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Path of Exile Mechanics Explained - Increased Critical Strike Chance & Additional Crit Chance

Mar 16, 2023

This is Path of Exile mechanics explained.

In Path of Exile, there are several modifiers that affect your Critical Strike Chance, but we’re going to be looking at the difference between Increased Critical Strike Chance and modifiers that add to Critical Strike Chance. This is a very important distinction that is often confused, especially by players that are new to the game.

First of all, we need to understand how our base Critical Strike Chance is determined. For spell skills, this is determined by the skill gem fact that is shown on the skill gem itself.

POE Fireball

For example, this Fireball spell has a base Critical Strike Chance of six percent. Attack skills work a bit differently instead of having a base Critical Strike Chance that is attached to the skill gem itself. Attack skills inherit their Critical Strike Chance from the weapon that you are using. For example, using an attack skill with this Infernal Sword will provide a base Critical Strike Chance of 6.75 percent.

POE Infernal Sword

Once we have our base Critical Strike Chance, we can then apply modifiers from various sources, such as POE Items and the passive tree to increase our Critical Strike Chance.

In this example, we have a modifier on this Profane Wand that increases our Critical Strike Chance for spells by 87 percent. When we use this wand with Fireball and no other modifiers, our Critical Strike Chance is now 11.22%, as the six percent base Critical Strike Chance has been increased by 87 percent.

But what about modifiers that add a number to Critical Strike Chance? At first glance, these modifiers look a lot weaker in comparison, but they are in fact very powerful and also very scarce in comparison to modifiers that grant increases to Critical Strike Chance. This is because modifiers that add to Critical Strike Chance apply their number directly to the base Critical Strike Chance before any increases take place.

For example, this Hunter influenced Full Dragonscale body armor has a modifier that adds 1.38% to spell Critical Strike Chance. If we use this body armor in combination with Fireball, our base Critical Strike Chance is now 7.38 percent. If we equip our Profane Wand now, our Critical Strike Chance for Fireball is now 13.8 percent because the base Critical Strike Chance of 7.38% has been increased by 87 percent. 

POE Full Dragonscale

In effect, every addition to our base Critical Strike Chance lowers the total amount of Increased Critical Strike Chance modifiers. We need to reach 100% Critical Strike Chance, which makes this stat very valuable. Whilst increases to Critical Strike Chance are very easy to find, additions to base Critical Strike Chance are quite rare.

Here are some examples of other sources of added base Critical Strike Chance. Brittle is an Elemental Ailment, which applies a debuff to the enemy. The debuff will add Critical Strike Chance directly to the base Critical Strike Chance of any hits that impact the enemy. 

Assassin’s Mark is a mark curse skill that adds 1.5 percent to base Critical Strike chance of any hits that impact the cursed enemy.

The Assassin Ascendancy has multiple ascendancy notable passive skills that add Critical Strike Chance when specific criteria are met.

Notice that none of these examples specify that they need to be used in conjunction with a spell or attack. This means that they can be used with either or both.

An important thing to remember about Increased Critical Strike Chance modifiers that appear on weapons is that they can be what’s known as a local modifier. 

This is always the case if the modifier does not specify that it applies to spells. For example, the Profane Wand we used earlier has a modifier that specifies that it applies to spells. However, take a look at this Opal Sceptre.

POE Opal Sceptre and Profane Wand

The Increased Critical Strike Chance modifier on this weapon doesn’t specify that it applies to spells, which means that it’s a local modifier. In this case, the modifier only increases the base Critical Strike Chance of the weapon that it’s present on and will not interact with your spell Critical Strike Chance in any way. 

Modifiers to Critical Strike Chance that appear on items that are not weapons will usually specify if they interact with spells or attacks or they will be increased to Global Critical Strike Chance, which interacts directly with all types of Critical Strike Chance.

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