One of those ratings is Spell Hit Rating, which is now just called Hit Rating. Here is an update to my old post on Spell Hit, now revised for the new level cap of 80.

“Spell hit is a combat attribute that increases a caster’s chance to hit with spells. Spell hit is primarily obtained from talents or gear that has hit rating. The more gear with hit rating a caster has the lower the chance the caster’s spells will miss (i.e. an enemy resist the spells). With patch 3.0.2, spell hit is capped at 100%; with enough spell hit, it is possible to reach a state where it is impossible for your spells to miss. A spell that fails to hit is shown as a miss, while misses caused by a target’s resistance is shows as a resist. Spell hit has no effect on healing spells, as they will always hit.”

Spell Hit Calculation Table:

All Raid Bosses noted with a Skull as their level will act as though as they are 3 levels above you, meaning they will have a 17% chance to resist your spells. Don’t worry though, there are many ways for you to increase the chances of having your spells hit your target.

Talents:

This is the first and easiest way to increase your Hit Rating. Depending on what spec your Mage is, you will grab one of the two talents (or both) to help the chances of your spells to hit.

In the Arcane Tree, you have Arcane Focus which increases the chances of your Arcane spells to hit by 1/2/3%. In the Frost Tree, you have Precision which increases the chances of your Spells to hit by 1/2/3%.

Gear:

On many Caster DPS gear, you will see various stats such as Spell Power, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating. Another stat you will see is Hit Rating. At level 80, every 26.23 Hit Rating is equal to 1% Spell Hit. Grabbing gear with Hit Rating is essential to any raiding Mage.

Krizzlybear of Frost is the New Black has a great post about Spell Hit Gear you can acquire before your first raid.

Gems:

If there are Gem Sockets in your gear, another way to increase your Hit Rating, is with Hit Rating Gems. Here are a couple of Hit Rating Gems you may use depending on your own Spec, stats, and socket colors.

Blue Sockets

• Vivid Forest Emerald
• Lambent Forest Emerald
• Shining Forest Emerald

Red Sockets

• Veiled Monarch Topaz

Yellow Sockets

• Rigid Autumn’s Glow

Enchants:

Now that you have some nice gear, you need to enchant them. If you find yourself in need of more Hit Rating, here is a few enchants you will be looking for.

• Enchant Gloves – Precision
• Enchant Boots – Icewalker

Consumables:

• Elixir of Accuracy
• Snapper Extreme

Buff/Debuff:

That is all that you can do with what you have to work with at the moment, now what? Well now that you are ready to start running some instances, you need to know what other Classes have to offer which may also help increase your Spell Hit. There have been some changes with the way raid buffs stack now, and many Class buffs have been changed.

Buffs: The only buff that you can recieve that will increase your Hit Rating is from having a Draenei in your group. Having a Draenei in your group provides you with Heroic Presence which will increase your Hit Rating by 1%.

Debuffs: There are two debuffs which may be applied on a target which will also increase your Hit Rating. A Shadow Priest will provide the raid with the Misery debuff. A Balance Druid will provide the raid with the Improved Faerie Fire debuff. Both debuffs will give you a +3% Spell Hit on the target. These two debuffs will NOT stack.

Magic Spell Hit Rating:

On mobs that are 3 levels above you, and bosses with a skull as their level, you will need 17% Spell Hit to become Hit Capped. At Hit Cap, your Spells will have a 100% chance to hit your target, and is the number you would like to aim for. So how much Hit Rating you need from gear depends on your spec and raid members. *note: Blizzard rounds up*

Current Hit % ___________ Hit Rating Needed
00% ………………………………………. 446
01% ………………………………………. 420
02% ………………………………………. 393
03% ………………………………………. 367
04% ………………………………………. 341
05% ………………………………………. 315
06% ………………………………………. 289
07% ………………………………………. 262
08% ………………………………………. 236
09% ………………………………………. 210
10% ………………………………………. 184
11% ………………………………………. 157
12% ………………………………………. 131
13%……………………………………….. 105
14% ………………………………………. 079
15% ………………………………………. 052
16% ………………………………………. 026
17%……………………………………….. 000

Where do you fall on this list?

