Critical strike

Critical strike is a passive ability that gives a chance to deal bonus damage on a successful attack.

Mechanics

Wraith King performing a critical strike.
The red number displays the resulting physical damage before reductions.

A Critical Strike's occurrence is determined upon beginning an attack, and not upon attack launch or attack landing.

For example, if the hero has Crystalys and it starts an attack that procs Critical Strike, the attack applies Crystalys' Critical Strike value regardless of if the item is being upgrade in the middle of the attack animation. Or when attacking an enemy affected by Soul Rend, and the debuff expires during an already started attack animation, that attack still applies the Critical Strike, since the attack started while the debuff was still present.

Visual Feedback

When a Critical Strike occurs, a red-colored number pops up on the victim of the strike, with a lightning bolt icon on the right side of the number. This number shows the multiplied damage value before reductions or amplifications. Therefore, the displayed value does not equal the damage the target actually took from the attack.

Multiplier

An attack that triggers Critical Strike has its total damage value multiplied by the given multiplier of the source of the Critical Strike. This means a critical strike is basically an attack damage amplifier, as it does not add extra damage on top of the attack damage, but directly increases the damage of the attack by multiplying it.

The multiplier is applied before any reductions or amplifications on the target or on the attacking unit. It only counts the unit's main attack damage, plus any bonus attack damage (percentage and flat bonuses) it has, meaning any damage instance added to the attack damage which is separate from the attack damage itself is not considered by critical strikes. If an ability adds its damage directly to the attack damage, then it may be considered by Critical Strike, though there are exceptions to this. See total attack damage for the complete calculation.

Critical Strike Multiplier is defined as:

$C_{Mu}=1+{\text{max}}\{\;C_{i}\}$

With C being the Critical Strike value.

All chance-based sources of Critical Strike use pseudo-random distribution.

Stacking

Multiple critical strike procs are rolled from the strongest to weakest multiplier, and stop rolling once proc occurs, so that two critical strikes cannot proc on the same attack, resulting in a diminishing behavior. This means when having multiple sources of chance-based crits, and the one with a higher multiplier procs, that attack is not counted for the other critical strike sources, since they did not roll. Thus their pseudo-random distribution states are preserved: the unrolled weaker critical strikes' current proc chance is neither increased nor reset for this attack.

For example, Tusk's attack will not proc the critical strike of Daedalus' (225%) while casting Walrus PUNCH! because the latter ability has a higher proc chance and critical strike value of 350%/375%/400%.

With cooldown-based critical strike sources (e.g. Mortal Strike), this means that when a stronger value occurs, the cooldown-based critical strike stays unused and does not go on cooldown for that attack.

Attack modifier interactions

Critical Strike is an attack modifier which fully stacks with any other modifier. However, it does not interfere with any attack modifier. If an attack modifier increases or reduces attack damage, it is counted by the critical damage multiplier. Abilities which grant conditional attack damage bonuses may or may not be by the multiplier.

• Lifesteal: Lifesteal is calculated after critical strikes, which means that it increases the amount of life you steal.
• Cleave: Cleave is calculated after critical strikes, which means it deals increased damage to all units within the cleave radius.

• Splash and Psi Blades are calculated after critical strikes, which means they deals increased damage to all units within the cleave radius.

Conditional attack damage bonuses which are counted by critical strike are:

• Battle Fury – Quell
• Bounty Hunter – Jinada
• Ember Spirit – Sleight of Fist
• Kunkka – Tidebringer
• Quelling Blade – Quell
• Riki – Cloak and Dagger
• Storm – Wind Walk
• Tiny – Tree Grab
• Tusk – Tag Team
• Weaver – Geminate Attack

Conditional attack damage bonuses which are not counted by critical strike are:

• Abyssal Blade – Bash
• Ancient Apparition – Chilling Touch
• Anti-Mage – Mana Break
• Clinkz – Searing Arrows¹
• Diffusal Blade – Manabreak
• Drow Ranger – Frost Arrows
• Drow Ranger – Marksmanship¹
• Enchanted Quiver – Certain Strike
• Enchantress – Impetus
• Faceless Void – Time Lock¹
• Gleipnir – Chain Lightning
• Javelin – Pierce
• Maelstrom – Chain Lightning
• Mirana – Mana Break
• Mjollnir – Chain Lightning
• Monkey King Bar – Pierce
• Necronomicon Warrior – Mana Break
• Outworld Destroyer – Arcane Orb
• Roshan – Bash
• Shadow Blade – Shadow Walk
• Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom¹
• Silver Edge – Shadow Walk
• Skull Basher – Bash
• Slardar – Bash of the Deep
• Sniper – Headshot
• Spectre – Desolate
• Storm Spirit – Overload¹
• Templar Assassin – Meld
• Ursa – Fury Swipes
• Warlock Golem – Flaming Fists
• Weaver – Mana Break

¹ Multishots / bounces can proc critical strikes. The bonus damage from the spell is not affected by critical damage.

