What unified hit means

Forever folds melee, ranged and spell hit chance into a single stat, and does the same with critical strike chance. Blizzard's Deep Dive recap frames it as flexibility: a hybrid such as a Retribution Paladin or Enhancement Shaman gets value from one hit stat whether a swing or a spell lands, and Warriors, Hunters and Rogues can make tools like Taunts, Poisons and Traps more reliable.

For gearing, that means a hit item is no longer a melee item or a caster item. Hit you equip counts for every attack type you use.

Hand-inked illustration of a round dial labelled Hit beside a wooden board of three unnumbered coloured bands, each next to a small sword, bow or staff.
One shared stat, separate targets: the bands carry no numbers and their lengths aren't measured, because Forever's caps are unpublished.

Why one stat doesn't settle the cap

A cap is the point where extra hit stops reducing misses, and it depends on the miss chance each attack starts with, not on how the stat is labelled. Classic handled weapon misses and spell misses on different tables. Blizzard hasn't said whether Forever gives melee, ranged and spells the same starting miss chance; the recap describes the stat merge and nothing more.

Other inputs are unpublished too: how target level changes the numbers, how large any dual-wield penalty is, and how weapon skill, which Blizzard says “still works as it always has,” combines with the merged stat. Copying a Classic hit cap onto Forever gear means assuming answers to all of them.

Blizzard's own changes show some of those inputs are still in play. The 1 October beta notes stopped Heroic Strike queueing from raising off-hand hit chance and added a Fury talent, Furious Precision, that raises off-hand hit chance, so off-hand accuracy is still its own problem. The Priest and Warrior deep dive describes Holy Precision, up to 18% more hit with Holy spells, as a way to spare healing Priests from wearing hit gear. Neither publishes a base miss chance.

Gearing before the numbers exist

A few rules hold without a published cap:

  1. Count hit from every item, whatever role it was designed for. It all goes into the same pool.
  2. Don't stack toward a remembered Classic figure. Without a Forever cap, you can't tell whether you're short of it or past it.
  3. If your job depends on a taunt, poison or trap landing, value hit as utility as well as damage. That's the use Blizzard itself points to.
  4. Recheck once Blizzard or a dated beta note publishes Forever's combat-table values.

Still to come

Not yet settled by our sources or tested in game:

  • Base miss chance for melee, ranged and spells against same-level and higher-level targets.
  • The size of the off-hand or dual-wield miss penalty; Blizzard's talent changes show off-hand hit still matters but give no number.
  • How weapon skill and the merged hit stat combine on melee and ranged attacks.

Sources

Beta notes are dated because Forever is still changing.