Weapon skill

Weapon skill represents your proficiency with a particular weapon. The basic formula for your maximum weapon skill at a particular level is (5 * level). The rate at which you gain them depends on your weapon speed. It is typically better to use a fast weapon to train up your skills. Instant attacks like Sinister Strike and Hamstring help to increase your weapon skill faster. Note that attacking Evading enemies will not increase your weapon skill.

It has been confirmed that intellect increases the rate at which weapon skills are learned. Before Patch 2.0, this was listed in the tooltip but was removed shortly after that. If you want to level a weapon skill, try asking for an intellect buff or using a scroll which can help the process.

In Patch 2.3, stats on melee weapons which granted an increase to weapon skill were replaced by an increase to expertise rating. Items which granted ranged weapon skill increases instead now grant increases to hit or critical strike rating.

Effects of Weapon Skill

Player attacking a Mob

If your weapon skill is LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO the mob's Defense skill (the mob's level * 5):

• The base chance for your attack to miss the mob:
  • If the difference between the mob's Defense Skill and your Weapon Skill is less than or equal to 10 then the formula for calculating your base miss chance against that mob is: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%
  • If the difference between the mob's Defense Skill and your Weapon Skill is greater than 10, then the formula for calculating your base miss chance against that mob is: 6% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill - 10)*.4%

• The base chance for your attack to be dodged by the mob is: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%

• The base chance for your attack to be parried by the mob:
  • If the difference between the mob's Defense Skill and your Weapon Skill is less than or equal to 10, your base parry rate is: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%.
  • If the difference between the mob's Defense Skill and your Weapon Skill is greater than 10, your base parry rate will be much higher. Exact figures are not known, but base parry rates of Boss mobs (effectively level 73 when attacked by level 70 players) are estimated to be between 10-15%, and may vary from one Boss to the next.

• The base chance for your attack to be blocked by the mob is probably the same as the base dodge rate, i.e.: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%

Applying these formulae gives the following base miss rate for a Level 80 character with a 400 Weapon Skill:

• v. Level 80 mob: 5.0% / dual-wield: 24%
• v. Level 81 mob: 5.5% / dual-wield: 24.5%
• v. Level 82 mob: 6.0% / dual-wield: 25%
• v. Level 83 mob: 8.0% / dual-wield: 27%

At level 80, 32.79 hit rating reduces your chance to miss by 1%.

Thus if you are a Level 80 character with a Weapon Skill of 400, you need a Hit Rating of 263 (8.00%) to never miss a shot against a Level 83 boss (or skull mob) with a special attack or single-wield auto-attack. What this means is that there is a big +hit benefit to keeping your Weapon Skill within 10 levels of the mobs you are trying to fight. For example, by improving your Weapon Skill from 390 to 395, you effectively reduce your chance to miss against Level 81 mobs by 3%! However, after getting to 395, increasing your Weapon Skill the next 5 levels, to 400, only reduces your chance to miss by an additional 0.5% (or 3.5% in total).

Prior to 3.0, the base miss chance when your target's defense was 11+ points higher than your weapon skill was 1% higher. Back then, there was a huge jump in miss rate reduction by going from, say, 349 to 350 Weapon Skill. This was the point where you switched from one formula to the other, and so this particular single point of Weapon Skill was worth a dramatic +1.4% hit against a Level 73 mob/boss.

If your weapon skill EXCEEDS the mob's Defense skill, i.e. if the mob is lower level than you are:

For each point that your weapon skill exceeds your opponent's defense, you gain the following:

• Your chance to miss decreases by 0.04%.
• Your chance to score a critical strike increases by 0.04%.
• Your opponent's chance to block your attack decreases by 0.04%.
• Your opponent's chance to parry your attack decreases by 0.04%.
• Your opponent's chance to dodge your attack decreases by 0.04%.

Effectively, you can consider weapon skill to be the inverse of the defense skill.

Glancing Blows

Against mobs with defense roughly equal to or higher than your Attack Rating (i.e. your weapon skill), you will have a chance to land a Glancing blow instead of a normal hit. A glancing blow only occurs on white melee damage, cannot crit, and does less damage than a normal blow. If the attacker's weapon skill is less than his level * 5, the damage reduction will be proportional to the difference between the attacker's weapon skill and the target's defense.

Back before patch 2.0, when Weapon Skill could be raised above your level * 5 from gear or racial bonuses, the damage reduction when a glancing blow occurred was reduced somewhat for each point of additional Weapon Skill. This is no longer the case.

Mob attacking a Player

If a mob's weapon skill (its level * 5) is EQUAL TO your defense, and you have no gear or talents that increase any of your defensive Ratings:

• Its chance to miss you is 5%.
• Its chance to score a critical strike against you is 5%.
• Your chance to block the attack is 5%.
• Your chance to parry the attack is 5%.
• Your chance to dodge the attack depends on your Agility.

For each point that the mob's weapon skill (its level * 5) exceeds your defense, it gains the following:

• Its chance to miss decreases by 0.04%.
• Its chance to score a critical strike increases by 0.04%.
• Your chance to block the attack decreases by 0.04%.
• Your chance to parry the attack decreases by 0.04%.
• Your chance to dodge the attack decreases by 0.04%.