00% – Untalented
03% – Arcane Focus or Precision
04% – “the above” with Heroic Presence
06% – Arcane Focus or Precision with Improved Faerie Fire or Misery
06% – Arcane Focus and Precision
07% – “the above” with Heroic Presence
09% – Arcane Focus and Precison w/ Imp. Faerie Fire ore Misery
10% – “the above” with Heroic Presence

So if you know you will be raiding with a Shadow Priest or Moonkin Druid all the time, you should be aiming for 289 Hit Rating with gear. Just be sure to be prepared for when you won’t have them.

Final Thoughts

• Aim for the spell hit rating using only your own talents and gear. Don’t rely on having a Draenei in your group or a Moonkin/Shadow Priest in your raid to make up for your lack of hit rating.
• Spell Hit > Spell Damage > Spell Critical Strike/Spell Haste
• Your 2k spell dmg and 40% crit won’t matter if it is resisted
• Use WWS to help raise your DPS. If you are low and the DPS charts, and your resist rate is at 28%, you now know what you can do to make it better.

[Sources: WoWWiki, WoWForums, ElitistJerks]

So I join a group with a few friends and start doing some instances. After a few runs of Halls of Lightning (tank was farming for some trinket), I turned 80! I teleported back, learned a few new spells, came back and we did a few more runs of HoL. After we were bored of running this (tank still hasn’t gotten trinket), we decided to change it up and run CoT: The Culling of Stratholme. This is probably one of my favorite instances now. We go through and clear the instance, and decided to do another run. So we zone out, reset the instance and start again. Then I have a conversation with my Guild Leader.

GL: Grats on 80! How far are you in the Culling of Stratholme?
Me: Um… just started… wave 3?
GL: We need you for 25 man Eye of Eternity! Goggogogog!
Me: Eye of Eternity?!
GL: Malygos! Tell your group you are needed!
Me: Okies…

I let my buddies know that I was needed, and they brought in another friend to finish the rest of that instance. I joined the Guild Raid and was immediately summoned. Uh oh… what have I gotten myself into. They have just finished doing 25 man Naxxramas, and was ready to clear the rest of the raids that WotLK has got to offer.

I was totally not prepared. I was still wearing all of my level 70 gear with the exception of my new cloak. I was nowhere near Spell Hit capped, heck I haven’t even done ANY Heroics yet to even try to get new gear yet. I’ve only been 80 for about 2 hours now? No Flasks, no food, no knowledge of this boss fight.

GL: Everyone here has done the 10 man version, nothing new, just more adds.
Me: (wtf?) /w GL pss… I haven’t done anything yet, I just turned 80 remember?
GL: For those of you who haven’t….. (explains fight)
Me: (that was WAY too much information)

I get most of the important information about the fight down, the rest, I just have to experience it myself to see what he was talking about. Just like any new fight, I do my best to stay alive first, and worry about DPS second. Phase 1 was easy, Phase 2 was easy, Phase 3 was fun! I managed to stay alive until Phase 3 when he was almost dead, but Malygos down!

I get my Heroic: The Spellweaver’s Downfall and my Emblem of Valor achievments! No Mage loots, on to the next raid instance!

GL: The Obsidian Sanctum next, start flying there!
Me: (where the heck is that?!) *asks around*

It is located at Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight I was told. I flew there, looked around, couldn’t find it. I could see every raid member on my minimap, but I couldn’t find them. I flew to the top, flew to the middle, and looked around on the bottom floor. No clue where it is. I was told it was in the “basement” so I ran around some more. Maybe it was late or something, but I could not find the way there (and still don’t know how to get there). I was summoned by a Warlock soon after.

Again I was the only person in the raid with no clue about this raid (10 or 25 man) and had the strategy explained to me. “Sounds easy”, I thought to myself. We were going to kill Sartharion with 1 add alive because it was getting late. There are 3 “mini bosses” in the room, and if you kill them, Sartharion gets weaker. But if you keep them alive, the stronger he is, the harder the fight, the better the loot.

