It's become apparent to me that many of my fellow wizards out there are really good at math. So perhaps someone can explain the critical/block system to me in a way my former English-major mind can understand. I get that it's not a percent, like the other stats on my page. It's an integer. That said, how do I understand its parameters? I mean, is it like temperature--potentially infinite, but unlikely to rise above a certain level (given gear limitations, etc.)? If it's not a percentage, then what's the relationship between that number and the statistical likelihood of having a Critical hit, or blocking one? My own critical/block stats aren't that impressive--I think it's like 46/79 (the higher number for my own school); block is 31/120. I seldom critical, in other words. If my numbers were, say, twice what they are now, would I have a critical hit twice as often? What's the highest these numbers can go in the current game, and what would it mean if you were lucky enough to ascend to this lofty level? If anyone can explain this in layman's terms (i.e., terms someone who got a C in Calculus can understand), I'd be grateful.
Pull up your character stats and run your mouse over where your critical rating is and it will show your percent chance to critical. it's usually about one fifth of the critical rating, so yours is about a 9%. i think critical block comes to about one sixth of the block rating, but i block way more often than my percentage says i should- like about 95% of the time, though my rating says like 18%. -elijah darkthorn, legendary conjurer
I have had similar questions regarding critical, especially in PvP. My block rating is about 82, or 20%, yet I block 90-95% of all critical hits. Obviously my 20% block rating means something else, so I've been racking my brain over how it might really work, and here is what I think happens.
I believe the critical block percentage is subtracted from critical attack percentage, and that is the chance of landing a successful critical. So if my opponent has 25% chance of critical and I have 20% block, then 25-20= 5% chance to successfully land a critical hit. If my opponent has 40% chance of critical, then 40-20= 20% chance to land a successful critical.
I have no verification that this is the case, but since I block almost 100% of critical hits against me, it must be something like I just described.
It would be wonderful if King Isle could verify or clarify this, but they seem to like to keep certain things a mystery from us wizards.
I guess this is why for much of human history, numbers were considered magical :? Although it does seem like 9% is about right in terms of how often I have a critical hit. I block a little more often than that, but not much. Well, perhaps in the Fullness of Time, as they used to say, this will become clearer.
