After reading this thread, I decided to do some testing on my own... But before I share the results, I would like to state some this very important fact:
** Pre-3.0 I was Holy specced, and that includes the night before the patch... I did not have Precision, or actually ANY Protection talents prior to the patch night. I logged on the next day after patch still in my holy gear even.
Isolating Variables:
1) To further neutralize the whole variable of talents, and also eliminate a personal doubt that might be a 'typo' in one of our talents that gives us hit instead of crit, I performed the following test without allocating any talent points; i.e. I had 0/0/0 specc.
2) Both tests were performed on the Heroic test dummy in Ironforge.
3) Both tests were conducted around 3:30 a.m. in the morning to make sure the dummy was not afflicted by any debuffs of any sorts, and I had no buffs/potions/elixirs or external buffs of any sort, including my own blessings/auras.
4) The tests were done using the "Tabar" 2-handed white axe, bought from the weapon master in ironforge. The choice of the weapon was to also eliminate any expertise benefits that could be yielded upon using a 2h sword or mace from my Human racial.
First Test:
It was performed without any gear equipped on. I had zero hit rating, and zero expertise. I took a sample of 1000 melee swings, performed on the aforementioned dummy. The results yielded illustrated in the following recount screenshot:
I had a 5.2% miss chance on the dummy. Putting in an 0.2% margin of error, that rounds us very close to the claimed 5% hit chance.
Second Test:
It was performed on the same target dummy, I had equipped the following 3 items:
- Spiked Titansteel Helmet (60 hit rating)
- Collar of Dissolution (24 hit rating)
- Staggering Legplates (80 hit rating)
===========
Total hit rating: 164 (Precisely 5% hit chance)
The results of this test is represented in the following recount screenshot:
As you can see; from the 1,000 swings, I had ZERO misses on the dummy. Which in conjuction with the previous test of 5.2% miss chance, pushes me to the complete certainty that right now our hit cap is 5%, i.e. 164 hit rating.
Please analyze my testing and results, and provide any feedback if I had any wrong assumptions or testing mechanisms.
Prism, lvl80 Retribution Paladin, Ascendance Guild, Alonsus-EU
Have a Nice Day (tm)...