“Dear Tuna,  I have been following your blog for a few months now and you really know a lot about your Mage class. You have progressed through all high level dungeons and are currently on the 4th boss in Sunwell Plateau so you must be doing something right. Especially if you were raiding as Frost the whole time.

One thing that bothered me though was that you put a lot of emphasis on obtaining Spell Hit and how important it is, yet when I check you on Armory, you only wear 127 Spell Hit rating (should be 164 Spell Hit?).

Maybe I caught you logging out in your farming gear. Or maybe you are usually put in a group with a Shaman? Or maybe there is something I am missing? Anyways, I love the blog. I am also an Anime fan so it is another reason for me to keep coming back. Keep up the good work!

- Boomer, Undead Mage @ Laughing Skull”

The secret is out! Well I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret from you guys or anything (sorry if you think that I have), but it never crossed my mind to write about this, even though it is a pretty big thing. I found out about it some time after writing my Spell Hit article and never remembered to update it.

The reason why my Spell Hit rating is low is not because you caught my logging off in my farming gear, or because I rely on having a Shaman in my group. The reason for this is because of a little extra bonus granted to us Frost Mages called the “Ghost Hit“.

It has been a “bug” for about three to four patches that the talent Elemental Precision has been giving an extra 3% Spell Hit to Frost Mages, thus dropping the Spell Hit cap for Frost Mages from 164 to 126. This has been tested many times by many people, the guys at ElitistJerks.com included. I too have been using the lower Spell Hit rating and getting less than 1% Spell Resist on my Frostbolts.

There are many different theories on to why this happens.

One of the reasons is because of the nature of the Frostbolt Spell. Frostbolt is a binary spell which means it has a secondary effect to it, the slow effect. Being a binary spell means that it will either hit the target for full damage, or be fully resisted, never partial resisted. Spells like Fireball and Shadowbolt are not binary spells and can be resisted by 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, or 0%. Some people believe that because Frostbolt is a binary spell, it will receive the extra bonus from Elemental Precision.

Another theory is that the extra spell hits are coming from other talent sources in the Frost Tree. You get an extra 1% Spell Hit from the last point into Improve Frostbolt, the last point in Empowered Frostbolt, and the last point in Artic Winds. This means that the “Ghost Hit” will only benefit Deep Frost spec’d Mages and not Arcane Frost Mages.

Either way, it works for me since I am Deep Frost spec’d and enjoying my extra 3% Spell Hit. I have not tried this as Arcane Frost spec myself, maybe someone else can confirm this?

0 Frostbolts Resisted! w00t! Squirtle needs to wear more Spell Hit gear though…

Will it be “fixed”? Since this “Ghost Hit” has been known for quite some time now and still has not been changed yet, many believe that it will not be changed and is part of the Frostbolt spell mechanic. But then again, knowing Bliz, they might change this randomly one day, so don’t get rid of all your Spell Hit gear just in case.

Related Posts:

• Frost Mage PvP: 102 – Spell Penetration and Resilience
• Frost Mage PvP: 101
• Frost Mage PvE: Lady Deathwhisper
• Frost Mage PvE: Gunship Battle
• Frost Mage PvE: Solo Farming ICC Rep