WTF is the “to-hit bonus”?

[Wuzzy]

Hi, I have played Cataclysm: Dark Day Ahead for quite some time now. LOL, I even played Cataclysm.

I think I have mostly understood the game mechanics. But there is one thing I never could get my head around:
That thing called “to-hit bonus”. It appers everywhere but I did not found an explanation anywhere. What does it mean and how does it affect items?
Not even the wiki had an answer to this.

Oh, I also need to know this for the German translation I’m working on. It’s currently at 40% and it grows every day at the moment.
I can’t translate something I don’t understand.

[EkarusRyndren]

the “to-hit bonus” is what it says on the tin, the number if positive, makes your odds of hitting something better if negative it makes your odds of hitting something worse.

[Luissen]

I don’t know exactly the mechanics behind it, but I find that items with positive to hit don’t miss as much when my skills suck complete balls.

[deadmerits]

Is a +2 to hit bonus like having plus two melee skill points while you use it? Or is it like a percent chance increase?

[Pthalocy]

It’s gonna be a raw bonus to either the random ‘dice’ rolled to determine whether or not you hit the target, or a raw bonus to the ‘dice’ rolled when determining damage.

I just can’t recall if it’s affecting accuracy or damage output for a given weapon. (Obviously higher accuracy means more consistent damage, but I mean directly affecting).

[timtek]

I’m not sure exactly how cataclysm does it, but traditionally in gaming, +hit is a positive modifier to accuracy and not to damage done. If it was a damage multiplier it would be called +dam. So basically, it’s a dice roll to see if you hit, if you do, another die is rolled to see how much damage you inflicted on your opponent.

[Wuzzy]

Thanks for the replies so far, but the answers are all way too vague to me.

[i2amroy]

“To hit” adds to your chance of hitting a monster. To be slightly more specific your chance of hitting is:
number of dice = 1 + int(dex_cur / 2) + skillLevel(“melee”) + weapon.type->m_to_hit
sides = 10 - encumb(bp_torso);

This is then compared against the monsters dodge roll (# of dice = dodge modified by size, sides/status, # of sides = 10). You also have a flat one_in(4 + dex_cur + weapon.type->m_to_hit) chance to miss as well.

The stat also shows up in a few other, lesser, places as well (such as determining crit chance), but those are the main two.

[GlyphGryph]

In essence, the bonus is exactly the same as your melee skill, so you can treat the +to_hit bonus as effecting that directly if you so wish.

[Wuzzy]

Okay, thanks a lot. Those answers were helpful.