So we kept one alive, and pull the boss. I stand with the group, and DPS, getting ready for this “wave of fire” that I was told to watch out for. Then it was called out on vent, “Far side”. I see a tsunami of lava going from one side of the room, going towards the other side, with one small little break in the wave where the raid is supposed to run to, to avoid getting hit. It so happened that at that exact time, my FPS drops to one, and my screen kinda pauses for a sec, then I’m dead. Doh!

I end up watching the entire fight as the rest of the raid takes him down. He dies and I get the Heroic: Besting the Black Dragonflight and Heroic: Twilight Assist achievements.

That’s not all! I also got [Gauntlets of the Lost Vanquisher] which I turned in for [Valorous Frostfire Gloves], and [The Sanctum's Flowing Vestment].

Not a bad start for just turning 80.

Origins:

I started off as a huge fan of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, a real time strategy game made by Blizzard. Then the expansion, The Frozen Throne hit, and I was even more addicted to War3. Sometime during my gaming years on War3, Blizzard had announced World of Warcraft, an MMO for the Warcraft Universe. Of course I was very interested.

Beginnings:

I joined the Open Beta for the World of Warcraft along with one of my friend whom I played War3 with. I made a Mage and he made a Hunter, and we were instantly hooked on WoW. We played until the end of Beta, and contemplated on either to get hooked or not (since we were in our college years). When the game was released, and we didn’t buy it.

A month went by when I found out that my cousin had already purchased it and was already playing. That prompted me into buying the game, and I’ve been playing ever since. The journey still continues today…

The Journey:

I’ve been playing a Mage since Beta, and has really ONLY been playing the Mage class. I started off as a casual player, leveling with a couple of my friends. Questing, exploring, killing mobs. It was a lot of fun.

Then when I hit 60, I got a taste of Raiding. My Philadelphia friends and I, were in our own little guild, and my cousin, with some of our friends from back home in South Jersey were in another small guild. Both of our guilds were asked to merge with another guild to form a bigger guild to run Molten Core together. I’ve been raiding ever since…

The Adventure:

I’ve been big on the Warcraft Lore from the beginning. Most likely from my War3 background. Most of the lore involves raiding, so that made me become an even bigger raider, and I have “seen” (will change to “beaten” once KJ is down) every boss in every “end game” instances made so far. I would like to continue to do so.

40 Man Raids:

• Molten Core – 10/10
• Onixia’s Lair – 1/1
• Blackwing Lair – 8/8
• Temple of Ahn’Qiraj – 6/6, 3/3 (optional bosses)
• Naxxaramas – 15/15

25 Man Raids:

• Gruul’s Lair – 1/1
• Magtheridon’s Lair – 1/1
• Serpentshrine Caverns – 6/6
• Tempest Keep: The Eye – 4/4
• Hyjal Summit – 5/5
• Black Temple – 9/9
• Sunwell Plateau – 8/9 (currently working on KJ)

20 Man Raids:

• Zul’Gurub – 6/6, 4/4 (optional bosses)
• Ruins of Anh’Qiraj – 6/6

10 Man Raids:

• Karazhan – 12/12
• Zul’Aman – 6/6

The Bonds:

I’ve always been a loyal Guildie. I’ve never left to join a more successful guild, or left because we were going nowhere. I’ve always been patient with the progression with any guild I’ve been in. I’ve also been in a couple of guild and stayed to the very end.

I still keep in touch with most of everyone whom I’ve Guilded with (if they’re still playing), and still PvP or run group instances with them. I’ve pretty much gotten along with mostly everyone I’ve played with, and hopefully it stays this way.

The End?:

Will I ever get sick of WoW and stop playing? Maybe, maybe not. As long as Blizzard continues to bring out content to keep me satisfied, I will continue to play. As long as there are people whom I consider friends still playing with me, I will continue to do so.

“Why would you want to play a game that never ends?” is a question I’m often asked by my non-WoW friends. My answer to them: “Why would you want a game that you enjoy playing, come to an end?”

