Why Hit is a "sexy stat"
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 13th 2009 at 1:00PM
This post on Gray Matter has some pretty insightful thoughts about the much-maligned Hit stat. We've posted quite a few times about Hit with the various classes, and yet it's still fairly hard to get a handle on -- most people know their class has a "hit cap" that they have to reach to keep any of their swings or shots from missing, but other than that, they haven't really tangled with the stat much the way they might have some of the more core stats for their class. But Grey Matter argues that "Hit is sexy" -- despite the fact that, unlike other stats, Hit is required just to make your class do the right thing (rather than doing it better), Graylo still likes the idea, and actually likes the balance that Hit requires. No matter what ilvl your gear, you still need a certain amount of Hit on it, and the balancing job of keeping your hit cap met versus providing other stats on your gear is what Gray seems to like about Hit. While other stats just go up and up, Hit is the great limiter -- having more of it frees up space on other gear for more pressing stats, but you still have to balance out the pieces you wear to try and meet the cap.To that extent, I agree. I do think that Hit is a relatively arbitrary stat (we know what it means in real life to be Stronger or have more Intelligence, but Hit is really just designed to keep game levels in line), but on the other hand, Gray's right -- because you need a certain amount of hit in your gear, it does become an interesting balancing game of "do I need this more powerful piece of gear, or this weaker piece of gear with some extra Hit on it?" It does a nice job of mixing things up as an endgame-balancing mechanic.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Classes, Buffs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Rob Aug 13th 2009 1:09PM
My main is a hunter, and gearing for hit is frustrating because like you said, should I take the stronger armor, or the lesser to keep my hit capped... I went through this whole debacle a few times on my hunter.
Then, I roll a melee class... Hit is still there, but now I need to cap another stat called expertise? Expertise decreases the chance that my attacks will be parried or blocked, or something like that... Why is this not under the same stat as hit? And why do I need to technically gear for these two stats at the same time... To me, having my attacks blocked or parried would be considered me missing, just as if I were to miss completely.
And, this is just for semantics here, but why do we need hit capping for bosses? The bosses are HUGE, its not like you have a whole love of room to miss something that large, seriously, yoiu would have to try to miss a boss that big.
Roflpanda Aug 13th 2009 1:41PM
The reason is, even though we have epic battles with these bosses, you're supposed to imagine it's even more epic. No joke.
Take pvp for example. When fighting a rogue as a melee class, you'll see a flurry of parries and dodges on your combat log... but you won't really see him doing anything on his character. That's because the game just isn't designed enough and the engine isn't powerful enough to show the epic battles going on JUST WHILE YOU AUTOATTACK.
So when you are fighting a rogue as a rogue, it is like this epic ninja fight (parry, miss, CRIT TO THE FACE, parry, dodge), you just only see it in the combat log.
Bosses are the same way. They're SO POWERFUL they can actually dodge the attacks from 25 friggen people.
Drow Aug 13th 2009 1:42PM
My main is a hunter. Getting hit capped is quite possibly the easiest thing in the game to do. I am in fact over hit capped by a few, and it's all from gear, all ilvl 226+. Not a single enchant or gem or even gear set bonus has hit on it.
Clbull Aug 13th 2009 1:47PM
Actually, as far as Expertise goes, you only need to hit the soft cap as a DPS, as you'll usually be attacking behind the target.
As for the hard cap, that should be reached for tanks, as a parry can cause parry haste on most bosses, making the next attack around 20% quicker.
devilsei Aug 13th 2009 2:25PM
What I hate, is that at their cores, Hit and Expertise are the same bloody thing. Both help you hit the boss instead of anything else. They are a waste of stats in this condition. Blizzard should just unify the two stats. The "hit cap" we have now will still remain, but any hit after that should essentially do what expertise does.
Gimmlette Aug 13th 2009 4:01PM
"My main is a hunter, and gearing for hit is frustrating because like you said, should I take the stronger armor, or the lesser to keep my hit capped... I went through this whole debacle a few times on my hunter."
