The Shaman Tavern - WoW Elemental Shaman Blog

Recently I posted a simple and straightforward explanation about hit rating and the hit cap for elemental shamans. In that post I broke down how a raiding shaman should have 289 hit rating to be capped when you have a combination of the correct talents and raid members. To read that post, click here.

Today I am going to cover a couple of examples what items to use to cap your hit rating. Since an Elemental Shaman's best dps comes from our Tier Sets we will discuss the items you need to cap your hit rating. Lets take a look at the Tier 8.5 set since it provides a certain amount of hit rating.

Tier 8.5 Set: Conqueror's Worldbreaker Garb

This 5-piece set includes the following items:

Conqueror's Worldbreaker Hauberk

Conqueror's Worldbreaker Gloves

Conqueror's Worldbreaker Helm

Conqueror's Worldbreaker Kilt

Conqueror's Worldbreaker Shoulderpads

Set Bonuses Wearing more pieces of this set will convey bonuses to your character.
2 pieces: The periodic damage dealt by your Flame Shock can now be critical strikes.
4 pieces: Your critical strikes from Lightning Bolt cause the target to take nature damage equal to 8% of the Lightning Bolt's damage over 4 sec.

For this post we are going to take 4 pieces form the list above as this is all you need for the set bonus. We will use the Helm, Kilt, Gloves, and Hauberk. When you use these four items they provide the following base hit rating 180. Now we need to fill in the rest with either gear, enchants, or gems. This is where things can get a little tricky depending on which items you have acquired. Lets try to keep it simple. First have your boots enchanted with Icewalker which will provide you with an additional 12 hit rating bringing us up to 192 total hit. Second head into Ulduar and down Auriaya for an Elemental Focus Stone. With the 108 hit rating provided by this trinket you will have a hit rating of 300. HIT CAPPED!!! it is that easy.

Ok so what if you can not get you hands on an Elemenal Focus Stone which is OK because I prefer to use a different hit rating trinket that provides much more dps. I recommend grabbing Dying Curse, this trinket provides a base hit rating of 71 which will give you a total of 263 so you will still need an item or 2 to become hit capped. The reason you will want to use Dying Curse instead of EFS is the proc. The proc from DC is an extra 765 spell power for 10 secs. verses EFS's 10 second 522 haste proc.

Ok so we are missing 26 hit rating right now what item can you use to get that last 26. There are quite a few jewelry pieces in game that can make that up like Pendant of Fiery Havoc or Emerald Signet Ring. There are tons of items you can use to get hit capped so DO NOT waste gems on hit rating, save them for spell power and haste. Another thing to remember is that is is ok to go over 289 hit rating if you have to but always have at least 289 hit.

I will cover our Tier 9 set later this week.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 | posted in shaman hit cap | 2 comments [ More ]

I know there have been many posts about this topic but since this is a new blog I have decided to touch on it one more time. I can not stress enough how important being hit capped is to maximizing your dps as an Elemental Shaman. It really is simple but so many people take it for granted they can skip a little on hit rating for spellpower, haste or crit. If you don't believe me take a look at the armory sometime when you are on the WOW shaman forums. If you do not understand why you should be hit capped before anything else think about it this way.

If you miss a cast then your dps will be less and stacking spellpower, haste or crit means nothing if you can't land a damage spell.

OK now we know why we should be hit capped then how do we get there and how much hit rating do you need? Well that depends on a couple factors and we will go over the scenarios and rating % you need for each one. The Hit Rating cap is 17% for shamans (16% for Dranaei because of Heroic Presence).

First and foremost you need to be talented with Elemental Precision. If you read my last couple posts on which talents to spec in then you already understand this talent but I am going to recap it. Elemental Presicion provides you with a base 3% hit rating. Ok now we have 3% base hit rating we need to get the rest from gear and/or other class talents. If you are a raider you should have a shadow priest and boomkin in your raid. If not get one right away. Each of those classes provide a spell/talent that will give you another 3% hit rating for a total of 6%. Now you need to get the remaining 11% from gear and gemming if needed. Again hit rating is more important than another stat a gem can provide.

Lets break down the numbers at level 80:

26.23 hit rating per 1% hit

289 hit rating for 11% hit - this is the number you should be aiming for

367 hit rating for 14% hit - this is the number you need without a spriest or boomkin

Through a mix of talents, gear, and other classes you shouldn't have a problem becoming hit capped. This is the first and most important stat to a dps caster something you should cap before you ever step into a heroic raid. Good luck and remember don't miss!!!

I recently posted about gear to fill out your hit rating you can read by clicking here.