"YOU CAN'T CRIT WHAT YOU CAN'T HIT" (READ FOR UNDERSTANDING)
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****THIS IS FOR WHITE DAMAGE ONLY****
This image explains it all:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6395/hittablepc6.jpg
Basically the one roll system works as follows:
You have 100% to work with.
Mob's Dodge/Block/Parry is subtracted (only Dodge if attacking from behind)
Miss is subtracted.
Glancing is subtracted.
What you have left is the pie slice of the original 100% that can be a crit or a hit. Your crit gets subtracted next.
If you have more crit than the % of the pie left, your crit will only be as big as that pie slice.
If you have less crit than the % of the pie left, then the remainder of the pie is hits.
The reasoning for this is that hit does not give you hits persay, it actually subtracts misses. Hits are just whatever is left.
Example:
Max hit, 35% crit
5.6% dodge
40% glance
35% crit
19.4% hit
Therefore under the current system, with max hit your crit cap is 54.40% on white attacks. If the data that shows glances as 24% on PTR is correct the effective crit cap on white attacks would be 70.40% with max hit.
So, the statement that you can not crit what you can not hit is not true, but under special circumstances like heavy heavy crit stacking and 0% hit you will actually not be at your theoretic crit rate. This is because you do not have the hit to negate enough misses to make your stacked crit fully valuable.
However, with hit gear these days reaching the crit cap is virtually impossible unless you stack your gear specifically for that purpose in which case your damage is going to suck anyways.
Glancing Blows
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Key Things to remember :
- Glancing blows ONLY occur on White damage
- Glancing Blows CANNOT Crit
- Glancing Blows only occur on a mob that is above the level of X player, and are calculated by the formula (10% + (Boss Defense - Player Weapon skill x2%))
- A Bosses defense is calculated by the formula (Boss level *5)
- Thus, given the formulas, you can easily plug in the numbers for a level 73 Mob ( Your typical boss ) (10% + (365 - 350 x2%)) = 10% + (15*2%) = 40%
- Glancing Blows only do 70% of your normal damage
- The Formula for Glancing Blow Damage Reduction is as follows (Boss Level - Player Level x 10%)
Thus, on a level 70 mob the formula would be ( (73-70) x10% ) = 30%
- Glancing Blows reduce damage based on the proportion to the difference between the attackers weapon skill, and target defense skill (capped at attacker level *5 ) meaning Weapon Expertise or any additional weapon skill does not affect Glancing Blows) in easier terms, there is no way around glancing blows.
- Next Patch (2.1), the chance to land a glancing blow has been significantly reduced, the % has not yet been discovered to my knowledge.
IMPORTANT - Glancing blow % is fixed at 40%, as of 2.0.1 there is NO way to reduce the chance of a glancing blow, thus.. You must be careful when deciding how much Crit you have. Glancing blows take Precedence over Critical Strikes on the Attack table, thus, too much crit can push crit off the table, resulting in a crit cap where adding more crit would be pointless, adding hit % Reduces the miss %, thus giving miss less rolls and opening up space for more Crit.
(MYRX) It is important to know that there is no longer anything you can do about glancing blows, but it is very beneficial to understand them and how they are prioritized on the attack table. Also note that glancing blows have been changed on the Public Test Realm and when that data is available and reliable we can update this segment.
HIT RATING VS. CRIT RATING (by Taughror)
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It is often asked which stat is superior, hit rating vs. crit rating? The common misconception is that hit rating becomes less valuable than crit rating once you have a 0% chance to miss with your special attacks. This however is not the case. Hit rating is infact more valuable than crit rating until you reach 0% chance to miss with white attacks. There are several reasons for this:
15.77 hit rating = 1% hit while 22.1 crit rating = 1% crit. Therefor 1 hit rating = 1/15.77 = 0.063% chance to hit and 1 crit rating = 1/22.1 = 0.045% chance to crit. 0.063/0.045 = 1.4 meaning hit rating increases your chance to hit 40% faster than crit rating increases your chance to crit.
Increasing your chance to hit increases your chance to proc weapon buffs such as poisons and windfury.
Increasing your chance to hit increases your chance to proc weapon enchants such as mongoose, crusader, fiery weapon, or lifestealing.
