Heya guys!!  See that moron to the left, lol?  Do you feel like that on your Death Knight?  Hitting nothing but air?  Well we’re going to fix that by talking about your Hit and Expertise caps for Death Knights!!

Lots of people talk about your hit and expertise, but how many of them actually have a clue as to what in the hell they are talking about?  Typically…  /sigh  Typically they’re a bunch of yahoos talking about crap they know nothing about.  And since I have never explained it before, I will now!!

Hit and Expertise Revisited

That link is what you need to go read, it is the updated and revamped version of this post.

Expertise

“Wow!!!  They actually have a stat that makes me better at what I do?!  Cool beans!!”

/facepalm

No.  It’s not a stat that measures your expertise at playing your character.  It’s just a nifty name they chose to use for a combat mechanic.  Expertise reduces the chance your target will parry or dodge your attacks.  So even if you were “hit capped”, your target can parry or dodge your attacks.

An even level target (aka you’re level 80 and the mob is level 80) has a 5% chance to parry or dodge your attacks.  A Raid boss (read: skull icon) has a 6.5% chance to parry or dodge your attacks.  Traditionally speaking, Expertise is only truly important for bosses.  And while very valuable for dps, it is even more valuable for tanks. 

DPS tends to stand behind a boss due to cleaves, parries, positioning, etc…  Mobs cannot parry an attack if you are behind them.  They can only dodge the attack.  Because of this, melee dps stands behind a boss.

If you are behind a boss then there is only a 6.5% chance he will dodge your attacks.  But if you are in front of a boss, then there is a 6.5% chance he will dodge your attack AND a 6.5% chance he will parry your attack.  You just doubled the chance of an attack not landing.

Then there is “parry haste”.  This is a little bit confusing, so I’m going to skip the technical crap.  Basically every time a boss parries an attack, they get a pro-rated haste buff that increases their attack speed.  What does that mean?  If you attack from the front, and the boss parries the attack, then his next attack hits before it was supposed to because it got a haste buff.  Now that sounds bad, but it doesn’t actually drive home how bad it is.

If the boss is parrying enough, the boss’s attack cycle (or rotation) gets thrown off.  This has caused, and will cause, 2-4 attacks to literally all land within 1 second of each other.  This has caused more wipes than any of us could count together because healers are just not prepared for that kind of burst damage.

Morale of the story?  Don’t EVER attack a boss from the front unless you absolutely HAVE to because of the encounter design (unless you’re Expertise capped).

OK, so how do I Expertise cap?

“Why, it’s elementary Watson!”

• 1 Expertise Skill reduces the chance a target will dodge/parry your attacks by 0.25%
• 8.2 Expertise Rating is equal to 1 Expertise Skill
• 4 Expertise Skill reduces the chance a target will dodge/parry your attacks by 1%
• 32.79 Expertise Rating is equal 4 Expertise Skill
• 26 Expertise Skill is the Expertise Cap

So what are the automatic bonuses to Expertise for your character?

• Orc Racial: Axe Specialization 5 skill
• Human Racial: Sword Specialization 3 skill
• Human Racial: Mace Specialization 3 skill
• Dwarf Racial: Mace Specialization 5 skill
• Blood Spec: Veteran of the Third War 6 skill
• Blood Spec: Blood Gorged 5 skill
• Frost Spec: Tundra Stalker 5 skill
• Unholy Spec: Rage of Rivendare 5 skill

Expertise needed to cap:

• Blood: 15 skill (123 rating)
• Frost: 21 skill (172.2 rating)
• Unholy: 21 skill (172.2 rating)

Just keep in mind that the “Expertise needed to cap” does not include racial bonuses.

Hit

“MISS!!!!”

What?!  OK, seriously…no more caffeine for you guys.  /shakes head

Hit really is that straight forward however.  It’s basically whether or not you hit or miss with an attack.  While the attack table still has other results on it such as dodge, parry, glancing blow, critical, etc…  As far as your Hit is concerned, you’re just trying to stop yourself from missing.

Now as a Death Knight you have to worry about two types of Hit.  Spell Hit and Melee Hit.  Yes, they are different.  Then, if you want to add in a side complication, there is the Melee Hit for DK’s who dual wield (DW).

Melee Hit

Versus a Raid Boss your special attacks (Read: yellow damaging attacks) all have a 9% chance to miss.  This is for DW (dual wield) and 2H (two handers) DK’s.

• 32.79 Hit Rating is equal to 1% Melee Hit
• 295.11 Hit Rating is equal to 9% Melee Hit (this is the Melee Hit cap)
• DW imposes a penalty, requiring 24.6% Melee Hit to reach the Melee Hit cap with white attacks
• DW still only has a 9% Melee Hit cap for special attacks

Spell Hit

• 26.23 Hit Rating is equal to 1% Spell Hit
• 445.91 Hit Rating is equal to 17% Spell Hit (this is the Spell Hit cap)
• Improved Faerie Fire (Balance Druid debuff) or Misery (Shadow Priest debuff) increases your spell hit by 3%, or 78.69 Hit Rating.
• Virulence + Misery = 6% spell hit, or 157.38 Hit Rating

So what are the automatic bonuses to Hit for your character?

• Unholy Spec: Virulence 3% spell hit
• Draenei Racial: Heroic Presence 1% melee/spell hit

In a typical raid environment with Virulence and Heroic Presence you will only need 288.53 Hit Rating to Spell Hit cap, which is less than the 295.11 Hit Rating required to Melee Hit cap.

So what is your Hit Rating cap?  Well this is where you have to sit down and do a little figuring on your own.  Do you have a SP or Boomkin in your raids?  Does your spec include Virulence?  Do you get into the same party as a Draenei in a raid?  Once you answer those questions, you can find out your hit cap with this information very quickly.

So, now you have a clue how to Expertise and Hit cap!!

Aren’t you just a winner now!!

GL out there guys pwning face!!  Check ya later, I’m off like a prom dress!!

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