Critical Hit Rate Builds?

Has anyone attempted a recent critical hit rate build around the Labraunda Path C? With more available double attack gear I was wondering if this could be a fun and viable build. I saw that with the weapon, empy head, gifts and merits gives a 44% rate, providing an effective +22 stp on the weapon. Thanks in advanced.

Path A has stp+25 plus occasionally does double dmg

I've been curious about this weapon, and ways to make it interesting. On the surface I feel like if you want a white dmg weapon, gearing an Ukon build around +DAdmg still wins out, and if you want high STP for long chaining, a Chango remains the better choice for higher WS numbers. Just looks like something that is kind of stuck.

Definitely up for testimonials or other comments from those who have messed around with it!

I think the 50 tp is a little lackluster, but if it procs on counters or retaliates then you might really get cookin

I do believe the jp used it on the goblin ambuscade, and I did in fact find that hilarious.

not especially useful, but comical for sure.

Retaliating the KC drk with (I assume path C) lab, unfortunately it happens off screen, you just have to imagine it. It could easily be A or B too though.

Don't forget the critical hit bonuses you get a 100 and 1200 JP. That's another +10 total.

You essentially have a base 5%ish rate
5% from merits
10% from job gifts
That’s 20% just by being a war

Thank you for the item ideas, I was looking at making a mini strikes build. Based off responses my first draft would be something like this.

ItemSet 384590

Math may be off.
Crit Hit Rate - 53% + 5% merit + 10% JP + ~5% = 73%
Haste - 32%
DA - 62% + 28%JP + 5% merit = 86%
-DT : -22%
-PDT : -18%
+STP - effective STP from axe 50 x 73% = 36 + 19 = 55

Here's my Ukon AM Crit TP build:

ItemSet 389371

Edit: WAR +1 earring has +4 crit rate

If you are going for max white / melee damage, then switch the head out for Sakpata with +13/15% DA damage. +DA Damage is added on both hits of the DA, so at high DA values it ends up adding large amounts of melee damage.

Works out like

Damage * pDiff * DA Damage * Crit Damage

and stacks lovely with the +DAdmg on Ambu capes you're already using as well as the Relic+3 legs.

True, and probably does outparse my build, but I'd be sacrificing that 2% double damage double attack empy gear bonus that I'd never actually notice!

Maybe I misread, but I thought I remember reading that the DA Dmg+ on head/legs had diminishing returns and didn't seem like it was worth it over other options? I've always been a fan of relic legs though.

All bonus's in this game have "diminishing returns", including crit hit and crit hit damage. The question is which gives the most bang for the buck for melee damage, since that is what the build is going for.

DA Damage +13/15 is going to do more then 6% crit hit rate. The legs usually have better options for TP gain, but if this is going for melee damage then +DA Damage contributes to that. +DA is added to both hits of every double attack, making it a direct increase to melee white damage.

Assuming 100% (to make math easier) and the back we have.

100 * 1.20 = 120/100 = 20% increase fro 0% DA Damage.

100 * 1.33 = 133/120 = 10.8% increase in melee damage from 20% DA Damage. (R25 Sakpata helm)

100 * 1.31 = 131/120 = 9.1% increase in melee damage from 20% DA Damage. (Relic legs)

100 * 1.44 = 144/120 = 20% increase in melee damage from 20% DA Damage. (Sakpata Helm + Relic Legs).

Crits are harder to calculate but 6% isn't going to go anywhere near 10.8% increase and 4% from haidate won't go near 9.1%. Crits look sexy because 50% of the time they happen on an Empy proc and look "wow" in the log, DA Damage adds more consistent returns on every / almost every hit.

Your logic is undeniable, however I'm far from 100% DA in my crit setup, so I don't benefit as much from DA dmg+ than a WAR that is pushing 100% DA. In fact, I only have 56% DA in that set, so I'm only getting those DA dmg+ % increases 56% of the time. How does that compare to critical hit damage though?