For each point that the mob's weapon skill (its level * 5) is less than your defense:

• Its chance to miss decreases by 0.04%.
• Its chance to score a critical strike increases by 0.04%.
• Your chance to block the attack decreases by 0.04%.
• Your chance to parry the attack decreases by 0.04%.
• Your chance to dodge the attack decreases by 0.04%.

Player attacking a Player

Weapon skills are maxed in PvP combat. This means leveling a weapon skill for pvp is unimportant; when attacking an enemy player, your Weapon Skill will always be considered to be your level * 5, and your target's Defense will always be treated as his level * 5.

Chance to be Dodged, Parried, and Blocked

The formulas for determining Dodge, Parry, and Block rates for attacks made vs. mobs are different from the formula above for determining Miss rate and are not all definitively known. As of Patch 2.4, the best working models seem to be the following:

• The base chance for your attack to be dodged by a mob is: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%

• The base chance for your attack to be parried by a mob:
  • If the difference between the mob's Defense Skill and your Weapon Skill is less than or equal to 10, your base parry rate is: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%.
  • If the difference between the mob's Defense Skill and your Weapon Skill is greater than 10, your base parry rate will be much higher. Exact figures are not known, but base parry rates of Boss mobs (effectively level 73 when attacked by level 70 players) are estimated to be between 10-15%, and may vary from one Boss to the next.

• The base chance for your attack to be blocked by a mob is probably the same as the base dodge rate, i.e.: 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.1%

Historical effects of weapon skill

The effect of weapon skill has changed several times over the game's history. Prior to patch 2.0, some items granted extra Weapon Skill directly, making it possible to have a weapon skill in excess of your level * 5. Back then, the formula shown above for your weapon skill exceeding your opponent's defense also applied in the reverse situation, i.e. when your weapon skill was less than your opponent's defense.

After the Burning Crusade went live, but prior to patch 2.1, CM Crezax made a post[1] on the EU forums outlining the effect of weapon skill on higher-level mobs. Note that this refers only to monsters 3 levels higher than the player in PVE (i.e. boss level mobs). Corresponding numbers for 1 and 2 levels higher than the player are not known, but are likely lower.

Let's say you increase your weapon skill by 4.

Against a mob 3 levels higher than you, you get: 0.8% lower chance to miss,
0.4% lower chance to get dodged, 2.4% to be parried, and a 0.8% higher
chance to crit.

These numbers given by the CM were questionable, and were rightly taken with a grain of salt.

Additionally, the Patch 2.0.1 notes said:

• The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill against monsters above their level.

Presumably this was only for Weapon Skill over your level's natural cap (Level * 5), a state of affairs which no longer exists as of patch 2.3. It was not known if you also got the additional 0.04% crit chance per additional +skill.

Crit Cap

White-damage attacks made by a player with fully-trained weapon skill against a mob 3 levels higher have a fixed 24% chance of being glancing blows.

Therefore, with no +expertise/+hit gear on, and no talents or racial abilities that increase Expertise or the chance to hit, attacks made by a level 80 dual wielder against a level 83 mob have the following table from the front:

Result	Chance
Miss	28.0%
Dodge	6.5%
Parry	At least 10%
Glancing Blow	24.0%
Block	6.5%
Combined hit + crit	At most 24%

Attacks against mobs made from the back cannot be blocked or parried (thus, attacking from behind will never trigger "parry haste" on the mob). Losing those values from the chart makes the "combined hit + crit" entry appropriately larger. Players cannot dodge, parry, or block attacks from the back.

It is not as bad if the same character attacks the same mob from the front with a two-handed weapon:

Result	Chance
Miss	9%
Dodge	6.5%
Parry	At least 10%
Glancing Blow	24.0%
Block	6.5%
Combined hit + crit	At most 43%

This is a 43% + your +hit crit cap.

All these crit caps could have been increased by increasing your Expertise (0.5% increase per point from the front) and by +hit (1% increase per percantage increase in your Hit chance).

Dual wield full raid buffs example from the front:

+0 hit +50% crit: 6.5% dodge, 10% parry, 28.0% miss, 6.5% block, 25% glancing blow, 24% crit 
                  = 26% of your crit rate did nothing
+6% hit +40% crit: 6.5% dodge, 10% parry, 6.5% block, 22.0% miss, 25% glancing blow, 30% crit 
                  = 10% of your crit rate did nothing
+15% hit +31% crit: 6.5% dodge, 10% parry, 6.5% block, 13% miss, 25% glancing blow, 31% crit, 8% hit 
                  = no +crit was wasted in this example 

Dual wield full raid buffs example from the back:

+0 hit +50% crit: 6.5% dodge, 28.0% miss, 25% glancing blow, 40.5% crit 
                  = 9.5% of your crit rate did nothing
+6% hit +40% crit: 6.5% dodge, 22.0% miss, 25% glancing blow, 40% crit, 6.5% hit 
                  = no +crit was wasted in this example
+15% hit +33% crit: 6.5% dodge, 13% miss, 25% glancing blow, 33.0% crit, 22.5% hit 
                  = no +crit was wasted in this example

