[Work in progress] Hit rating

[This post is currently incredibly messy. I'll tidy it up later]

Due to there being some confusion about hit rating requirements, I'm going to try and make a guide as to how much hit you will need to reach the hit cap.

Hit is different for casters, melee, and dual wielding melee.
Raid bosses are assumed to be level 83

Healers: if you heal and only heal, you can stop reading now. Hit is not required for healing as healing spells never miss (this does not apply to using spells like holy shock and penance offensively, this is affected by hit)

Casters: Casters will require a Hit percentage of 17% to have a 100% chance to hit a raid boss at level 80.
spell hit calculations are calculated at 26.23 hit rating per 1% hit.
therefore, WITHOUT any x% hit talents, you would need 446 hit rating to reach the hit cap.
+1% + 420
+2% + 394
+3% + 368
+4% + 342
+5% + 315
+6% + 289
+7% + 263

most classes only gain 3% from talents, however balance druids can achieve 7%, from balance of power (4%) and keeping improved faerie fire (3%) up on the target.
Debuffs that provide hit on targets (Shadow priests misery, and balance druids, Imp. Faerie fire) don't stack.
A detailed explanation on spell hit can be found here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_hit
A lenghthy list of all caster orientated gear/items that offer hit can be found here: http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_hit_gear

Melee(non dual wielding): Melee hit is calculated differently than casters. Melee hit is determined based on the difference between your weapon skill, and the opponent's defence skill.

Assuming a weapon skill of 400, and no +x% hit talents, a melee DpS requires an additional 8% hit to have a 100% chance to hit a level 83 monster (raid boss).

Hit for melee is calculated at 32.79 hit rating per 1% hit. Meaning you will need 263 hit rating to have a 100% chance to hit.

NOTE: Melee special attacks (yellow attacks) only need 8% hit in order to never miss, this applies to dual wielding melee as well.
Unfortunately there is no single gear guide for melee as there is casters. Here are all the links I could find that may be of use:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Hit
http://www.wowwiki.com/Hit#Northrend_gems
http://www.wowwiki.com/Warrior_DPS_equipment
http://www.wowwiki.com/Wrath_DPS_equipment_(leather)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Wrath_DPS_equipment_(mail)

Dual weilding melee: detail coming soon.
Dual weild needs 8% hit to not miss special attacks and 27% hit to not miss any auto attacks
hit still calculated at 32.79 hit rating per 1%

Quote :

Dual weild needs 8% hit to not miss special attacks and 27% hit to not miss any auto attacks
hit still calculated at 32.79 hit rating per 1%
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this means (27x32.79) I would need 885.33 hit rating for auto attacks. This can't be right. Everything else seems to be good though.

I agree, I'll dig a bit deeper.
perhaps that means 27% for your off hand to have a 100% hit chance?
so it you take 8% for your yellow hits, which (I'll assume) gives your main hand a 100% hit chance, thats an additional 19% for your offhand to have a 100% hit chance?
That dosn't quite sound right either, but I'll look into it.
EDIT:
After looking around I've found out:
Melee have a base 5% miss chance (same goes for bosses ).
By dual weilding, you decrease your white hit chance, with both weapons by 19%
therefore with no +hit rating and no talents, you have a 24% miss chance.
once you get to 8% hit (by any combination of +hit rating and talents/debuffs), all yellow hits will land.
However, I am getting conflicting figures, some stating that the hit cap for dual wield is 24%, and others 27%
Here's some reading if you're interested:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Dual_wield#Miss_chance
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=18138.0

Rogues have 3 hit caps one for yellow damage one for poisons and one for white damage, yellow is the 8%, poisons count as spell so its same hit cap as casters which is 17% and white damage which according to a sticky on rogue forums is 27%

link is:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13908723552&sid=1

hope i did it right im new to the forums

and hunters have same hit cap as melee, so 8%

Technically this means they have 2 'soft caps' and one hard cap (cap meaning once the figure is achieved, more of X stat is useless (which is why there is no defense hard cap))

Otherwise I'm sure someone will find a use for your numbers, though why you chose to look into that stuff now is beyond me.