^this. I make no bones about the fact that I don't completely understand what the various stats do for me. So something will drop and I honestly have no idea if it's an upgrade or just an addition to my "mammoth fund". RatingBuster helps, but I still get confused.
My goal is to, with gems, armor and enchants, be as close to the hit cap as possible. I'll settle for a few points over or a few points under. When people ask why, I point out that being at the hit cap means I don't miss, ever, except for what's built into the game. If you hit every time you can, your crit potential goes up. More hits = more crits.
Right now, I'm carrying around the best head enchant in my bags because I'm going to lose 16 HR than I can't make up with gems or enchants. As my HR isn't currently capped with armor and I have to use either and Elixir of Accuracy or Snapper Extreme to hit the cap, I can't justify losing the HR for more AP and Crit.
What I wish, when I look at wow-heroes and be-imba and warcrafter, that there was a way to plug into their database things like "I want to be hit capped" or "I want maximum Crit" or "I want maximum dodge". We don't all play the same yet it feels like the same algorithm is used for me as for my MM/SV colleagues who have different ideas of what they want capped.
Rob Aug 13th 2009 6:03PM
As hunters, grab what gear you can, and be prepeared to swap enchants and gems when you need to be hitcapped. You will do this throughout your raiding career. Also use Pawn which gives an easy rating. However if the gear you are rolling on has a higher ilvl than what you got, its a good bet its an upgrade, but you may have to swap things around to get back to hit cap.
Dzur Aug 14th 2009 12:36PM
As a feral druid with a fairly low hit cap, (263) I find it hard to keep hit OFF of my gear. Every stinking piece i see inlcuding bis rings and trinkets has freaking hit on it. I know that's great for rogues, but itemizing around all that hit pisses me right off. Also, Hit is far from the best stat for a lot of classes. Do you need hit? Yes. Do you need it more that SP, STR, AGI, ARP, AP? for most pure dps specs the answer is no. Hit harder > Hit slightly more often.
Texicles Aug 14th 2009 3:12PM
Hunter main here. Part of the joy of gear progression is that, as you get higher ilvl gear, you find single pieces with more and more hit (which I agree is a great mini-game to balance) so you go from needing +hit on almost every piece of gear down to 3 or 4 pieces with +hit and maybe an enchant or gem or two.
As to expertise vs hit, and their value as stats, you have to think of an MMO like WoW as sort of an automated RPG insofar as all of the "rolling" in combat is handled by the game engine. The game's fight mechanics are carefully designed to draw from pen-and-paper RPG mechanics which are designed to mimic "real life" combat.
Hit can be equated to an extension of weapon skill. The skill cap represents an average degree of proficiency with a weapon and +hit represents a heightened ability not to miss with that weapon. As nothing can happen to a target if you miss, the hit/no hit "roll" happens first, making hit the most valuable stat point for point until you're hit capped.
Expertise represents a degree of skill in melee combat; fancy footwork and the like. When the lvl83 booger-eater you're trying to perforate starts dancing around, can you dance with him and keep from being dodged or blocked (or parried as a tank)? On that note, parries serve as an important mechanic in tanking because it allows for your tank to take a double-hit and, if he's not geared enough or the healers aren't on the ball, he can get gibbed.
As for understanding more about how all of these stats impact you as a hunter, check out the forums at Elitist Jerks, use Shandara's spreadsheet or the web version at femaledwarf.com. THEN get Pawn and use the string that you get from femaledwarf to get pawn to accurately represent the values of stats based on what you have/need and give you a rough estimate of the value of different items.
JS Aug 13th 2009 1:14PM
Hit is a waste of space on gear. Healers don't have to have "hit" number and therefore are able to take the best of the best gear. The itemization process involving hit is just an additional complication for new players to try to figure out. It requires DPS and tanks to keep items in their inventory that are lower ilvl just in case they find another piece of gear that is an upgrade for a different slot. Do away with hit, it will free up bag space and make itemization less complicated.
