Mage hit rating

A mob that is a skull lvl to you, that is level ?? (a raid boss, essentially), is considered to be 3 levels above you.

Your chance of missing a mob that is 3 levels above you is 17%.

Every ~26.23 points of hit you get, you increase your chance to hit a mob with your spells by 1%. This means that in order to hit a raid boss, you need 446 (rounding up) hit rating to reach your hit cap (the point at which you can no longer miss with any spells). That is a lot of hit, but luckily, there are a few talents and debuffs that will assist you in reaching your hit cap.

The two mage talents are Precision, in the Frost tree, and Arcane Focus, in the Arcane tree.

Precision increases your chance to hit with all spells by 1% per point, up to 3%.

Arcane Focus increases your chance to hit with just Arcane spells by 1% per point, up to 3%.

Arcane Focus and Precision DO stack, so Arcane mages are in luck and can get 6% hit from talents alone whereas Fire and Frost mages are only able to get 3%.

There are also two non-mage talents that apply debuffs to the boss that increases the chance for spells to land on them by an additional 3%.

Improved Faerie Fire, a Balance Druid talent, will apply the hit debuff to the boss whenever a druid debuffs the boss with Faerie Fire.

Misery, a Shadow Pirest talent, will apply the hit debuff to the boss whenever a shadow priest attacks basically.

Imp FF and Misery do not stack with each other but DO stack with both Precision and Arcane Focus, increasing the chance for Frost/Fire mages to hit by a total of 6% and an Arcane mage to hit by 9%.

For Alliance players, it should be noted that Draenei provide the Heroic Presence to their party (note: not entire raid) members within 30 yards, increasing their chances to hit with all spells and abilities by 1%. This aura does not stack.

Frostfire mages, employing the use of the standard 0/53/18 specs will have 3% chance to hit from talents (for both Frost and Fire spells)

To reach the hit cap...

Without further aid, they will need 368 hit.

With Heroic Presence, they will need 341 hit.

With Imp FF/Misery, they will need 289 hit.

With both Imp FF/Misery and HP, they will need 263 hit.

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Do note that, as long as you're under your hit cap, hit rating, point for point will increase your DPS more than any other stat. Be smart about gearing for hit however. Don't blindly go out of your way for it. If a piece of gear has 60 crit on it and another piece has 20 hit and you're under the cap, don't pick the 20 hit piece. Though hit is more valuable, there's still enough crit to compensate for it's diminished value.

If however you're under the cap and looking at either +30 hit food or +30 sp food, go for the hit food.

Remember, gear smart about it. Act responsibly with your hit rating.