Hits vs ticks in Warcraft Logs
Warcraft Logs counts a hit each time an ability strikes directly and a tick each time its periodic damage pulses. The two are kept apart: a wave that leaves a damage-over-time is 1 hit and several ticks, not several hits. LogSnitch counts the same way, so its numbers match the site's.
What is a hit in Warcraft Logs?
A hit is one direct strike of an ability on a player: a wave crossing them, a bolt landing, a blast going off on top of them. Warcraft Logs' table for an ability gives the number of hits in its own column.
A strike that missed or met an immunity is not a hit. It is still in the log, with no damage, and the site counts it apart, as a miss.
What is a tick?
A tick is one pulse of periodic damage: the damage-over-time an ability leaves behind, or a patch of ground that hurts every second while you stand in it. Every damage event in a log says whether it is a tick, and the site counts ticks in their own column, beside the hits.
Why does adding hits and ticks together miscount mistakes?
Because a player makes one mistake when they are hit, not one per tick that follows. On one Ula'tek pull we checked, Caustic Waves logged 3 hits and 30 ticks. Counting every damage event reports 33, eleven times the real number of times someone was caught by a wave, and a number nobody can find on the site.
| Count | Value | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Hits | 3 | Times a player was caught by a wave: the mistakes |
| Ticks | 30 | The damage-over-time the waves left: what the mistakes cost |
| Every event | 33 | Neither: the number a tool gets by adding the two |
What about puddles, which only tick?
Standing in a puddle shows up as ticks and no hits at all. On one Mythic Entombed Sentinels pull, Blood Venom logged 0 hits and 117 ticks: counting hits would say nobody stood in it.
So LogSnitch reads the ticks as the mechanic itself when at least 80% of them land on players the ability never hit directly on that pull. It then counts stays: ticks close together are one stay, split where the gap is 2.5 times the ability's own tick interval, measured from the log. Those 117 ticks were 34 stays.
A stay's first tick is forgiven when 3 or more players start one in the same instant: the puddle was placed under them, and nobody walked into it.
Do misses and immunities count as hits?
No. On the same Entombed Sentinels pull, Toxic Droplets had 195 damage events but 183 hits: the other 12 were 6 misses and 6 immunities, which the site counts apart. LogSnitch leaves them out of the hits too.
One exception, deliberate: for a soak, a player who was immune still stood in it and took their share of the split, so they count as present in the turnout, though not as a hit.
How do I check the hits and ticks myself?
Check it on Warcraft Logs
- Open the report on warcraftlogs.com and pick the pull.
- Open Damage Taken and select the ability.
- Read each player's hits and ticks: the hits are what LogSnitch counts as mistakes, the ticks are what they cost.
- For a puddle, compare the ticks: LogSnitch groups them into stays, and shows the ticks beside them.
How does LogSnitch use hits and ticks?
- Mistakes are hits. A mechanic to avoid charges a player once per direct hit on a pull.
- Ticks are the cost. They are shown beside the hits, with the damage, never as more mistakes.
- Puddles are stays. When the ticks are the mechanic, a stay in it is the mistake.
- Deliberate differences are said. When a mechanic hit 80% of the raid (5 players or more), the low quartile of the raid's hits is taken off everyone's count as unavoidable, and the card says so.