DPS Implications

Hit Rating is very important due to the crit cap. The following shows the difference in white damage between various stat options:

Assuming 30% crit and +0% hit from the front, its
6.5% block for say 80% damage (depends on a lot of things)
24% crit for 200% damage (impale doesn't work on white-damage attacks!)
25% glancing blow for 70% damage
44.5% miss, dodge, or parry for no damage
per swing its an average of .065 * .8 + .24 *2 + .25 * .7 
= 70.7% of your damage per swing

Assuming you add +5% hit, the numbers become...
6.5% block for say 80% damage
29% crit for 200% damage
25% glancing blow for 70% damage
39.5% miss, dodge, or parry no damage
so per swing its an average of .065 * .8 + .29 *2 + .25 * .7 
= 80.7% of your damage per swing

Increasing your weapon skill (at level 70+)

A good place to increase ranged DPS for higher level characters is Plague Sprayer in Zul'Drak. They are level 80 Elites that fly above Kolramas. They have a high amount of health and the only attack they have is a plague beam that shoots straight down.

The Primordial Drake Eggs in Sholazar Basin also work well for this; they are high 70's, and do not attack back.

For ranged DPS (bows/guns) - Dr. Boom used to be an excellent choice - just bring enough ammo, and attack at will. Hunters had the best options with him due to auto-shoot. This no longer works as of 3.2. Likewise, the unkillable Servants in the Blasted Lands no longer skill you up when they are in their unkillable state.

Historical: Increasing your weapon skill beyond (level * 5)

Note: The subject of this section refers to an out-of-date release of the game, and is provided for historical purposes only.

Weapon skill ratings have been replaced by Expertise.

Itemization

Prior to patch 2.3, a few items in the game granted the wielder Weapon Skill Rating. Even then, though, itemization for +weapon skill was spotty.

2.0.1 Skill Rating conversion

Prior to patch 2.0, instead of Weapon Skill Rating, items granted their wielder Weapon Skill directly; e.g. a mace might say "Increases your skill with maces by 5." Under the new combat rating system introduced in 2.0.1, those items now all had a Weapon Skill Rating bonus instead.

It took 2.5 points of Weapon Skill Rating at level 60, and 3.9 points of Weapon Skill Rating at level 70, to increase your actual Weapon Skill by 1.

In applying the miss rate formulae listed in the "Chance to Miss" section above, fractional Weapon Skill levels were dropped, not rounded. So, say you had are a Level 70 character, and you equipped a piece of gear that gave +15 Mace Skill Rating. In theory, this equated to 3.8 +Weapon Skill. And, in theory, Blizzard could have used the fractional .8 in its subsequent calculations of hit and miss, or, perhaps, rounded it to 4.0. But it didn’t work that way. Instead, the fractional .8 Weapon Skill was simply dropped altogether. You got 353 Weapon Skill for purposes of all hit and miss calculations.

Another interesting point was that if you are able to stack your Weapon Skill above 365 at level 70, you'd find that each additional point of Weapon Skill above 365 continues to decrease your chance to miss by .1% per Weapon Skill level. So if your Weapon Skill was 366, your chance to miss was 4.9%, if 367, 4.8%, etc.

Pre-2.3 Talents

Rogues:

• [Weapon Expertise] talent increased skill with Swords, Fists, and Daggers by 5 (rank 1) or by 10 (rank 2).
• [Mace Specialization] talent increased skill with Maces by 2 per talent point spent (max 10).

Warriors:

• [Weapon Mastery] talent increased skill with all weapons by 2 (rank 1) or by 4 (rank 2).

Paladins:

• [Combat Expertise] talent increased skill with all weapons by 2 per talent point spent (max 10).

Pre-2.3 Racial Bonuses

• Humans: +5 sword skill, +5 mace skill, +5 two-handed sword skill, +5 two-handed mace skill
• Dwarves: +5 gun skill
• Orcs: +5 axe skill, +5 two-handed axe skill, +5 fist weapon skill
• Trolls: +5 bow skill, +5 throwing weapon skill

Patch Changes

• Patch 2.0.1: Weapon Skill now does the following: Weapon skill will no longer reduce the percentage damage lost due to glancing. The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill against monsters above their level.
• Patch 2.3.0:Weapon Skill: All items and abilities that granted weapon skill have been changed. In most cases, they were converted to expertise or expertise rating. Ranged attacks do not benefit from expertise, so ranged weapon skill has generally been replaced by critical strike bonuses or hit bonuses. In a few cases, talents have been changed to other effects to avoid granting players excessive amounts of expertise.
• Patch 2.4.0:Weapon Skill: Points will be gained faster in weapon skills for levels 1 through 59.

See also

• Class proficiencies
• Combat
• Combat rating system
• Defense
• Hit

External links

• 2.0.1 Patch Notes
• Zoroaster's Crit, Hit, Weapon Skill and damage formulas
• ElitistJerks' Roguecraft 101 (contains mention of base Dodge chance of bosses)