Critical Strike Sources

The amount of damage increase is defined as:

${\bar {A}}={\frac {C\%}{P}}$

With A being the attack damage, C being the Critical Strike value and P being the proc chance.

Chance-based Sources

Chance-based Critical Strike Abilities

• Alpha Wolf - Critical Strike
  
  Proc Chance: 20%
  Critical Damage: 200%
  Passive.
• Brewmaster - Drunken Brawler
  
  Proc Chance: 24%
  Critical Damage: 145%/160%/175%/190% ( 235%/250%/265%/280%)
  Passive ability with active component.
• Chaos Knight - Chaos Strike
  
  Proc Chance: 33.33% ( 43.33%)
  Critical Damage: 120% – 140%/175%/210%/245%
  Passive.
• Crystalys - Critical Strike
  
  Proc Chance: 30%
  Critical Damage: 160%
  
• Daedalus - Critical Strike
  
  Proc Chance: 30%
  Critical Damage: 225%
  
• Juggernaut - Blade Dance
  
  Proc Chance: 20%/25%/30%/35%
  Critical Damage: 180%
  Passive.
• Lycan - Shapeshift
  
  Proc Chance: 40% ( 72%)
  Critical Damage: 150%/175%/200%
  
• Lycan - Wolf Bite
  

  
  Critical Strike values are based on Shapeshift.
• Phantom Assassin - Coup de Grace
  
  Proc Chance: 15% ( 22%)
  Critical Damage: 200%/325%/450%
  Passive.
• Phantom Lancer - Talent by Level 25 Left
  
  Proc Chance: 24%
  Critical Damage: 200
  Requires a talent.
• Silver Edge - Critical Strike
  
  Proc Chance: 30%
  Critical Damage: 160%
  
• Tusk - Walrus PUNCH!
  

  
  Proc Chance: 12%
  Critical Damage: 350%/375%/400% ( 430%/455%/480%)
  Requires a talent for passive procs.

Ensured Critical Strike Sources

Ensured Critical Strike Sources

• Bloodthorn - Soul Rend
  
  Critical Damage: 130%
  Duration: 5
  All attacks dealt to the affected target are critical strikes.
• Bounty Hunter - Track
  
  Self Critical Damage Against Target: 140%/170%/200%
  Duration: 30
  All attacks dealt by the caster to the affected target are critical strikes.
• Dawnbreaker - Luminosity
  
  Critical Damage: 120%/140%/160%/180% ( 160%/180%/200%/220%)
  Passive, ensured critical strike.
• Mars - God's Rebuke
  
  Critical Damage: 150%/190%/230%/270% ( 215%/255%/295%/335%)
  Passive, ensured critical strike.
• Mirana - Leap
  

  
  Critical Damage: 150%
  Buff Duration: 2.5
  All attacks dealt by the caster are critical strikes for its buff duration.
• Monkey King - Boundless Strike
  
  Critical Damage: 135%/165%/195%/225%
  Passive, ensured critical strike.
• Silver Edge - Shadow Walk
  
  Critical Damage: 160%
  Has ensured critical strike on the attack that breaks invisibility.
• Tusk - Walrus PUNCH!
  
  Critical Damage: 350%/375%/400% ( 430%/455%/480%)
  Ability cast on target has an ensured critical strike and has True Strike.
• Void Spirit - Astral Step
  

  
  Critical Damage: 160%
  Has ensured critical strike on all hit enemies within its range.
• Wraith King - Mortal Strike
  
  Critical Damage: 150%/190%/230%/270%
  Cooldown: 5.5/5/4.5/4 ( 3.5/3/2.5/2)
  Passive ability, attacks has ensured critical strike when ability is off-cooldown.

Version History

Version

Description

7.30

• Multiple critical strike procs are now rolled from the strongest to weakest multiplier and stop rolling once a proc occurs. [?]

Mechanics Stats Armor Attributes (Strength / Agility / Intelligence) Collision size Health (Health regeneration) Magic resistance Mana (Mana regeneration) Movement speed Status resistance Turn rate Vision Gib type Legs Attack Attack animation Attack damage Attack modifier (Bash / Cleave & Splash / Critical strike / Lifesteal / Mana break) Attack range Attack speed Cast animation Cast range Damage types Motion buffer range Projectile speed Spell damage Spell lifesteal Abilities Abilities Aura Channeling Cooldown Damage block Damage manipulation Damage over time Evasion Talents Teleport Status effects Attack immunity Break Cyclone Disable Disarm Ethereal Fear Forced movement Hex Hide Hypnosis Invisibility Invulnerability Leash Phased Root Silence Sleep Slow Spell immunity Stun Taunt World Experience Gold Glyph of Fortification Map (Minimap) River Scan Runes Time of day Trees Gameplay Creep control techniques Denying Disjoint Dispel Ganking Harassment Hero complexity Initiating Item passive stacking Item sharing Jungling Lane Pushing Random distribution Roles Trap Units Ancient creeps Buildings Couriers Creep-heroes Heroes Illusions Lane creeps Neutral creeps Roshan Summons & Wards