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Critical Damage versus Percentage Damage

The Stoic Hero·1/25/2015, 1:34:57 PM·2 votes·2,252 views

I have seen a lot of threads lately about how critical damage is unfair/unreliable and should be changed. I am going to go over the pros and cons of changing Critical Damage into Percentage Damage(not to be confused with Percentage Armour Penetration). There will be a little bit of math, but I will keep it simple for the most part.

So, lets take a very basic look at what a critical is now: Say you have 100 damage and 25% critical rate, means that every 1 in 4 attacks should crit, but that does not mean they necessarily will. With in the attacks, all 4 could crit or none could, which would be the extremes. Ideally though, if 1 attack in the 4 crits, then you would deal 500 damage, due to one of the attacks damage being double and without factoring in armour and the like(100+100+100+200=500).

Percentage Damage instead spreads the ideal damage over those 4 attacks. So, if you have 100 damage, each of your attacks will do 125 damage, so you would deal 500 damage as well(125+125+125+125=500).

With Critical damage, if none of the attacks crit, you are only out 100 damage(100+100+100+100=400), but if all the attacks do crit, its a 300 damage gain over Percentage Damage(200+200+200+200=800).

Now say your critical chance is 50%. In those same 4 attacks, you should crit 2 times(100+200+100+200=600), and likewise this ideal damage is the same in Percentage(150+150+150+150=600). If none of those attacks crit though, which is quite possible, you are out 200 damage now(100+100+100+100=400) with only an upswing of 200 damage over Percentage(200+200+200+200=800). When you reach 100% crit rate, the damage evens out(200+200+200+200=800) versus Percentage(200+200+200+200=800). After 100%, critical damage no longer increases, as you can not crit any additional amount then the attacks you make, but percentage damage will continue to increase. So at 105%, you are dealing 20 more damage(205+205+205+205=820).

For the most part though, these are to different paths to the same result. So what does it come down to?

Well, Critical Damage is random, but gives ADCs potential burst damage, and given continued building, will eventually become consistent damage. Percentage Damage is very consistent, and eventually scales better than Critical, but very calculable, thus very unforgiving of those who are behind. However, there is one other way: Making Critical Damage constant. In other words, make it the ideal damage, which is something a few people have suggested.

What does this mean? If you critical chance is 25%, then your 4th attack will automatically crit, while the previous three will not. This allows ADCs still have burst, but still makes your damage predictable, thus easily telegraphing when you have your crit up. This also creates a higher skill threshold for new players as well as haven potentially devastating burst mid game, until it evens out late game.

Personally, I am a bit of an old school gamer, so crits do not bother me really, as they are just another part of the RPG experience. I have just been interested in the discussion though, and wanted to shed some light on the subject. So the long and short of it:

Critical Damage Pros: Potential Burst Keeps the game from being perfectly calculable A Standard of RPGs

Cons: Potentially unreliable Potentially over powered

Percentage Damage Pros: Consistent Damage

Cons: More difficult on those who are behind Easily calculable

Ideal Critical Damage Pros: Consistent Burst

Cons: Potential mid game issues Easily predictable

Note: If the current critical quints remain the same, and you had three, they would become more efficient at 120 damage than 3 flat damage quints.

5 Comments

Lord Dusteon1/25/2015, 2:54:52 PM1 votes

For percentage, remember, people like Zed or Yasuo, or any other AD stacker with crit exist. They already can build huge amounts of AD; giving them guaranteed % increase damage would probably break them (more for Zed due to Yasuo's passive weakening crits, but he can build more AD so it would probably still be a large buff to him).

For Ideal, that's a bad idea. This lets any champion take 1% crit runes and stock up to a crit to win trades (While you might go "Why would a mage get crit runes?", remember, a lot of early trades involve several autoattacks for mages. Doing 2x damage on one of those autos gives more power then +1 AD or +1 magic pen). Midgame with IE, adcs could stock up a crit for any trade, which would give them guaranteed 2.5x damage on their first hit. While ideal would keep the effective damage on crits, it'd also make it so you always started with a crit in fights, which would make league have either a free 2x damage button or a lot of memorizing to know when you next crit (neither of which is good).

LilxPaprika1/25/2015, 4:08:21 PM1 votes

i think the solution would be to draw from both. reach middle ground/split the difference. give every auto attack increase dmg based on % critical damage, but only 50% strong, while keeping actual crits in the game just make the actual crits 50% less strong. you can still crit it just wont be thaaat big itll still be noticeable. more like a sheen proc than a trinity force proc.

so in your example

......Say you have 100 damage and 25% critical rate, means that every 1 in 4 attacks should crit, but that does not mean they necessarily will.......Percentage Damage instead spreads the ideal damage over those 4 attacks. So, if you have 100 damage, each of your attacks will do 125 damage, so you would deal 500 damage as well(125+125+125+125=500).

in my case you would do 112.5 damage per auto and have an off chance of doing 112.5 +( 100% of base dmg x 0.5 )so essentially adding half your base damage to that. so 112.5 plus 50 = 162.5. so the max crit would differ by 200-162.5 = 37.5 dmg. from the traditional/current crit