My Character:

I’ve always liked the Caster type classes of any game I play. I’ve always liked the idea of the fragile little death machine. I was a Sorceress in Diablo II, a Black Mage in Final Fantasy XI, an Elementalist in Guild Wars, the Wizard in Gauntlet, and so on…

“Why Frost?” I think this goes back when I was growing up. Me and my cousin would hang out a lot. Our parents would visit each other houses pretty much every weekend. I don’t really know why or what started it, but he always went Fire and me Water/Ice. He picked Scorpion, I picked Sub-Zero. He made a Fire Mage, I made a Frost Mage. I got Pokemon Red, I got Pokemon Blue. He started off with Charmander, I started off with… well Bulbasaur, but you get the picture.

Now being a Frost Spec Mage since level 10, it was no easy task being a “Hardcore/Casual-Raider“. Fire has always been the “DPS Spec”, and I knew that. Nobody likes being told what to do, and I am no exception. I was able to use that to make me better.

Playing as the underdog Spec actually made be a better Mage/raider/player. On paper, Fire was about 2-5% higher DPS than Frost- in a perfect simulation. This meant if I had to keep up or beat them, I had to be focused at all times, and learn to take advantage of any tool I can. A good example of this is the Frost “Ghost Hit“.

Now here I am, still raiding, still Frost.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We all have stories on how we got sucked into the game. We all have reasons why we still continue to play today. We all have our own characteristics and playing style. What is it for you?

Similar Posts I Found:

• Lin of Elune’s Guidance

I also managed to get my last piece of Tier 6, my [Belt of Tempest]. 8/8 Tier 6 w00t! Now I am at 174 Spell Haste, which brings my Frostbolts down to 2.25 seconds. Not bad at all I am now also way over the Spell Hit cap for Frost Mages, with no gear to swap out. Hmm… what to do, what to do…?

Brutallus also dropped [Heart of the Pit], but a Shadow Priest won them over me. Next time they’re mine hopefully.

I even got myself loot out of the run last night. Kalecgos dropped [Bracer of the Forgotten Vanquisher] for me. I turned them in for my [Bracer of the Tempest] and got them enchanted with +15 Spell Damage. The Guild was out of [Crimson Spinel] so I settled for the blue [Runed Living Ruby] until we get some more Spinels or until the Epic Gem Vendor on my server opens (yea yea, still not opened yet…).

I am now 7/8 Tier 6! My Mage Belt token also dropped last night from Brutallus, but a Rogue won them over me. Oh wells, I’ll get them next week if it drops. Even though I have 7/8 Tier 6, I currently only wear six of the pieces. My [Leggings of Channeled Elements] that drops off of Kaz’rogal in Mount Hyjal are way better than the T6 Leggings. I am also trying to replace my T6 Helm with the [Cowl of the Illidari High Lord] that drops off of Illidan Stormrage, but he hasn’t been dropping any caster loot lately.

With the release of the Sunwell Patch, it opened up many options of ways to mix and match pieces of gear, and still be able to keep the four piece set bonus of the Tier 6 set. So even though I would have been happy if Blizzard gave us an eight piece set bonus, they made a good choice to give us this option to choose other gear instead.

So its a great start of a new raid week. Hopefully we keep march on with high spirits and make some good progress with the Eredar Twins.

Here is a guide to everything you will need to know about your Water Elemental. I will break down the Water Elemental’s spells, attributes, and the impact the pet will make in PvE and PvP. If you have anything you would like to add to this little guide, please let me know and I will gladly add any extra helpful information. -Updated: April 16, 2008-

The Water Elemental is essentially a Frost Mage’s best friend. It will save your frosty behind plenty of times, whether it be for a distraction to keep an enemy occupied, extra dps to kill something fast, or an extra Freeze to help you escape (Hmm… I don’t like to refer to my pet as “it”, so from now on I will use “he or him”). You will learn to love your watery companion, and eventually, will not be able to play again without your pet.

What is the Water Elemental?

The Water Elemental is a Mage ability granted by a talent in the Frost Tree. It summons a combat Water Elemental to fight with the Mage for 45 seconds. The elemental functions similarly to the Warlock’s minions or the Hunter’s pets. A pet action bar appears for the Mage to command the elemental and control his spells for its entire duration. He has two spells that he can use: Waterbolt and Freeze.

