Patch 5.0.4 changes hit and expertise

We've covered this topic in terms of how it will work for Mists of Pandaria, but it can be easy to forget that as of next week, hit, expertise and spell hit will be functioning differently than they do now.

Some big things to remember:

• Ranged attacks will be able to be dodged. This means that hunters will need expertise, making all physical DPS use the same hit and expertise formulas. Hunters and enhancement shaman will more closely share gear in the future, and as for patch 5.0.4, you hunters are going to want expertise.

• Expertise is now a rating, same as hit, and is normalized so that the same amount of expertise is needed to remove chance to be dodged as is to cap hit for special attacks, namely 7.5%. At level 85, you're looking at around 770 rating in each stat to hit 7.5%. (Without access to a reforge addon, I was just eyeballing it; I keep ending up slightly over.) This will cap hit for specials and white non-dual wielding and removed dodge. To remove parry would take a full 15% expertise, well over 1,500 rating. (Frostheim, our resident hunter guru, tells me that it's exactly 769 rating for 7.5% at level 85, and 666 rating if you have a hit or expertise racial. Evil.)

• Spell hit is intended to be equivalent to the chance to be missed and the chance to be dodged, so you're supposed to aim for 15% hit. You won't need to worry about expertise as a spellcaster; only hunters will need it, and they don't require 15% hit, only 7.5% hit. It's the same amount of total rating, but spellcasters get it all from hit, while melee and hunters get half of it from hit and the other half from expertise.

• The draenei hit racial adds exactly 1% hit, counted on your character panel, so if you see that you have 8.5% hit on your draenei, you can reforge away 1% hit safely. The human, orc and dwarf weapon racials add 1% expertise while using their various weapons. Trolls and dwarves gain 1% expertise with all ranged weapons for hunters of those races. As soon as you equip the proper weapon, the expertise is automatically calculated on your character panel.

• Again from Frostheim - "Also it's worth noting that pets inherit hit and expertise 50/50. So 1% hit gives your pet 0.5% hit and 0.5% expertise. Thus hunter who is hit and expertise capped will have a pet who is both, and a warlock/mage who is hit capped at 15% hit will have a pet that is melee hit capped and (dodge) expertise capped."

Hopefully this will help you when you're on your way to the reforger come patch 5.0.4. You'll likely need less hit and slightly more expertise than you do now. If you're a hunter, you'll need expertise, period, which is kind of weird if you've played a hunter before.

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!