Critical strike

This page is about the game mechanic. For the support gem, see Increased Critical Strikes Support.

A critical strike is a skill or default attack dealing increased damage and possibly inflicting elemental ailments. Whenever the player or a monster uses a skill, they have a chance to deal a critical strike by default.

Critical strikes are rolled on a per-action basis, not per-target. So each time a creature uses a skill, the critical strike roll is made once and only once. If someone rolls a critical strike, critical damage will be dealt to all targets hit by that skill.

Mechanics

Critical strike chance and critical strike damage multiplier are calculated separately for each spell and weapon attack. All weapons list a base critical strike chance, which only affects attacks using that weapon. Damage-dealing spells also have their own base critical strike chance, which is independent of the weapon used to cast the spell. For instance: the critical strike chance on a wand does not affect the chance to score a critical strike with Fireball, even when the player uses that wand to cast the spell.

Critical strike chance

"Critical Strike Chance" redirects here. For the passive skill, see Critical Strike Chance (passive skill).

The chance to deal a critical strike is taken from the weapon used to perform an attack or attack skill. This chance is based on the weapon's base critical strike plus any local critical strike mods on the weapon. In the case of spells, each spell has its own critical strike chance, which is listed in the skill gem's description. This value can be increased by various modifiers according to

$\color[RGB]{163,141,109} \text{CriticalStrikeChance} = ({\text{BaseCriticalStrikeChance} + \text{AdditionalCriticalStrikeChance}) * (1 + \text{IncreasedCriticalStrikeChance}) }$

where BaseCriticalStrikeChance is the base critical strike chance of the skill or weapon, AdditionalCriticalStrikeChance is the sum of all relevant +#% to Critical Strike Chance and IncreasedCriticalStrikeChance is the sum of all relevant #% increased Critical Strike Chance.

For example, if the player is using a weapon with 5% chance to crit, and has +1% to Critical Strike Chance and 50% increased Critical Strike Chance, he will have a 9% chance to score a critical strike.

These types of modifiers can be found on various items, skill gems, the passive skill tree or power charges.

Accuracy

Accuracy measures the chance for an attack to hit. Accuracy-dependent attacks make a second accuracy check to confirm the critical strike. If the check fails only a normal hit is dealt. Thus accuracy can play an important role in quantity of critical strikes.

Critical strike multiplier

Critical strikes deal more damage than normal, based on critical strike multiplier. All characters have a base critical strike multiplier of 150%. The damage will be multiplied according to

CriticalStrikeDamage = Damage * (BaseCriticalStrikeMultiplier + AdditionalCriticalStrikeMultiplier)

Where Damage is the base damage, BaseCriticalStrikeMultiplier = 150% and AdditionalCriticalStrikeMultiplier is the sum of all +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier.

This multiplier will be applied to all damage types of a hit. For instance, with +100% to Critical Strike Multiplier, if the player scores a critical strike with an attack that normally deals 100 physical damage and 10 cold damage, he will instead deal 250 physical damage and 25 cold damage.

Critical strike multipliers do not affect the critical strike multiplier on ailments, including global critical strike modifiers. Ailments have a base 150% multiplier when applied by a critical strike. The only way to increase the critical strike multiplier on ailments is with the Perfect Agony keystone.

Monsters have a base critical strike multiplier of Template:Monster query%. It can be increased by various monster affixes and monster auras.

Status effects

A critical strike that deals elemental damage also inflicts elemental ailments: ignite from fire damage, freeze from cold damage, and shock from lightning damage.

Effect on DPS

Ignoring Accuracy/Evasion and Armour, the DPS contributed by critical strikes is

net DPS = base DPS * (1 + base Critical Strike Chance * (1 + increased Critical Strike Chance) * (0.5 + increased Critical Strike Multiplier))

• With no increased Critical modifiers, 1% base critical strike chance corresponds to 0.5% increased dps.

