TWF - Off hand, does it crit?

[Xianio]

I'm rolling out a ranger and I was wondering if off hand attacks can crit.

Further, I'm aiming for a build with an x8-9 19-20 critical hit. Would that be a decent str ranger dps toon?

[RedHost]

I'm rolling out a ranger and I was wondering if off hand attacks can crit.

Further, I'm aiming for a build with an x8-9 19-20 critical hit. Would that be a decent str ranger dps toon?

Yes, offhand attacks crit exactly like mainhand attacks. The main difference between the two is reduced chance of going off for each combat animation, 1/2 as much damage bonus from your Strength, and no doublestrikes for offhand (though some very specific abilities allow offhand doublestrikes, but only off of a mainhand doublestrike).

As for the build's viability, that really is not enough to go off of. Crit multipliers are great and all, but only if you have a base damage that is worth multiplying, especially with such a narrow crit range.

[Exiledtyrant]

good for crit suffix weapons like heartseeker or rib cracker. getting back to back untyped damage in the 90-130 range depnding on what type of crit weapon you have is awesome and it scales with helpless. They say blundgeoning or piercing daage etc but they don't get reduced by anything. It's like maiming on steroids. Not to mention if your a crit build the named weapons that have the crit suffix you usually have expanded threat ranges so you can get a 20-40% chance to proc them back to back really easy.

[Inoukchuk]

good for crit suffix weapons like heartseeker or rib cracker. getting back to back untyped damage in the 90-130 range depnding on what type of crit weapon you have is awesome and it scales with helpless. They say blundgeoning or piercing daage etc but they don't get reduced by anything. It's like maiming on steroids. Not to mention if your a crit build the named weapons that have the crit suffix you usually have expanded threat ranges so you can get a 20-40% chance to proc them back to back really easy.

Heartseeker etc. scales MUCH better with expanded range than expanded multiplier. For example compare plain rapier to heavy pick with imp crit... 11d6 x 6 crits is 231 damage, 11d10 x 2 crits is 121 damage.

I don't know of any weapons with the huge crit multiplier worth building for. The only one I can think of going that high is Axe of Adaxus, and if you actually break down the #s for it, it's an awful weapon choice. Sure, huge critical #s, but really... so what? You're MUCH better off going with pick, warhammer, khopesh, or rapier (not in that order). Unless you REALLY want to brag about how big your hits are to people, but your DPS will suffer for it.

[Old_Skool]

Agreed with the above. My Tempest Ranger has the Improved Crit - Slashing feat, so when using scimis or kukris I crit A LOT. With the Dex-to-Damage enhancements and light weapons STR basically became a dump stat for me, but it's not uncommon to see my uptyped weapon damage in the 200-300 range after crit multipliers. Also consider weapon effects or abilities that trigger on crits - a higher crit range will see these happen more often and possibly result in more damage over a high multiplier/narrow range.