What's with all these crazy numbers

[Messiah]

A look at Combat Stats, and the math behind it, in the World of Warcraft

This is likely the question many of you will be asking yourselves when you first load up World of Warcraft and look at some of your equipment. I know I did. When you first explore your character sheet there is a lot of information there that is not really explained in other places. In addition many of the numbers have changed since the initial release, so the original manual is of little use.

Lets start with a short explanation of what each of the major combat rating stats are and what they do.

Expertise - Expertise replaces the old weapon skill bonus. This stat lowers the percentage chance that your melee attacks will be dodged or parried.

You can read the whole guide here: What's with all these crazy numbers

[Twikster]

At first glance, this looks like a great guide. I always wondered about the numbers and math stuff. However, I don't see anything about ability scores (strength, agility, etc.). Can you add how those work into the dodge/hit/crit percentages?

I have to look at my character again, but I don't think he has any expertise. I don't really understand the system, but if Weapon Skill is no more, shouldn't I have something in the expertise column, translated from Weapon Skill?

[urbnsol]

Overall, this is a good beginners guide to what the various ratings mean, and because stats affect classes differently, they may have been left out for this reason. Although the basic conversions are pretty easy to figure and would be a nice addition.

If you plan to expand this guide to include stats and more, you should probably also add that for us dual-wielders, when we use a special ability (like sinister strike, eviscerate, etc. for us rogues), only the base 5% miss chance is used, not the 24% miss chance.

If you want lots more info about the combat ratings, stats, figuring hit tables, and more, I recommend wowwiki.com.
There's a ton of info there and all you need to do is search for the term you're looking for.
True, they use Google ads, which are usually populated with farmer ads, but if someone has a better, complete site like this, please let me know.

[Messiah]

Originally Posted by Twikster

At first glance, this looks like a great guide. I always wondered about the numbers and math stuff. However, I don't see anything about ability scores (strength, agility, etc.). Can you add how those work into the dodge/hit/crit percentages?

Sorry but most of the classes use different calculations for how each stat converts over. Most of our class guides explain what that classes key stat is and how it equates to the ratings you need.

[Miralyn]

Messiah - thanks for the information - I have had several people ask about hit/spell hit rating and to be able to confirm it from your information is very good too. Information like this is what makes this site one of my favorites.