It is kinda like saying, I'm glad my bank charges interest on my loan... It would always be better if they didn't.
t0xic Aug 13th 2009 1:34PM
"Healers don't have to have "hit" number and therefore are able to take the best of the best gear."
You can stack +int, but if your replen (+spi/+mp5) is 0 you will run out of mana. If you are a tank stacking avoidance (dodge/parry) and don't have any +stam you will run into trouble. If you are a melee dps stacking +str or +ap and no +hit you will have problems.
Healers have to make choices like everyone else.
JS Aug 13th 2009 1:38PM
Ummm, nobody said you didn't have to have stat priority. Everyone does... Healers don't have a restricting stat that forces them to carry excessive gear "just-in-case". That is the point of the comment. Read and comprehend before you comment.
Eternauta Aug 13th 2009 1:45PM
I approve this message.
t0xic Aug 13th 2009 1:46PM
No one is forcing you to carry extra gear "just in case". That's something you came up with on your own. My reading comprehension is fine.
t0xic Aug 13th 2009 1:50PM
I actually don't take issue with your post. I don't like hit that much either. The remark about reading comprehension was unnecessary, however.
I understand your point. My healing toon is a pally, and he's carrying extra gear for various fights that require him to tank.
Truce.
melvv Aug 13th 2009 1:54PM
JS-
No offense but as a healer I'm pretty aggravated by your take on hit and how it helps healers take the best gear. You have no idea how many times a healer would kill to roll on a piece of gear but can't because it has hit. This happens just as often as other casters would kill for a piece of gear but it has mp5 on it. Then there's your kind of gear, the homogeneous gear that has SP, haste, and crit (which healers often are restricted from rolling on because of the perception that if it doesn't have mp5, it's not healing gear).
There's a huge portion of the wow population that is sickened each time Blizz homogenizes classes and gear. Everything seems to be fueled by the desire by some players to make all classes essentially the same, use all the same gear and stats and have equal abilities. Every time this discussion comes up, God kills a kitten.
JS Aug 13th 2009 1:56PM
"I understand your point. My healing toon is a pally, and he's carrying extra gear for various fights that require him to tank." ??!?!?!? What, that has nothing to do with my post. You chose to duel spec. Nobody forces you to do both specs to excel at your role. Hit cap is a force that limits... Ugh, no hope here.
Un-truce.
Rob Aug 13th 2009 2:00PM
Actually, hit is useful for healers from what I understand... Not as useful as say, spell power, but still useful... Any spell that you apply to the boss has a chance to miss, so if you are trying to debuff a boss or put a judgement on him, if you dont have the appropriate hit level you have a chance to miss...
In fact, I would think hit for healers is a lot more important than some might think... If I miss on a judgement I am fucked. If your debuff misses, everyone is fucked. Hit is important for healers, it just gets swepped under the rug because they are not constantly fovusing on the boss, only in small parts and possibly not all healers will do anything to the boss... Cause I dont know how shamans roll :P
i not vewy smat Aug 13th 2009 2:01PM
"Ummm, nobody said you didn't have to have stat priority. Everyone does... Healers don't have a restricting stat that forces them to carry excessive gear "just-in-case". That is the point of the comment. Read and comprehend before you comment."
We don't have an explicitly restricting stat, but we do tend to carry extra gear "just-in-case." Most raid healers will carry around regen gear for mana-intensive fights, and non-regen gear for fights where mana has less or no importance. It's not the same as hit, but it is still something that makes us carry around extra gear.
JS Aug 13th 2009 2:03PM
@Melvv
My word, apparently I need to work on my clarity because people are misconstruing my comment. I didn't say that healers take better gear. I meant, to healers, higher ilvl = an upgrade 99% of the time. Which means they are not prohibited from wearing a higher ilvl piece due solely to a restrictive stat.
I have no desire to homogenize classes nor did my comment have any resemblance to that comment.