Increasing your chance to hit increases your chance to proc weapon abilities such as the armor piercing buff on The Night Blade.
Increasing your chance to hit increases your chance to proc effects from other items such as Dragonspine Trophy or Romeo's Poison Vial.
If you are combat spec, increasing your chance to hit also increases your chance to proc combat potency.
The combination of being 40% more efficient and increasing various procs from a large number of possible sources is why hit rating will in almost all cases provide a greater increase in DPS than crit rating. The only advantage of crit rating is that it affects both special attacks and white attacks. This however is not a sufficient advantage to overcome the benefits provided by hit rating.
(MYRX) In my opinion take in to account the various different options for gear in a particular slot. Don't sacrifice i-lvl much to stack hit. however, I personally am gearing my hit out first (293 on PTR) then I will work on increasing my AP. Hit rating is cheap so having a lot of it isn't an issue. However, the easiest way to stack hit without sacrificing stats is by socketing Glinting Noble Topaz in to your red and yellow slots. I have 7 in my gear I believe which is 28 hit rating (7*4). That's almost 2% hit from gems only!
Mutilate, Raiding, and You
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Let me start off with a brief disclaimer. I have raided extensively as both Mutilate and Combat so my knowledge base is relevant and not based off heresay.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fhebRE0oizVo0eVb0V
This is a somewhat standard Mutilate raiding spec. Variations can include dropping Murder and EA for Imp Poisons if you're a fan of Envenom. Also picking up Imp SS over Endurance is an option.
But let's talk about why I didn't. I won't be using envenom, so the base poison proc rate is sufficient for keeping five stacks of Deadly Poison on the target. The EA provides utility for feral tanks, and the Murder is a better filler than the other options. Imp SS will be used as a farming tool if you're lazy.
Opportunity vs. Dual Wield Spec
For raiding dual wield spec wins hands down. First, the VAST majority of your damage output is going to come from white attacks. Dual Wield spec increases this damage substantially. Second, you aren't sacrificing the full benefit Opportunity gives Mutilate. Dual Wield spec also increases Mutilate damage, but only on the offhand. So you're only sacrificing part of your Mutilate damage for great gains in your white damage.
Cycling
It is my preferred method, and many others as well, to pop finishers at four or five combo points. A standard cycle would be:
SnD -> Rupture/Evis -> Rupture/Evis
The / indicates you will have to make a conscious decision as to what finisher is better at the time. Here's a hint, if Rupture is down, put it back up. Evis is your SECONDARY damage dealing finisher. Also consider that of the three finishers, only SnD does not need to be executed underneath the benefit of Find Weakness. What this means is that you should wait as long as possible to pop SnD. Ideally you will be one tick away from full energy, no find weakness, and 0 seconds left on SnD. This is not always the case and you must make a judgement call. Your other finishers you will want to execute with 0 seconds left on Find Weakness. This allows maximum usage of your next Find Weakness stage as your energy will be at the highest point. The dream situation is to proc a combo point off your finisher, and then crit the following Mutilate. This puts you at 4 cp and lets you tick high energy before a damage finisher which in turn makes your SnD cycle turn much smoother.
The Cold Hard Truth
While on 90% of raid encounters Mutilate matches or outperforms a combat spec the drawbacks on the other 10% of the raid encounters makes it a much less than ideal raiding spec, and a hindrance to your guild. Here's a quick few examples.
Hydross the Unstable (SSC): An enrage timed fight where dps is key. A mutilate rogue will not be able to Blade Flurry adds down every other phase. This stacked BF from 2-3 rogues kills the adds at the same time as Hydross is being dps'd. This means the adds die faster and the ranged dps get more face time on Hydross. The second drawback on this fight is that he is poison immune. Your mutilate damage will be roughly 66% of its potential.
Void Reaver (Eye): Another enrage timed fight. He suffers from the same poison immunity as Hydross, and as a fight where you back out every 10 seconds the time when you dps him needs to count.
Leotheras the Blind (SSC): Yet another dps sensative enrage fight. Due to Leotheras' ability to draw out your demon having blade flurry is almost a must. If you do not have Blade Flurry you will be forced to toe to toe your demon. A rogue with BF will be able to pop it and go all out on Leotheras all the while dpsing his demon with the BF swings.
Conclusion on next post