Critical Strike Damage System

Start With One Crit Chain

Crit is easier to read as one chain:

1. Find where the skill gets its base crit value.
2. Add all flat and percentage crit value scaling.
3. Convert final crit value into crit chance.
4. Then check whether your crit damage is high enough for that chance to matter.

A lot of build mistakes come from stacking only one side:

• crit chance side: how often you crit
• crit damage side: how hard that crit actually hits

Base Crit Value

Attacks and spells do not start from the same place

• Attack skills usually take base crit value from the weapon.
• Spell skills usually take base crit value from the skill itself.
• Dual wield, minion, and special mechanics still need to be read case by case.

Practical conversion

Use the simplest conversion first:

• 100 crit value = 1% crit chance
• crit chance = final crit value ÷ 100

Example: Rusted Dagger

• Rusted Dagger base crit value: 500

Before any extra scaling, that means:

500 ÷ 100 = 5%

The point of this example is simple: weapon crit value is not the final answer. It is the starting layer that later crit scaling works on.

How Final Crit Value Is Built

Core formula

final crit value
= total base crit value
× (1 + all percentage crit scaling)

Read it this way:

• total base crit value: weapon, skill, flat crit lines, and other fixed crit sources
• percentage crit scaling: ordinary % crit value

Safer public-facing wording for now

The current public entries that are easy to verify in pages-json consistently show:

• flat crit value, such as +300 crit value
• percentage crit value, such as +60% crit value

What they do not consistently expose is a stable, separate "extra crit value multiplier bucket" comparable to a damage more bucket.

So this page does not model crit value as multiple public-facing multiplier buckets. The safer wording for now is:

• combine all base crit value first
• then scale it with all % crit value

Example: High Court Covenant

High Court Covenant grants:

• +300 crit value
• +75% crit damage

If an attack build already starts from a 500 base weapon crit value, then that +300 crit value is not a minor side bonus. It first lifts the crit base from:

500 → 800

and only then gets amplified by later crit scaling.

Hidden Crit Value

This is where people undercount their crit most often.

How to read it

A hidden crit source is still a flat crit value source:

1. add it into base crit value first
2. let it scale with your current % crit value
3. convert the result into crit chance

Example: Boneworm's Daughter

Boneworm's Daughter can grant:

• +50 spell crit value per ailment on the enemy
• up to +100

If you currently have:

• 2 ailments, so the full +100 spell crit value
• +450% spell crit value

then that hidden crit source becomes:

100 × (1 + 450%) = 550

which means:

550 ÷ 100 = 5.5%

So the line does not stay a flat 100 once it enters your full crit setup.

Crit Damage

Default base

Every unit starts with:

• 150% crit damage

So a crit does not just happen more often. It also replaces a normal hit with a larger damage multiplier.

Crit damage has to be read with crit chance

The most practical average-gain formula is:

average gain = crit chance × (crit damage - 1)

For example:

• 55% crit chance with 420% crit damage gives about 176% average extra damage
• 75% crit chance with 500% crit damage gives about 300% average extra damage

That is why crit chance and crit damage should be evaluated together, not in isolation.

How To Judge Added Crit Damage

If:

• D is your current total crit damage
• C is your current crit chance
• A is the added crit damage

then the real improvement from that new crit damage is:

(A × C) ÷ (1 + C × (D - 1))

Example: the +75% crit damage from High Court Covenant

Assume you already have:

• 60% crit chance
• 420% crit damage

and High Court Covenant adds:

• +75% crit damage

Then:

• A = 0.75
• C = 0.6
• D = 4.2

So the real increase is about:

(0.75 × 0.6) ÷ (1 + 0.6 × (4.2 - 1)) ≈ 15.41%

This is the important takeaway:

• added crit damage can still be strong
• but it does not equal the number written on the item
• lower crit chance makes that crit damage worth less

Sample Target Bands By Investment

These are not absolute best numbers for every build. They are stage-based trial targets using the same average-gain formula:

average gain = crit chance × (crit damage - 1)

Low investment

Two practical pairs are:

• 45% crit chance + 300% crit damage = about 90% average extra damage
• 50% crit chance + 280% crit damage = about 90% average extra damage

These are close enough that the smoother-feeling option is usually:

• 50% / 280%

Mid investment

Two common targets are:

• 65% crit chance + 400% crit damage = about 195%
• 70% crit chance + 380% crit damage = about 196%

So this tier is usually less about chasing one magic number, and more about avoiding one side falling behind.

High investment

Two strong pairs are:

• 80% crit chance + 520% crit damage = about 336%
• 85% crit chance + 500% crit damage = about 340%

From pure average output, 85% / 500% is slightly ahead. In practice, both are strong and the gap is small.

Top-end investment

At very high budget, two useful references are:

• 85% crit chance + 620% crit damage = about 442%
• 90% crit chance + 600% crit damage = about 450%

This is a good reminder that even late, pushing crit chance a little higher can still beat spending the same stage budget only on more crit damage.

Useful Sources To Recognize

Crit value sources

• weapon or skill base crit value
• flat crit value from gear or mechanics
• % crit value from gear, talents, pets, and buffs
• conditional combat crit bonuses

Crit damage sources

• % crit damage on gear
• crit damage from pets, talents, and fate nodes
• temporary crit damage buffs

Example: Blazing Spin

Blazing Spin is a clean example because it feeds both sides:

• +435% crit value during the buff
• +14% crit damage per stack

One line raises the crit chance side. The other line raises the crit damage side. Reading only one of them usually leads to the wrong conclusion.

Common Misreads

High crit value does not automatically mean high crit return

It only answers how likely you are to crit, not how much average damage the whole package adds.

A large crit damage line is not always the next best upgrade

If your crit chance is still low, that crit damage is partially wasted.

Looking only at final crit chance hides where the gain comes from

There is a big difference between raising the base and only scaling an old base harder.

Conditional hidden crit often gets missed

Effects like Boneworm's Daughter, High Court Covenant, and Blazing Spin are not well represented by a simple idle tooltip check.

Practical Judgement Order

When you see a new crit line, check this first:

1. Is it flat crit value, % crit value, or crit damage?
2. Is it always on, or condition-based?
3. Are you currently missing the crit chance side or the crit damage side?
4. How much real crit chance or average damage does it actually add after full scaling?

The stable rule is still the same:

A good crit setup is not one giant number. It is a connected system where crit chance and crit damage are both high enough to support each other.