Asmiroth
28-08-2006, 09:07 PM
I've seen a lot of questions about how these work. First off, for those technically inclined, the long answer is here. http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Weapon_Skill
For those who are not, let's have a go.
Things to understand @ 60.
Against an equal level opponent with equal skill (ie 300 Daggers vs 300 Def) you have an innate chance to miss of 5% on all attacks, skills OR melee
Equal level opponents have an innate chance to block/parry/dodge of 5%.
Dual Wield has a 19% chance of missing and only affects melee attacks. So 2nders/1hnd + shield aren't affected.
Attacks from the rear on NPCs cannot be blocked or parried, they can be dodged
Attacks from the rear on PCs cannot be blocked, parried, or dodged
Each point of difference between weapon skill and defense gives a 0.04% increase/decrease to MISS, DODGE, PARRY and BLOCK. Therefore, attacking a lvl 63 target increases your chance to miss and their chance to block/parry/dodge by 0.6% each.
Each point of +Hit decreases your chance to miss. It does nothing else but this.
Glancing blows only affect melee strikes, not skill attacks. vs a +1 Creature = 0%. vs a +2 creature = 25% for 15% damage reduction. vs a +3 creature = 40% for 30%. vs a +4 creature 55% for 45% and so on...This is due to weapon skill being low.
Your Hit/Crit chance is soft capped based on your HIT table. If you have a 30% chance to Hit/Crit yet are capped at 18%, then you lose that extra 12%. This is why +Hit is so important.
The HIT table affects all possible outcomes of an attack. A miss cannot be a crit. A dodge cannot be a crit and so on.
For 2handers/1hnd + shield increase increase the melee HIT/CRIT by 19%. The skill % are the same.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 60 Dual Wield
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|24%|24%|5%|5%
DODGE|5%|5%|5%|5%
BLOCK|5%|0%|5%|0%
PARRY|5%|0%|5%|0%
GLANCING|0%|0%|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|61%|71%|80%|90%
As you can see, the above table is nothing special. No one has an innate crit chance of 60% on melee, so no one is capped. Next table is vs lvl63 targets
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|24.6%|24.6%|5.6%|5.6%
DODGE|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%
BLOCK|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
PARRY|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
GLANCING|40%@70%dmg|40%@70%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|18.6%|29.8%|77.6%|88.8%
Big difference here. A lot of people have > 18% crit melee chance or even over 30%. And glancing damage can take a very large chunk of damage out.
At 63, every point you increase Weapon Skill DECREASES the penalty that Glancing Blows gives by 3%, up to a maximum of 10pts of skill. IE +5WS reduces glancing blows' penalty to only 85% damage. It has a minor increased to MISS/DODGE/BLOCK/PARRY (0.3% in the case of +5WS). The following table is for +10WS.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield w/ +10 Weapon Skill
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|24%|24%|5%|5%
DODGE|5%|5%|5%|5%
BLOCK|5%|0%|5%|0%
PARRY|5%|0%|5%|0%
GLANCING|40%@100%dmg|40%@100%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|21%|31%|80%|90%
As you can clearly see, you're doing a lot more damage. 40% of your melee attacks are doing full damage and you've gained a small increased to the HIT/CRIT cap.
As stated before, each point of +Hit decreases your chance to miss, up to a natural cap of whatever your miss rate is. So ~5 for Skills and ~25 for melee attacks. Anything past this is pretty much lost.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield w/ +10 Hit
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|14.6%|14.6%|0|0%
DODGE|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%
BLOCK|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
PARRY|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
GLANCING|40%@70%dmg|40%@70%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|28.6%|39.8%|83.2%|94.4%
This has a very large impact on melee attacks and a minor affect on skills. You've basically raised your HIT/CRIT cap by 10% for melee attacks, which is a great thing. A 30% base rate is now only losing ~1.5% instead of the ~13.5% they were with no bonuses at all.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield w/ +10 Weapon Skill and +10 Hit
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|14%|14%|0%|0%
DODGE|5%|5%|5%|5%
BLOCK|5%|0%|5%|0%
PARRY|5%|0%|5%|0%
GLANCING|40%@100%dmg|40%@100%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|31%|41%|85%|95%
Obviously the best scenario for damage output. You melee HIT/CRIT is over 30% from the front. >40% from the back. You can barely miss from skills, a fairly large improvement.
The next section will show actual damage numbers.
For those who are not, let's have a go.
