'''Critical hits ''' are special types of hits dealt to monsters [[monster]]s (and other players in [[PVP]]). Critical hits can happen from any type of damage (weapon or spell), they deal bonus damage, and may trigger other special effects as well. Monsters that die from critical hits usually explode in an especially gruesome [[Death#Special_Death_Animations|death animation]], adding visual fun to the killing bonuses, or are otherwise blasted with the full force of the [[physics]] system, sending them caroming overhead and out of the camera's view.

==Critical Hits Crits are very important in Diablo III==3, and using skills and especially items to raise a character's [[critical hit chance]] (CC) and [[critical hit damage]] (CD) is the best way to increase character damage and performance. Landing crits is also essential to trigger [[procs]] in many skills. Most of the best [[builds]] in Diablo 3 require a fairly high critical hit chance in order to keep the procs functioning to restore resource, reduce cooldowns, heal, and more.

Exactly how critical hits work Characters have a base 5% crit chance and how much a base 50% crit damage, <ref> {{cite web | url = http://blues.incgamers.com/Posts/1/1/4/10/7462/deadly-strikecritical-strike#postId_20442 | title = Bashiok on Critical Hits | accessdate = 2010-08-24 | quote = We have Critical Strikes. When you crit it does 50% more damage they deal isn't yet entirely understood. This is partially due Your chance to the fact that the game remains under development crit and that increase above the features 50% are in fluxboth variable with skills, items, but it's also due etc.}}</ref> and players aim to critical hits doing a lot of different things in D3increase both figures considerably with equipment and skills. In previous games in the series critical hits were simple; they doubled physical damage. In D3, the biggest change There is no hard and fast rule about how much is that critical hits work on all types enough (it varies by class and build) but (as of damagev1. Not just physical, or melee, but various types of spell damage as 06) well-equipped characters generally have 30-50% CC and 300-500% CD, and apparently they can trigger from elemental damage on weapons as wellwith larger values to both possible with high quality gear.

The calculation of the bonuses is going to be interesting as well==Critical Hit Terms==[[File:Crits. In D1 and D2, critical hits were a huge bonus, since doubled the total physical damage dealt; a value that was often jpg|right|thumb|300px|Crits displayed in the 1000s for yellow text.]]There are a powerful combat character. In D3 critical hits will still (apparently) be few crit-related gameplay terms that powerful for the Barbarian, but critical hits are used as variables on spell damage would seem to be far less potent[[item]]s, since spells generally deal their damage over time, rather than in huge chunks per hit[[skill]]s and other gameplay effects. Occasionally adding 10% It's important to know the critical hit damage of a 1-6 damage spell isn't very impressive, even if difference between them: See the spell is hitting 20x a second. A wizard would seem better off boosting the % chance of scoring a critical hit[[CC]] and [[CD]] articles for much more detail on those functions.

===* '''Critical Deaths===Hit''' / '''Crit''' - The actual event when a critical hit lands. Increased damage and an added effect, depending on the school of damage used.* '''[[Critical Hit Chance]]''' / '''Crit Chance''' - Chance of landing a critical strike.* '''[[Critical Hit Damage]]''' / '''Crit Damage''' - The actual damage dealt when a Critical Hit has landed.

These were demonstrated during a panel at Blizzcon 2008, an excerpt from which [http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41498.html can be seen here]. ==Types of damage and effectsCritical Hits in Diablo III==

Critical hits are a major part of When the game was first announced in Diablo III2008, dealing double it was revealed that crits would have dealt very different effects depending on their elemental damage with every type of damage. This feature was [[dumbed down|removed during development]], inflicting bonus effects, boosting and being boosted by a wide variety of skills, and triggering special (extra gruesome) death animations.but the original plan went as follows:

* '''Physical Damage: '''Deals double damage. Might also and possibly [[knockback, but not confirmed]].

* '''Cold Damage: '''Critical hits from cold damage stun freeze targets for 2 seconds.

