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A critical hit is a successful combat attack that deals more damage than a normal blow. Critical hits occur at random, based on a percentage chance.

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is based on experimental research conducted by the community, and may contain inaccuracies and speculation. While we strive for accuracy in these articles, we make no claims of experimental rigor or unbiased conclusions. Caveat lector.

Effects[]

Whenever a critical hit with a weapon occurs, the damage done is equal to the maximum damage of the weapon multiplied by approximately √2 (or 1.41 approx), the equivalent of striking for maximum damage with a weapon attribute 4 higher than actually possessed or striking a foe with a -20 armor penalty. Non-critical hits are a random value chosen between the minimum and maximum damage values of the weapon. See Damage calculation for more information.

The critical hits of animal companions and minions use a different damage formula. The multiplier is unknown, but their critical hits have a damage range rather than using max damage * √2. The critical hit rate formulas for pets and minions are unknown.

Occurrence[]

The Critical Strikes attribute increases the critical hit rate of all weapon attacks by 1% per rank.

Each martial weapon attack has an independent chance of dealing a critical hit. A higher weapon attribute increases this chance. Attacker and target levels are also factors. A few skills can cause or negate critical hits, as specified in their description. If you strike an opponent from behind with a melee weapon as they are moving, you will always score a critical hit. The Assassin's Critical Strikes attribute improves the critical hit chance with any weapon. This stacks with ranks in "weapon mastery" attributes such as Swordsmanship, Marksmanship, and Dagger Mastery, which affect critical hits as mentioned above.

Spellcasting weapons have an extremely low critical hit rate, even with 16 ranks of the weapon's attribute, and it is not known if their linked attributes have any effect on the critical hit rates. The critical hit rates of spellcasting weapons can be increased as usual by the Critical Strikes attribute and skills which affect the critical hit rate.

According to empirical research done by game players, it appears that each weapon attribute point increases the chance to critical hit by about 1.44%. The recorded critical hit rates with a 12 and a 16 weapon mastery were 15% and 23% respectively, while the best linear fit suggests approximately 17.5% and 23.5% (R2=0.953). A list was generated based on a study of over 8000 hits, with a result of about 1.3% per point in Weapon Mastery, or more precisely 0.0137x + 0.01 with the intercept forced to 0.01. This table shows his results:

Weapon mastery 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
(Approximate) Critical Hit Probability 1.0% 2.1% 3.7% 3.7% 6.8% 7.7% 8.0% 8.4% 10.3% 16.8% 11.8% 17.0% 19.2% 21.1% 21.4% 22.1% 22.9% N/A N/A N/A N/A

From these observations, a linear progression table can be approximated:

Weapon mastery 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
(Approximate) Critical Hit Probability 1.0% 2.3% 3.7% 5.0% 6.3% 7.7% 9.0% 10.3% 11.6% 13.0% 14.3% 15.6% 17.0% 18.3% 19.6% 21.0% 22.3% 23.6% N/A N/A N/A

For the above research, both the attacker and the target were level 20. Testing in Churrhir Fields indicates significantly higher critical hit rates for a level 20 player attacking level 5 practice targets; it is not clear whether this is based on just the target level or both the attacker and target levels.

With a rank of 16 in a wand's linked attribute against an armor 60, level 20 target in Isle of the Nameless, a critical hit rate of 0.4% was observed. It is currently not known if attributes affect critical hit rates.

Related skills[]

These skills guarantee critical hits when they hit:

These skills increase critical hit chance:

These skills prevent or protect against critical hits:

These skills benefit from landing critical hits:

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