Things to understand @ 60.
Against an equal level opponent with equal skill (ie 300 Daggers vs 300 Def) you have an innate chance to miss of 5% on all attacks, skills OR melee
Equal level opponents have an innate chance to block/parry/dodge of 5%.
Dual Wield has a 19% chance of missing and only affects melee attacks. So 2nders/1hnd + shield aren't affected.
Attacks from the rear on NPCs cannot be blocked or parried, they can be dodged
Attacks from the rear on PCs cannot be blocked, parried, or dodged
Each point of difference between weapon skill and defense gives a 0.04% increase/decrease to MISS, DODGE, PARRY and BLOCK. Therefore, attacking a lvl 63 target increases your chance to miss and their chance to block/parry/dodge by 0.6% each.
Each point of +Hit decreases your chance to miss. It does nothing else but this.
Glancing blows only affect melee strikes, not skill attacks. vs a +1 Creature = 0%. vs a +2 creature = 25% for 15% damage reduction. vs a +3 creature = 40% for 30%. vs a +4 creature 55% for 45% and so on...This is due to weapon skill being low.
Your Hit/Crit chance is soft capped based on your HIT table. If you have a 30% chance to Hit/Crit yet are capped at 18%, then you lose that extra 12%. This is why +Hit is so important.
The HIT table affects all possible outcomes of an attack. A miss cannot be a crit. A dodge cannot be a crit and so on.
For 2handers/1hnd + shield increase increase the melee HIT/CRIT by 19%. The skill % are the same.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 60 Dual Wield
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|24%|24%|5%|5%
DODGE|5%|5%|5%|5%
BLOCK|5%|0%|5%|0%
PARRY|5%|0%|5%|0%
GLANCING|0%|0%|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|61%|71%|80%|90%
As you can see, the above table is nothing special. No one has an innate crit chance of 60% on melee, so no one is capped. Next table is vs lvl63 targets
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|24.6%|24.6%|5.6%|5.6%
DODGE|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%
BLOCK|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
PARRY|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
GLANCING|40%@70%dmg|40%@70%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|18.6%|29.8%|77.6%|88.8%
Big difference here. A lot of people have > 18% crit melee chance or even over 30%. And glancing damage can take a very large chunk of damage out.
At 63, every point you increase Weapon Skill DECREASES the penalty that Glancing Blows gives by 3%, up to a maximum of 10pts of skill. IE +5WS reduces glancing blows' penalty to only 85% damage. It has a minor increased to MISS/DODGE/BLOCK/PARRY (0.3% in the case of +5WS). The following table is for +10WS.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield w/ +10 Weapon Skill
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|24%|24%|5%|5%
DODGE|5%|5%|5%|5%
BLOCK|5%|0%|5%|0%
PARRY|5%|0%|5%|0%
GLANCING|40%@100%dmg|40%@100%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|21%|31%|80%|90%
As you can clearly see, you're doing a lot more damage. 40% of your melee attacks are doing full damage and you've gained a small increased to the HIT/CRIT cap.
As stated before, each point of +Hit decreases your chance to miss, up to a natural cap of whatever your miss rate is. So ~5 for Skills and ~25 for melee attacks. Anything past this is pretty much lost.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield w/ +10 Hit
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|14.6%|14.6%|0|0%
DODGE|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%|5.6%
BLOCK|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
PARRY|5.6%|0%|5.6%|0%
GLANCING|40%@70%dmg|40%@70%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|28.6%|39.8%|83.2%|94.4%
This has a very large impact on melee attacks and a minor affect on skills. You've basically raised your HIT/CRIT cap by 10% for melee attacks, which is a great thing. A 30% base rate is now only losing ~1.5% instead of the ~13.5% they were with no bonuses at all.
HIT TABLE vs lvl 63 Dual Wield w/ +10 Weapon Skill and +10 Hit
X|Melee(Front)|Melee(Back)|Skills(Front)|Skills(Back)
MISS|14%|14%|0%|0%
DODGE|5%|5%|5%|5%
BLOCK|5%|0%|5%|0%
PARRY|5%|0%|5%|0%
GLANCING|40%@100%dmg|40%@100%dmg|0%|0%
HIT/CRIT|31%|41%|85%|95%
Obviously the best scenario for damage output. You melee HIT/CRIT is over 30% from the front. >40% from the back. You can barely miss from skills, a fairly large improvement.
The next section will show actual damage numbers.