The marginal net DPS with respect to increased Critical Strike Chance is

marginal DPS = base DPS * base Critical Strike Chance * (0.5 + increased Critical Strike Multiplier)

• At a typical base Critical Strike Chance of 5% and no increased Critical Strike Multiplier, 100% increased Critical Strike Chance corresponds to 2.5% increased dps.
• With 100% increased Critical Strike Multiplier, this increases threefold to 7.5% increased dps.

The marginal net DPS with respect to increased Critical Strike Multiplier is

marginal DPS * base Critical Strike Chance * (1 + increased Critical Strike Chance) * increased Critical Strike Multiplier

• At a typical base Critical Strike Chance of 5% and no increased Critical Strike Chance, 100% increased Critical Strike Multiplier corresponds to 5% increased dps.
• With 100% increased Critical Strike Chance, this doubles to 10% increased dps.

Note that this does not take into account effects such as status ailments.

Weapon critical strike potential

An exhaustive list of weapon base Critical Strike Chances. Weapons may have a higher base Critical Strike Chance with the proper Item affix. The second column for min/max values includes increases by local implicit modifiers on the weapon.

Class	Range	Hands	Min Base	Max Base	Min +Implicit	Max +Implicit
Bows	Ranged	2	5%	6.7%	5%	7.5%
Claws	Melee	1	6%	6.5%	6%	6.5%
Daggers	Melee	1	6%	6.5%	6%	6.5%
Fishing Rods	Melee	1	5%	5%	5%	5%
One Hand Axes	Melee	1	5%	5%	5%	5%
One Hand Maces	Melee	1	5%	5%	5%	5%
One Hand Swords	Melee	1	5%	6.5%	5%	6.5%
Rune Daggers	Melee	1	6.3%	6.5%	6.3%	6.5%
Sceptres	Melee	1	6%	6.5%	6%	6.5%
Staves	Melee	2	6%	7%	6%	7%
Two Hand Axes	Melee	2	5%	6%	5%	7.5%
Two Hand Maces	Melee	2	5%	6%	5%	6%
Two Hand Swords	Melee	2	5%	6.5%	5%	6.5%
Wands	Ranged	1	7%	8%	7%	8%
Warstaves	Melee	1	6.1%	7.3%	6.1%	7.3%

Skill critical strike potential

An exhaustive list of the base critical strike chances for spells and other skills with damage components that are not based on a weapon's critical strike chance.

Active skill gems with effects related to critical strikes

Main page: List of critical strike related skill gems

Related base stats

The following active skill gems have stats related to critical strikes:

Related quality stats

The following active skill gems have quality stats related to critical strikes:

Support skill gems with effects related to critical strikes

Main page: List of critical strike related skill gems

Related base stats

The following support skill gems have stats related to critical strikes:

Related quality stats

The following support skill gems have quality stats related to critical strikes:

Unique items

Local critical strike chance

Items that have increases to their local critical strike chance.

Global critical strike chance

Items that have global critical strike chance or other interactions with global critical strike chance.

• can have following modifiers:
  • +(1.2-1.8)% to Critical Strike Chance while affected by Hatred
  • (70-100)% increased Critical Strike Chance while affected by Wrath

Critical strike multiplier

Items that have global critical strike multiplier or other interactions with global critical strike multiplier.

• can have following modifiers:
  • +(30-50)% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Anger

Other

Items with miscellaneous interactions with critical strikes.

• can have following modifiers:
  • You take (60-40)% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes while affected by Determination

Passive skills

Main page: List of critical strike passive skills

Version history

Version	Changes
3.6.0	Removed the minimum and maximum Critical Strike Chance caps. Previously, characters had a 5% chance to deal a critical strike with attacks and spells, even when the spell specified a lower chance, and could reach a maximum of 95% chance to critically strike.
2.2.0	All sources of increased Critical Strike Multiplier have been changed to additional Critical Strike Multiplier.