A critical hit is a type of hitsplat that may occur in combat. It occurs when a player deals 95% to 100% of their attack's maximum damage of the normalized damage range, for both abilities and auto-attacks. This means that for a normalized[1] standard 20%-100% ability you will see a critical hit if your damage is in between 96%[2]-100% of your ability damage. While normal hits have a damage cap of 10,000, critical hits (from basic and threshold abilities) cap at 12,000 damage. This cap is further raised to 15,000 damage and critical hit chance increased by 12% when Erethdor's grimoire is active in the pocket slot (stacks with the Biting perk).
The Mazcab abilities Onslaught, Storm Shards and Shatter are unique in the fact that their critical hits cap at 30,000.
Critical hits are characterised by a large, bold and italic font. The colour of the hitsplat indicates the combat style used, with orange for Melee, green for Ranged, and blue for Magic.
The abilities Meteor Strike, Incendiary Shot, and Tsunami involve critical hits. In the 30 seconds after any of them is used, each critical hit dealt will generate 10% adrenaline.
The Biting perk has a 2% per rank chance to force a hit to be a critical hit. Warpriest of Tuska armour has a set effect which adds a chance to force a critical hit - 1% per part worn (minimum 3 parts).
Previous function[]
Before the combat updates of 14 July 2014, critical hits functioned via a critical bonus, a probability of how often a player would land a critical hit. There was a separate bonus for each of Melee, Ranged, and Magic, and each bonus could be increased by wearing jewellery, capes, scrimshaws, and certain weapons. These critical bonuses replaced the pre-EoC equipment bonuses (Strength bonus, Ranged strength and Magic damage).
When a player landed a critical hit, they dealt 100% to 105% of their attack's maximum damage. This applied to both abilities and auto-attacks.
Critical bonuses were changed to damage bonuses on 14 July 2014.