The Elemental is summoned by the spell: Summon Water Elemental.
The mana cost of the spell is 16% of your base mana, and can be reduced by Elemental Precision and Frost Channeling Talents, both of which are also in the Frost Talent Tree.

The spell has a 3 minute cooldown which can be instantly refreshed by Cold Snap. This also means that the spell is inadvertently affected by Ice Floes, which reduces the cooldown of Cold Snap by 20% which will give you more chances to summon your pet.

Default Controls:

Control + 1: Attack
Control + 2: Follow
Control + 3: Stay
Control + 4: Waterbolt (toggle on/off)
Control + 5: Ranged frost nova
Control + 8: Aggressive
Control + 9: Defensive
Control + 0: Passive

Attributes:

Your Elemental’s stats will scale with the gear you have on. He will receive 30% of your Intellect and Stamina. Each point of Intellect will increase his mana by 5, and each point of Stamina will increase his health by 7.5.

The Water Elemental is also affected by your + Frost Damage. Your pet will receive 40% of your + Frost Damage.

Spells:

Waterbolt is the Elemental’s main attack. It has a 2.5 second cast and does Frost Damage. Its base damage is 256-328 and is affected by your + Frost Damage.

You pet will receive 40% of your + Frost Damage, but since the spell is a 2.5 second cast, Waterbolt only scales with 71.43% of the Water Elemental’s spell damage. What that means is that Waterbolt receives 28.57% of your + Frost Damage.

Unlike Frostbolt, it is not a binary spell, and can be partially resisted. When the spell crits, it does 150% damage. The spell is also affected by the Winter’s Chill debuff you apply to your target, which will increase the critical strike % of all Frost Spells by up to 10%.

Freeze is the Elemental’s secondary attack. It is essentially a 35 yard ranged Frost Nova with a 25 second cooldown. This means the elemental may only use this ability up to two times in his duration.

This ability can only be cast manually by the user. When activated, it will give you an area affect grid similar to Flamestrike in which you can place anywhere within the Elemental’s 35 yard range. When used, it will hit all enemies in an 8 yard radius for 74-86 Frost Damage, and freeze them in place for 8 seconds.

Vulnerabilities:

The Water Elemental is immuned to all Frost Damage and Poisons. The pet can however be banished.

Raiding with your Water Elemental:

The Water Elemental provides a great boost in DPS for a small cost of mana, with zero additional threat cause to you. Your Elemental will account for about 10% of your total damage output in a raid environment. To maximize this, you must be able to manage your cooldowns as efficiently as possible.

Also, don’t be afraid to use your pet on trash pulls. It only has a 3 minute cooldown, and will most likely be up by the time you reach the boss.

Raiding Tips:

Pop your Trinkets BEFORE summoning your Water Elemental. Your pet recieves 40% of your + Frost Damage when you summon him. Increasing your + Frost Damage right before summoning him will increase his DPS, which in turn will increase yours. Try to time your trinkets with the summoning of your pet as best as you can.

Use Cold Snap to summon your pet more often. In long boss fights in which you don’t need your Ice Block to remove any deadly debuffs, don’t be afraid to use Cold Snap. If the fight is going to last longer than 7 minutes, summon your pet towards the beginning of the fight and use Cold Snap right away. Once your first Elemental expires, summon him out again. Towards the end of the fight, your Cold Snap cooldown will be up for you to summon him another time.

Keep your pet alive. Dead DPS = Zero DPS. Void Reaver’s Arcane Orb headed in your direction? Make sure you put your pet on “follow” so he doesn’t get hit by the explosion. Gruul’s Cave In above your head? Do the same thing.

The Water Elemental is immuned to a lot of bosses abilites such as Gruul’s Shatter and Lurker’s Water Sprout. Research ahead of time to find out the best time to summon your pet for each boss fight.

Your pet’s mana pool usually last long enough for him to chain cast for 35-40 seconds, leaving him with about 10 seconds of just standing there. Having a Shadow Priest or a Mana Totem in your group will help increase his DPS a bit.

Speaking of group buffs, your pet will benefit from any raid or group buffs or auras as long as they can be applied to him after he is summoned.

