Not that much lower, though. Heroic bosses are level 82. To be uncrittable, you need a Defense value of 535 (540 for raid bosses). The hit cap is a lot lower, though.
Right - the only +hit you need to never miss on heroic trash is 5% (164 hit rating I believe). For heroic bosses (which are tagged as “Level 82 Elite”) it is ~6% (something around 197 hit rating). If “Elite = +3” were true then a “Level 82 Elite” would require a +hit way above even the requirement for raid bosses (+8% or 263).
Wowwiki is just wrong on this. “Elite” mobs (even dungeon bosses) behave as the level they are labeled for hit/miss calculations - they just have more health and hit harder (and often have special abilities). There is no way to know exactly how tougher they are until you fight them (or ask someone else).
Do you mean “tougher” as in how many HP they have? Because my mob tooltip add-on tells me that if I mouseover the elite. I can’t remember which one it is right now, though. I’d have to go home and look at my add-on folder. I THINK it’s MobInfo, but I don’t know which version. That’s how I knew the gigantic Gronn patrolling around the big white dome in Nagrand has 125K.
Slight diversion, but how tough is Thyrm? Has anyone taken him on with a 5-man (or fewer)?
You don’t need an add on for that anymore.
True, but without addons before patch 3.0, the only thing in game that warned you that a mob might not be soloable was the Elite tag. It seems somewhat redundant these days when we can see the exact hp of everything.
Sure.
Excessive add-ons tend to bog my system down, though. He may desire to dispense with it, now. Dunno.
Hmmm…I wasn’t aware it was in-game now. I think I will get rid of it when I get home.
I need to read patch notes more carefully…
Has anyone actually run the numbers on this? Bosses are different from normal elites, so I don’t buy the “Heroic bosses would act like level 85 mobs” argument. I see no reason why they wouldn’t act like level 82 bosses. And if there is “no way to know exactly how tougher they are until you fight them”, then how can you say WowWiki is wrong?
Should be a relatively simple experiment to run. Take on a level x elite with no +hit gear, then take on a level x+3 non-elite with the same gear and see if the hit percentages are the same. Surely some of the various theorycrafters out there have done this so it should be a simple matter of updating WowWiki with accurate info if they are indeed wrong.
So, I’m 3/4 of a level away from 80, and rather than play right now, I’m looking back at my almost 80 character with a few regrets.
I regret that I’m only now reaching the level cap, when I bought the collector’s edition of vanilla WoW the day it was available and started this exact character that day.
I regret that I dumped about 3000 gold into various alts that haven’t peaked above 30 over the past few years, when I could have used that gold to already have my swift-flight mount/form.
I regret that I haven’t done a single instance with this character and only one raid.
I regret that I haven’t yet joined a guild on any character of mine.
I regret that my almost-80 has only ONE exalted rep—and it’s not even with his home city!
Ah well, most of my play on this character has been awesome, so in the end, that wins out over the little things. 
I’m going to make either an awesome prediction or a WAG (depending on whether I’m right or not)…Tranquilien?
Sigh I was hoping to avoid this but here goes.
For the tests I used a level 77 warlock with 3/3 Suppression but no hit rating, paperdoll crit chance is 9.12%
The mobs used in the tests were the elite Altar Warden* and the normal Elemental Rift, both level 77 and both can be found in Zul’Drak.
In addition the level 80 training dummy was also tested.
The spell used was rank 9 Searing Pain selected for its short cast time and low mana cost.
Recount was used to collect the data.
Results:
Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
Altar Warden - Elite level 77
Casts 148
Hit 133 89.9%
Crit 14 9.5%
Miss 1 0.7%
Elemental Rift - level 77
Casts 142
Hit 129 90.8%
Crit 13 9.2%
Miss 0 0%
Grandmaster's Training Dummy - level 80
Casts 176
Hit 144 81.8%
Crit 7 4 %
Miss 25 14.2%
From these numbers I think we can conclude that the level 77 elite is not treated as a level 80 normal mob for hit/crit/miss purposes.
*Altar Warden can spawn as both level 76 and 77, only level 77s were used in the tests.
Valiance Expedition, actually. I’m more than halfway revered with Darnassus (my home city) and slightly under half-revered with stormwind. And those are the highest reps.
To be fair though, most of my questing done in Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms was done before they modified and increased reputation rewards for quests. Were the same rep points that I earn with new characters today applied to my old character, I’d probably be close to exalted with all but Gnomeregan.
I’ll probably hit those statuses as I go back for the Loremaster achievements anyways, since I have about 300 quests yet in each continent before I achieve those.
Ah…didn’t realize you were Alliance. Of course you wouldn’t have Tranquilien rep.
Thanks.
Why were you hoping to avoid this? 
All I was asking for was some data. I would think that having such would be SOP when stating “such and such is wrong.”
And I would agree. WowWiki is wrong.
Yes, but I had to collect the data, and collecting that kind of data from live elites can be, um, painful. And while we’re on the subject of painful data collection, you owe me a stack of Smoked Rockfin 
Nothing painful about that; I already have a stack of Rockfin Groupers in the bank!
Well, I just did something new and fun. Took Wolkie to Stormwind Keep (I was looking to buy some better armor), and wound up joining a battle in Warsong Gulch.
Got killed-di-cated of course, and finally hearth-stoned back to the Lions Inn in Goldshire.
So I’m not sure what I got myself involved in, but a flag was captured and it was, well… fun!
It sure was a nice break from the Defias quest, but I’m not exactly sure of the protocol of what I did, so I’m gonna go to to Wiki Answers and see.
BTW, I fniggered the Dwarven District is where I needed to buy the armor, right?
What’s the shop’s name?
Got myself a stronger shield too.
Wish I had me a “holo-deck”. I’d stay there all the time!
Q
I ran through a series of Tuskarr quests that were fun this morning, and now I’m already honored with their faction. The Borean Tundra quests have been a lot more fun than the Howling Fjord ones I’ve did.
I’m not having much trouble at all with the mobs. I’ve got a full primal mooncloth set that I made, and some other purples from Karazhan. I was in a battle yesterday where I ended up killing about 5 pirates who kept coming a few at a time. I used my trinkets and my shadowfiend and was able to take them down.
I headed up to Dragonblight briefly and picked up a flight path from the Tuskarr town there. And now I’m working on the Dalaran quests at the Amber Lodge.
I can’t wait to see Dalaran, if its as cool as Shattrath, I will be psyched.
I’ve got a ton of Frostweave cloth to do something with soon. None of the stuff I can make is useful to me, but levelling up to better stuff will be.
I’m also a herbalist and I’ve gathered quite a collection of herbs to sell now. I’m up to about 395 herbalism.