Equation: Critical Hit Damage = (Base Damage + fSTR) * Critical pDIF * (Sum of Direct Modifiers) <-- this being gear/traits I assume? so 6% ammo, 13% empy +3 feet, 8% WAR traits = 27%? Not sure if that's what it's referring to so help me out here.

In all my non-scientific testing, pushing crit/crit dmg always came out on top of weaving in head or legs over crit options. I'm more than happy to be corrected by a mathlete, however.

WAR has 33% native DA, so being at only 56% means you are deliberately under gearing for it. WAR's base crit rate is 20% and 1% crit usually has less value then 1% DA.

Crits for melee are just +1.0 pDiff after cap, so the relative value depends on where you are at. WAR greataxe pDiff cap is 3.7 making crits 4.7 and 4.7/3.7 = 27% increase. Assuming the feet and ammo with capped gifts you have +37% CHD. 1.27 * 1.37 = 1.739, or +73.9% damage on each crit. Double attack adds +100% damage by default, with just back we get 2.0 * 1.2 = 2.4, +140% damage for each DA. Adding head and legs we get 2.0 * 1.44 = 2.88, +188% damage on each DA.

Crits are worth more at lower attack values, so if we're at only 2.0 pDiff, then it's 3.0/2.0 = +50% damage, 1.5 * 1.37 = 2.055, +105% damage for each crit. At super low attack, 1.0 pDiff we get 2.0/1.0 = +10% damage, 2.0 * 1.37 = 2.74, +174% damage on each crit.

Even at criminally low attack DA's will outweigh crits per percentage point. Remember, every DA is +100% damage and +DA Damage applies on both hits of a DA proc.

Eyeball testing is bad for this because our log doesn't add the damage from a DA and instead displays it as two separate hits. Our eyeballs only notice the highs and lows while being extremely bad at averages or medians.

We can write the damage like this

Damage * <Empy Bonus> * <DA Bonus> * <Crit Bonus>

Empty is 50% for +2.0 or +100% damage per hit, it is not related to either DA or Crit damage.

100 * 2.0 * <DA Bonus> * <Crit Bonus>

Because crits damage is all piled onto a single number, when an empy proc happens we see it as a big number. DA damage is on two different numbers, so when an empy proc happens it appears only one one of two numbers. Even though mathematically the +DA's are contributing more average damage, visually we see the crit damage as "more".

Nah it's only 28% native because I merit berserk like a man.

In all seriousness though, the "Double attack adds +100% damage by default" comment rings true, but damn it feels bad to not crit with Ukon, even if it is a double attack.

Not that you said as much, but the logic behind this almost assumes that a 100% DA build should pretty much always be better than any other build. Is that where we're at? (Specifically regarding 2H, don't care to discuss savage blade builds anymore, lol)

It almost is, 1 TA is worth +200% damage and 1 QA is worth +300% damage, so having those is still worthwhile though DA almost beats TA for melee damage. +Crit is the weaker stat between the four of them, nice when it's "free" like on the Boii Earring +1, Sakpata Body, or massive quantities (Boii Feet +3 CHD) but not something to sacrifice other stats for.

The king of using empy white damage is Monk, who gears for high crit due to Impetus and then not having access to the ridiculous amounts of +DA / +DA Damage that WAR does.

Tracking all, but how does that get applied on top of Ukon's triple damage? Is damage tripled before or after the crit calculation is applied? Is there a scenario in there where maximizing crit damage comes out on top?

For clarification, when I say non-scientific testing, I don't mean looking at single hits, but overall dps over time. I agree, eye-balling this ***is bad, but SE will never give us al-a-xiv training dummies to test on.

I suppose the next best thing would be to export the battle log into excel?

It's all multiplied so you can treat them separately.

Empy procs are +2.0 to damage, and since they happen 50% of the time we can turn that into an average 2.0 multiplier. We can do the same with every other multiplier.