Water Elemental isn’t affected by your spell haste rating, but he can benefit from Heroism as long as he is summoned BEFORE Heroism is popped. If he is summoned after Heroism is used, he will not recieve the buff.

PvPing with your Water Elemental:

The Water Elemental will give you the extra damage needed to take down your opponent. If left alone for the full duration, your Elemental will be able to do around ~10,000 damage at level 70.

Not only that, it will give you two ranged Frost Novas with his ability, Freeze. That will open up many opportunities to escape melee, and to get in more Shatter Combos.

PvPing Tips:

Don’t summon your pet on terrain which may affect his line of sight. Your opponent may use pillars and bridges to their advantage to avoid taking any damage from your Water Elemental.

Use your Freezes. It is the best spell your pet brings to the PvP table. More frozen targets equals more Shatter crits. It also makes keeping a distance from melee ten times easier.

Like I said before, if left alone, he can do about ~10k damage (that is if you are close to 800 spell damage). If your opponent is going to ignore your pet, kite him away from pet and Ice Block. If he won’t turn his attention to your pet, he will take a hefty amount of pain. If he does turn to your pet, cancel your Ice Block early and unleash your fury without being interrupted.

Catch the flag runner. If you are in combat and chasing after the flag runner but he is outside your Blink + Frost Nova range, you can summon your pet to catch him for you. The Elemental’s Freeze range is 35 yards. Use it wisely.

Don’t summon your pet too early. If you do this, before you engage your opponent, they may simply try to stay away from you until your pet expires. It is best to summon in the middle of the fight, or when you are sure to land a good Shatter Combo (eg. he is sheeped, sapped, stunned, or rooted).

Water Elemental Mods:

The mod I use is called Frosty, which keeps track of all Water Elemental cooldowns. There is a castbar for the Water Elemental’s Waterbolt, a cooldown bar for when you use Freeze so you know when it is back up, an expiration bar for the 45 seconds the pet is out, and a cooldown bar for when the cooldown is up for you to summon your Water Elemental again.

You can download the mod here: Frosty – Mage Water Elemental Addon

Pet Tricks:

You can sacrifice your pet’s life to save your own. Have you ever agro’d something by accident that you know you can’t solo? Say you agro’d one of those Giant Guardian guys at Netherwing Ledge while doing your herbing daily. Normally if you agro one of those guys you are pretty much dead. Not with your trusted sidekick! The Giant will club you for about a third of your health, you summon elemental and then Ice Block. Once he turns his attention to your pet, immediately cancel Ice Block, Blink away and hit Invisible. It will take the Giant two swings or more to take out your pet, giving you enough time for you fully invis out (5 seconds).

If you are farming certain mobs in an area with lots of competition, you may use your pet to tag mobs for you while you are busy fighting your current target. It may take some micromanagement, but it gets the job done.

Sources: Wowwiki.com, Wowhead.com, Wow.allakhazam.com, WoW>Mage Forums

Many say that this raid encounter serves as a DPS check for guilds to see if they are ready to move on. Brutallus has 10,000,000 Hit Points, and a 6 minute enrage timer. At that point he will even one-shots main tanks while shield wall is up.

I can’t even remember how many times I have seen a boss wipe at 1%. It is very discouraging and the guild keeps wanting to push it late into the night because we are soo close. That leads to more dumb mistakes as fatigue kicks in. Brutallus better be dropping phat loots on Sunday or I will be very angry.

Grrr 2% Wipe…

On another note, when we zoned into the instance today and cleared the trash from Kalecgos (which we defeated) to Brutallus, it showed the fight between Madrigosa and Brutallus again. So on Sunday when I head back, I’ll be sure to have Fraps ready to record the fight for you.

Also note that my computer isn’t of the top of the line spec, so I won’t be able to bring you videos of entire fights. Last time I tried that on Illidan really slowed down my computer to a point that I was unable to preform during the boss fight.

At the end of the raid night, my total repair bill was around 150-200g plus cost of reagents. Good thing the Guild Bank was covering the cost of learning a new raid encounter. Here are some random screenies of the evening.