , frost for dwarves , and ALL spells for Blood Elves ) . For this reason , max hit can range from 4 % - 6 % depending on what spells you intend to use . 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 , which CANNOT be mitigated by additional chance to hit . 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 these spells ' extra chance to miss , but is typically unnecessary . 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 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 . 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 % 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 : 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 : 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 . 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 ) . However , many boss fights involve killing level 82 and below adds . An example is the Dreamwalker fight in ICC . It can be argued that a 446 hit rating against level 82 mobs is not an efficient allocation of stats . " 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 . " " Note : For casters doing heroics exclusively and not planning on raiding , you may use the 82 column instead , as that is the highest level of mobs found in heroics ( i . e . , bosses ) . 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 are currently in the above table , thus enabling you to swap 1 % hit rating from your gear for more useful stats . However , be aware that the draenei must be in your party ( the aura is not raid - wide ) , and if you ever find yourself in a group that does not contain a draenei , you will no longer be hit capped if you have used the aura in your hit calculations for gear , gems , enchants , etc . The inspiring aura buff does not stack , of course .