How important is critical strike?

[DoomBoy]

For a zon that uses mainly multi shot and lightning fury? Is it as important as penetrate (for the arrows to hit)? I'm thinking about maxing penetrate or maybe putting 10 in penetrate and 10 in critical strike, but unsure at this point what is better for my zon.

[NASE]

what equipment will you be using.

Critical strike is the same as deadly strike. So if you use highlords and gores - or wws - the effect of critical strike will be less. If you on the other hand use faith or lava gount or conviction merc, penetrate will be quite useless.

Generally, it's be to aim for about as much cth as critical strike. Remember though that cth is easier to effect through gear then critical strike.

P.S. assuming you have good gear, consider something like 17 in critical including +skills and as little as possible in penetrate. points in lighting synergies might be more interesting.

[KremBanan]

I like to aim for level 16 Critical Strike, this is with +skills. After that, the return is diminishing. But this is equipment dependant as NASE says.

[DoomBoy]

Thanks for the replies, guys!

cth = chance to hit? so wouldn't penetrate boost my AR/cth?

By the way, I'm maxing charged strike, lightning fury, and multishot (maybe 12-15)

I'm going to be equipping a Faith GMB, with Titan's + spirit shield on switch

currently wearing 20% ias rare gloves with resists, and Rockfleece / going to aim for ap fortitude later on in the game, as well as LoH for the gloves

A nice +2 passives, 20% fwr, 3% mana steal circlet / maybe trading up for a dream diadem later on

waterwalks boots/ trading up for marrowalks boots for str/dex boost

thundergod's belt

a ravenfrost and manald ring + telling of beads amulet / trading up with either highlords or cat's eye or atma's

[Banjotron]

Well, two general comments, the first being about critical strike. Consider very carefully just how many points you want to put into it, especially since you're using a build that will arguably be point-starved for offensive synergies.

Think about it this way. Lets say you have +8 passive/magic skills totally.

1 point of critical strike would give you 54% crit.
8 points would give you 65% crit.
20 points would give you 72% crit.

Bottom line? You can get away with 1 point, if you are desperate for points elsewhere. If you do decide to pump it, you are strongly advised not to go any higher than 16 total (including base and +skills).

My second comment would be to ditch the tgod's vigor, since you apparently have a fair amount of resources at your disposal. Piercing is really your friend for both of your attack styles. Grab the piercing belt and you can pretty easily hit 100% with just the belt and 1 point of pierce (and +skills of course).

[NASE]

Wel, faith makes ar useless. It has idt and huge ar bonus so you don't need penetrate.

And remember, dreams does little good for you. You are better off with something as simple as a shako.

[stillman]

I prefer to max critical strike. We're talking about doubling your physical damage here. I'd put 5 skill points into it for a mere 1% increase, I really would.

Of course, since you are making some kind of non glass cannon hybrid, you might want to conserve points.

[DoomBoy]

Wel, faith makes ar useless. It has idt and huge ar bonus so you don't need penetrate.

And remember, dreams does little good for you. You are better off with something as simple as a shako.

Shako has nice mods, but it looks pretty ugly. I'll pick my circlet over it :whistling:

[PFSS]

I prefer to max critical strike. We're talking about doubling your physical damage here. I'd put 5 skill points into it for a mere 1% increase, I really would.


1% means that out of 100 hits one of them will do double damage. Say your damage output after 100 shots is 100X, 1% crit will increase your damage output to 101x.

Each 1% Crit increases your average damage output by 1%. It gets more complex when you have DS too... and CB... and Elemental - but in those instances the increase from Crit falls each time - if you have DS, CB, OW and elemental damage you'll get less than 1% increase to your damage output from those 5 skill points.

If I am wrong can someone please correct me.

[droid]

Nope PFSS is right...even with just 30% DS (Highlords at L90 or Gores+Guillaumes) and L16 CS (65%), thats a 75.5% chance to do double damage on every hit. Assuming you only spent 8 hard points in CS....spending the extra 12 to max CS gets you to 72% CS, or 80% chance for double damage. You just spent 12 points for a 4.5% increase in your DPS. (in terms of just raw physical DPS; other damage factors independently like PFSS said)

Lets assume, just for kicks, you spend those 12 points in Penetrate instead and moved your CTH from 90% to 95% (max). Since your base damage remains constant, that increases your DPS 5.5%. And the increase is even more if your CTH is lower....going from 70 to 75 is a 7.1% increase.

CS should be about the last place you dump points after you get to soft 16. Even as a pure-bowie with Faith where Penetrate is pointless, you're likely better off getting Pierce to ~80% first in most situations. With CS, unlike blackjack, DONT hit on a soft 16 :)