* '''Toxic Damage:''' Critical hits from toxic (poison) damage have had an unknown bonus. Extra damage over time? These functions were removed along with the entire system of elemental damage from characters, and all critical hits became hits that added (at base) 50% damage. There are no special secondary effects (other than visual) to critical hits in Diablo III, though many skills trigger [[procs]] when crits are scored.  ===Crit Damage and Chance===[[File:CHD.jpg|left|thumb|300px|CHD raised through a [[weapon]] and [[gem]].]]Critical Hit Chance ('''CHC''') and Critical Hit Damage ('''CHD''') can be raised in a number of ways. First and foremost is from items. Many items will grant the player an increased chance to crit. These incremental increases are percentage-based, but also a flat value. So if a player has 5% chance to crit, and they get an [[amulet]] that offers an additional 5% chance to crit, their overall chance to crit will be 10%. CHC is, then, addititive and not multiplicative.   ===Raising Damage Values=== Values for Critical Hit Damage are raised through items, [[skill]]s, and [[passive]] abilities. CD can roll [[affix]]es on specific item types, being the following: * 1-handed weapons.* 2-handed weapons.** An [[Emerald]] socketed in any weapon.* Gloves* Rings* Amulets* [[Follower]] Specials. (Benefit only the Follower.)* Certain [[Legendary]] items in other item slots.  Critical Hit Chance can be found on the following items: * Bracers* Helms* Rings* Gloves* Amulets* Off-Hand items (such as a [[shield]] or [[mojo]])* Certain [[Legendary]] items in odd slots. Many [[skill]]s and [[passive]] abilities also add relevant bonuses, such as (for CHC) the [[Barbarian]] passive [[Weapons Master]] will increase CHC by 10% when wielding an axe. Similarly, the [[Demon Hunter]] passive [[Archery]] adds 50% CHD when wielding a [[crossbow]], but adds 10% CHC when wielding a [[hand crossbow]]. These and other such passives are among the most popular in the game.  ===Balancing CHD versus CHC=== On average, the extra base damage (''i.e.'', excluding skills and stats) from critical hits works out to (''CHD%'' * ''CHC%''). Thus, the optimal strategy for increasing total CHD is to increase whichever stat gives the larger gain, percentage-wise, over its previous value. For example, consider a player with a 25% chance to crit for 60% extra damage, who must choose whether to add 10% to CHD or 5% to CHC.* Base CHD = 0.6 * 0.25 = '''15%''' extra damage* Adding 10% CHD (an increase of 1/6 over previous CHD): 0.7 * 0.25 = '''17.5%''' extra damage* Adding 5% CHC (an increase of 1/5 over previous CHC): 0.6 * 0.3 = '''18%''' extra damageAdding 5% CHC is preferable in this case. (Bear in mind that many [[procs]] require critical hit chance to function, which sets a minimum CC that is effective '''''required''''' for that build to function. This varies by the build, but is generally at least 30-35% and may be considerably higher.)              ==Development Archives== <font color="#FF0000">The following is information archived from when Diablo III was in development. The information is not current, but it is retained for historical value. It is worth noting that shattering of a frozen monster still occurs in the game, apropos to what happened in D2.</font> [[Image:Critical-hit1.jpg|frame|Critical hit reduces a monster to a puddle.]]Exactly how critical hits work and how much damage they deal isn't yet entirely understood. This is partially due to the fact that the game remains under development and that the features are in flux, but it's also due to critical hits doing a lot of different things in [[Diablo 3]]. In previous games in the series critical hits were simple; they doubled physical damage. In D3, the biggest change is that critical hits work on all types of damage. Not just physical, or [[melee]], but various types of spell damage as well, and apparently they can trigger from elemental damage on weapons as well. The basic critical hit bonus is still +100% damage, but various skills increase the damage of critical hits, while others increase the odds of critical hits scoring, or cause other effects to trigger when a critical hit is scored. How these will all interact remains to be seen.  ===Critical Deaths===[[Monster]]s that die to a critical hit get a special "critical death" animation, which is extra gory. A few examples can be seen in screenshots on this page. The monsters literally explode, leaving chunks of themselves scattered across the ground. These animations are customized for whatever type of damage killed them; the chunks have flames licking across them from fire damage, sparks and arcs from lightning, etc. Physical damage critical deaths tend to leave huge slicks of blood, and give a battlefield a lovely post-massacre patina. These were demonstrated during a panel at [[BlizzCon 2008]], an excerpt from which [http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41498.html can be seen here]. 

[[Image:Critical-hit2.jpg|frame|Cold critical hit, with highlighted gore..]]The [[Barbarian ]] has a number of skills that increase the % damage of his critical hit, and a few interesting skills that boost other properties (such as fury generation rate and defense) when he scores critical hits. There aren't any known skills (yet) that increase his chances to score critical hits, though. 

 * [[Berserker_Skill_Tree#Savage|Savage]]: This passive skill "Increases [[Fury ]] generation 30% for 8 seconds after scoring a critical hit."

 No critical hit bonuses from [[Witch Doctor ]] skills are yet known. This isn't a sign that there aren't any, though. It's just due to the WD only having 11 skills on display at Blizzcon[[BlizzCon 2008]], while the [[Wizard ]] and [[Barbarian ]] had more than 50 each.

* [[Storm_Skill_Tree#Thunderstruck|Thunderstruck]]: Increases the critical hit chance of all lightning spells by X%. The bonuses listed on this passive skill as of Blizzcon BlizzCon (October 2008) started at 5% and increased 5% per skill rank. It's not known what the base bonus to critical hit is, for the [[Wizard]]. This skill might increase it from 0%, or Wizards might have an inherent bonus based on their [[Clvl]], or attributes, or there might be bonuses to be had from equipment.

* [[Storm_Skill_Tree#Lethal_Energy|Lethal Energy]]: Increases the chance to score critical hits with [[melee ]] and [[spell ]] attacks. Grants a 5% bonus at rank 1. This seems like a very powerful skill, if it indeed works for all spells, including those in other trees. It's a fairly high level skill though, and would require a substantial investment into the Storm skill tree to enable it, but it might still be worth it. 

In Diablo I critical hits are a hidden bonus for the [http{{Template://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Warrior#Stats_and_Attributes Warrior] and [http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Barbarian_(Diablo_I)#Stats_and_Attributes Barbarian] characters. They gain a 1% chance to deal double damage with each Clvl they gain. At level 20 they deal double damage 20% of the time, at level 30 they do it 30% of the time, etc.Items navbox|basics}}