At capped pDiff with the aforementioned CHD gear, crits are worth 1.739. At a 50% crit rate (just inventing) it looks like.

1.739 * 0.50 = 0.8695 (crits)
1.0 * 0.50 = 0.5 (non crits)
Add both crit and non-crit for an average 1.3695 multiplier.

Same for 50% DA (this is super low and not accounting for TA / QA which makes it higher)
2.4 * 0.50 = 1.2 (DA without head / legs)
1.0 * 0.50 = 0.5 (single attack)
Add both DA and single attack for an average 1.7 multiplier.

Then all together for 50% crit, 50% DA and Empy

100 * 2.0 * 1.7 * 1.3695 = 465.6, +365.6% total melee damage. Though this number is kinda useless since we can just compare each component individually.

Now the full DA build would look something like.
100% DA (not counting TA / QA which makes it higher)
2.88 * 1.0
2.88 Multi Attack Multiplier

29% crit (not counting dDex / BR)
37% CHD (Yetshila +1 and Boii Feet)
Capped attack

1.739 crit value
1.739 * 0.29 = 0.504
1.0 * 0.71 = 0.71
1.214 Crit Multiplier

2.0 Empy Multiplier

100 * 2.0 * 2.88 * 1.214 = 699.264, +599.2% increase in melee damage.

I pulled 80% crit rate in dyna last night, could you run it through with that number? When I did it, It showed the crit average being slightly better than your 50% DA calc. You could even use a 100% DA in the 2nd calc, since it's more than achievable. I'd like to see how it stacks if you're willing.

I got 472.9

I went ahead and used 54% DA instead of your 50 since I know what set I was in last night. That, with the 80% crit rate came out to 679.31. Still less than the 100% DA build, but not a complete blowout (unless I did the math wrong, which is entirely possible)

To makes it apples to apples I'd have to know the sources because we can easily slant the comparison by carefully choosing buffs. Base crit plus merits is 10%, WAR gifts adds another 10%, then it's Gear / dDex / buffs. If you are just changing your gear, then you would have the exact same buffs and likely dDEX.

1.739 crit value
1.739 * 0.80 = 1.391
1.0 * 0.20 = 0.20
1.591 Crit Multiplier

100% DA, without any TA or QA is still 2.88 multiplier

100 * 2.0 * 2.88 * 1.591 = 916.416, +816.4% melee damage.

Thought he meant his 80% crit and 100% DA.

The sources of crit? Outside of traits/gear it was just Blood Rage, no rogues or anything else.

If you were a real man, you would fulltime the blue panties (Zoar Subligar +1) instead. 5 Crit rate, 3 TA,1~5 DA, at the cost of some defense and -5 STP.

I like where your head's at. I might unironically *** with these lol.

I was kind of making a "real man" joke with the panties, but I guess it might work for what you're looking to accomplish. They are definitely better than Haidate in your set.

I know, but they're actually not terrible for meme builds, and they do look better than haidate for a crit-focused build. I do like the 35 DEX on them though, but panties have 10 and 30 acc to boot, not a bad swap tbh.

dDex is real, I need to know the +Crit from gear only, along with any TA / QA / DA / DA Damage you happen to have. I'm assuming Yetshila +1 is used?

I need this so that when I construct the DA set I can have the same non-gear crit values (80 - <gear set 1 crit> + <gear set 2 crit>).

When I do comparisons I tend to use just what's directly available in job + gear as worst case scenario. You can exaggerate values by adding to one set without adding to the other set, especially if playing with shitty parses like scoreboard.


The "100% DA" was with a lower then real crit value of just 29%, if dDex is capped (ML50 vs DynaD mobs) then it can be 44%. Without knowing your exact values I have to guesstimate it.

1.739 crit value
1.739 * 0.44 = 0.7651
1.0 * 0.56 = 0.56
1.325 Crit Multiplier

100 * 2.0 * 2.88 * 1.325 = 763.2, +663% melee damage. Also more WS damage due to higher TP gains from DA.