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 instances (i.e. conditional attack damage bonuses) added to the attack damage which is separate from the attack damage itself is not considered by critical strikes.

Therefore, in short, 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 300%/350%/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

Main Article: Attack Modifier

Critical Strike fully stacks and does not interfere with any attack modifier. If an attack modifier increases or reduces attack damage, it is counted by the critical strike multiplier.

Abilities which grant conditional attack damage bonus may or may not be by the multiplier.

The following common attack modifiers is calculated after critical strike, which increases the value during a proc/trigger:

• Lifesteal - Increases the amount lifesteal, not to be mixed up with lifesteal manipulation.
• Cleave / Splash - Deals increased damage to all units within the cleave radius.

Sources Affected

Conditional Attack Damage Bonus Affected by Critical Strike

• 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

Sources Not Affected

Main Articles: Bash and Mana Break

Conditional Attack Damage Bonus Not Affected by Critical Strike

• Abyssal Blade – Bash
• Ancient Apparition – Chilling Touch
• Anti-Mage – Mana Break
• Diffusal Blade – Manabreak
• Mirana – Mana Break
• Weaver – Mana Break
• Necronomicon Warrior – Mana Break
• Clinkz – Burning Barrage Arrows³
• Clinkz – Searing Arrows Multishot¹
• Clinkz – Skeleton Arrows Multishot^{2b, 1}
• Clinkz – Burning Army Arrows^{2a, 3}
• Drow Ranger – Frost Arrows
• Drow Ranger – Multishot Frost Arrows
• Drow Ranger – Splinter Shot^{2a, 3}
• Enchanted Quiver – Certain Strike
• Enchantress – Impetus
• Enchantress – Sproink^2a
• Faceless Void – Time Walk^{2a, 3}
• Faceless Void – Time Lock³
• Maelstrom – Chain Lightning
• Mjollnir – Chain Lightning
• Gleipnir – Chain Lightning
• Javelin – Pierce
• Monkey King Bar – Pierce
• Outworld Destroyer – Arcane Orb
• Roshan – Bash
• Shadow Blade – Shadow Walk
• Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom^{2a, 3}
• Silver Edge – Shadow Walk
• Skull Basher – Bash
• Slardar – Bash of the Deep
• Sniper – Headshot
• Spectre – Desolate
• Storm Spirit – Overload^{1, 3}
• Templar Assassin – Meld
• Ursa – Fury Swipes
• Warlock Golem – Flaming Fists

¹ Requires talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

³ The ability's multishot / bounces can proc critical strike. The bonus spell damage is not considered 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 (Fire Stance)
  
  Fire Stance Proc Chance: 24%
  Fire Stance Critical Damage: 145%/160%/175%/190%
  Cinder Brew Multiplier: 3
  Critical strike only works when drunken brawler is toggled to the fire stance. Cinder Brew multiplier increases the proc chance to 72%. The critical damage is unaffected by cinder brew.
• 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% ( 70%)
  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: 300%/350%/400% ( 375%/425%/475%)
  Requires a talent for passive procs.

Ensured Critical Strike Sources

Ensured Critical Strike Sources

• Bloodthorn – Soul Rend
• Bounty Hunter – Track
• Dawnbreaker – Luminosity
• Mars – God's Rebuke
• Monkey King – Boundless Strike
• Silver Edge – Shadow Walk
• Tusk – Walrus PUNCH!
• Void Spirit – Astral Step¹
• Wraith King – Mortal Strike

¹ Requires talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

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. [?]

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