detective1.jpg“Dear BRK, please, please … talk about spell hit and its correlation with Freezing Trap.

“The reason I’m asking is because I’ve noticed that my traps are being resisted a lot more and traps are breaking earlier than they’re supposed to lately. I just got into doing heroics two weeks ago and I think it has something to do the level of the mobs I’m trapping and their resistances, but I’m not quite sure. I’ve read somewhere (in your forums) that by adding spell hit, the chances of one’s traps being resisted will reduce, as well as it breaking early.

“Can you kindly shed a light with regards to this? Like, how many points should I try to invest in spell hit? I was thinking of re-gemming two of the Beast Lord Set for the trap bonus. Jim.”

Let’s start this investigate with a definition, shall we?

“Spell hit is a combat attribute that increases a caster’s chance to hit with spells.” So sayeth WoWWiki, so let it be done.

But what does that mean?

When Mr. Warrior smacks something upside the noggin with his sword, he can Hit or Miss. When he Misses, his combat text says, YA MISSED, NOOBCAKES!

When Mr. Mage conjures and launches a fireball at the same target, he too can Hit or Miss. When he Misses, his combat text says, SPELL RESISTED, NOOBSAUCE!

This is where the confusion sets in for hunters. When we miss a shot, we know we Missed. When a Mage misses a spell, he too Misses but the game calls it a Resist. There is a difference, let’s see what it is.

When Mr. Warrior smacks something upside the noggin with his sword, he can Hit or Miss. When he Hits, sometimes the full effect of the attack is diminished. This is known as Mitigation, and shows up on combat logs and in WWS reports.

Mr. Mage conjures and launches a fireball, he misses. This is called a Resist. Mr. Mage conjures and launches another fireball, he hits his target, but the mob Resists some of the damage from the spell. This is the real Resist, and it too shows up in combat logs and in WWS reports.

As you can see, there are duplicate dynamics at work:

1. Both melee and spells can Hit or Miss. For melee, a miss is a Miss. For spells, a miss is a Resist.

2. Both melee and spells can have their effects diminished. For melee, a dimished attack is a Mitigation. For spells, a diminished attack is a Resist.

How does one make one’s melee attacks hit more frequently? With Hit and Expertise ratings.

How does Hit work? We’ve covered that before; it reduces one’s chance to Miss, actually. The chance to miss is based upon the differences between the attacker’s skill rating and the defender’s Defense rating, as well as the difference between the attacker’s and defender’s level.

How does Expertise work? Expertise reduces a chance an enemy will Dodge or Parry one’s attack.

How does one avoid a melee attack? Dodge, Parry, Block, by being a higher level than the attacker, and causing a Miss by having a higher Defense rating than the attacker’s weapon skill rating.

How does one avoid a spell attack? By being a higher level than the attacker, that’s it. For equal-level opponents, the spell attacker will have a 96% chance to hit with his spell.

How does one mitigate melee attacks? Armor.

How does one mitigate spell attacks? Resistances.

So what is the spell caster’s equivalent of Hit? You got it; Spell Hit. If you read notes about Spell Hit, they’ll say that it reduces the chances a spell will be Resisted, but read that carefully. What it really means is that it reduces the chances a spell will Miss.

And what really reduces the chances that a spell will be Resisted?

Spell Penetration, foshizzle.

Spell Penetration reduces a target’s resistances to spells. If you’ve got a dwarf with the +10 Frost Resistance racial, a mage will need some Spell Penetration to counter that resistance when attacking with frost spells in order for his spell damage to not be mitigated.

Got it? When one Hits with a spell, the defender can have the damage mitigated with Resistances, but the attacker can overcome those resistances with Spell Penetration.

Let’s bring this all back to Hunters and their traps.

You drop a Freezing Trap and trap a mob. With every tick, that mob has a chance to Resist your trap-spell. If that mob has high magic resistances, like those that inhabit Karazhan, the chance that they’ll Resist your trap increases. Since the mob was trapped, you Hit it; any mechanic that affects initial trap Miss/Resist has been rendered moot.

To decrease the chance that that trapped mob will break early, i.e. to decrease the chance your trap-spell will be Resisted, you need Spell Penetration, not Spell Hit.

Freaky, eh? You bet.

“But BRK, what about the initial Resist? You know, when that mob runs over your trap and he immediately Resists? Was that a spell Miss or a spell Resist?”

Now this is where it gets murky. According to all the research we’re read, Spell Hit should decrease the chance that traps will be Missed. The question is: does Blizz consider that initial trap Hit/Miss a Miss or a Resist?

We’re of the opinion that all trap mechanics are Resists. We arrived at this conclusion based upon two things:

1. The Trap Mastery talent tooltip:

“Decreases the chance that enemies will resist trap effects by X%.”

It would make little sense for a hunter to get the uber-trap talents and have no bonuses to avoiding that initial trap-Miss. We must assume that an initial Miss is calculated in a fashion similar to a ticking-Resist.

2. We are aware of no mathematical evidence that shows that Spell Hit affects trap Misses/Resists. There has been research into Spell Hit and trap mechanics and no correlation has been seen. This bolsters our assumption that traps are only Resisted, as Spell Hit should indeed affect whether traps are initially Hit or Missed/Resisted.

Instead, we believe that Spell Penetration will work in the same manner as Trap Mastery when it comes to initial and ticking trap Resists.

As we stated, there has been research to determine if Spell Hit affects trapping, and those results indicate that there is no correlation.

But, and this is a Big But, we are unable to find any research into Spell Penetration and its effect on trapping; all our yapping here is conjecture. Now we think it’s pretty solid conjecture and it all falls into line with the rest of the spell-mechanics in the game.

But we could be 100%, totally wrong. It’s not a habit to which we’re accustomed, but the probability exists.