The Best of the Worst: Hit above cap vs Arp for enhancement

[shokter]

Ok knowing neither Hit rating (after cap of course) or ArP are too desirable for the enh sham I am wondering which is better. Now of course I'm not goin out there and gemming either...in fact i've been avoiding ArP like the plague...but I'm at the point where i'm gonna be fairly swimming in hit so i'm wondering is the boost Hit above cap will give to white damage better than w/e little benefit we gain from ArP?

[Feiht]

Ok knowing neither Hit rating (after cap of course) or ArP are too desirable for the enh sham I am wondering which is better. Now of course I'm not goin out there and gemming either...in fact i've been avoiding ArP like the plague...but I'm at the point where i'm gonna be fairly swimming in hit so i'm wondering is the boost Hit above cap will give to white damage better than w/e little benefit we gain from ArP?

I am going to work on the assumption that you are talking of the Spell Hit cap here. Also without knowing your Gearing Level i will reply assuming that it is IcC level.

While it is true that ArP isn't desirable there you shouldn't be "avoiding it like the plague." ArP is considered less desirable because unlike our other stats it only affects approx. 50% of our damage. But as long as the Item in question is still an improvement over what you currently have by all means equip it.

Now Hit over the Spell hit cap also directly affects approx. 50% of our damage but it also indirectly affects more as more white hits translates to more MW procs and more WF (outside of ICD) procs.

Now at End game Gearing we have High mounts of Crit... So much in fact that in a raid with ED procs etc we are over the Crit cap... What this means is that we are WASTING crits.

At this point it is actually beneficial to Gem for Hit as every % of Hit (until back under Crit Cap) is turned into a Guaranteed Crit.

With Arp you would need levels far above the amount we get from random pieces of gear that have it that Gemming for it would be prohibitive and just not effective because of the aforementioned damage it affects.

Basically Extra hit is Always going to be better for you than ArP is (until DW hard cap... which you are unlikely to obtain)

[drucom]

Interestingly enough, the best-in-slot bracers and belt both have Armor Penetration.

But yes, Feiht summed it up quite nicely. You shouldn't go out of your way to find mail with armor pen, but sometimes the other stats are still an upgrade and it just makes sense to use them (because armor pen still benefits all your physical damage).

With ICC 25 heroic gear, there is so much crit rating and agility that, as Feiht put it, you encounter the crit cap, and gemming for hit is the only way to solve this.

[Butu]

Interestingly enough, the best-in-slot bracers and belt both have Armor Penetration.

But yes, Feiht summed it up quite nicely. You shouldn't go out of your way to find mail with armor pen, but sometimes the other stats are still an upgrade and it just makes sense to use them (because armor pen still benefits all your physical damage).

With ICC 25 heroic gear, there is so much crit rating and agility that, as Feiht put it, you encounter the crit cap, and gemming for hit is the only way to solve this.

It's really not that special considering that most of the time our BiS gear is the highest iLvl gear available for that slot, and there simply are not any mail iLvl 277 bracers with hit/haste. Same goes for belt. Hit over cap and ArP EP are not that far away from each other so usually higher iLvl wins.

[Vargarii]

The neck follows the same line. The BiS is the 277 arp neck from sindrigosa, and 2nd best is the 264 neck from hard mode festergut.

Feight is leading you in the right direction. Hit is more valuable than arp because of crit capping.