Usefulness of Critical Strikes End-Game PvE?

When choosing your primary class, it's often necessary to take into account the profession's primary attribute. (Of course, armor plays a role as well, but usually this is a more minor consideration.)

Assassins get Critical Strikes: increasing the chance of criticals as well as returning energy when they occur. I think everyone can agree that the attribute is terrific while playing the majority of the game. However, when you get to the end-game and every monster you face is level 28 or higher ... then I feel that the usefulness of Critical Strikes comes into question.

Some testing has been done (not by me, and I'll search for a link tomorrow) that indicates that when a large level difference exists between opponents, this affects the critical hit rate. When facing lower level opponents, you critical much more frequently. Vice versa when facing higher levels. So ... if you're facing lvl 28+, this likely means that your chance of a critical hit is reduced SEVERELY. Thus, the usefulness of your primary attribute goes WAY down.

This isn't to say that Critical Strikes becomes altogether useless. Indeed, skills like Critical Strike (dual attack) and Malicious Strike work very well as energy management tools due to their guarenteed chance to crit.

But ... if you aren't going to be using those skills in your build (ie - for non-dagger wielding assassins or for builds without room for these skills) ... well, you might be forced into choosing another primary profession.

If this is indeed the case, I'd like to suggest that the bonus from the critical strike attribute be unaffected by opponent level. IE - you will always get +<attribute level> chance to crit no matter what the level difference is. Additional crit chance from skills like Critical Eye and Way of the Assassin might do well to keep this benefit as well.

This is an issue that has been addressed for so many time in the past. it is a shame and probably won't be in any "list of things to 'improve'" by ANet

they are too busy nerfing farming

many topics on this. And yes, most of what you say is true, however:

I cannot even beleive anyone is complaining about CS. Take a second to look at it. It's a pretty damn good P.A. I mean - A bigger chance to crit AND energy when you do?!? Common they are far far far more P.A's that are worse than that.

Of course anet will not change it. I mean I am 99% sure they will not change it for the BETTER ( yea oke all rates of criticals are determined by AL but thats just a game mechanic that tbh is better in the oh so easy PvE) cuz its crazy to buff CS because 'Sins are already aspiking/energy management machine in the land of PvP.

'Cuz lets face it - anet prefer PvP - and thank god they do.

Edit: Typo corrected

Tan i dont see your argument, If critical strikes would be level independent, then it would absolutely not affect pvp.

To the OP. if they dont change it, make sure someone spamming gfty is joining, this doen not perse need to be a paragon, a secondary is gooed enough, 8 points awill already raise it high chances

Critical hits aren't level dependant, they are AL dependant. (and high level monsters usually come with high(er) AL)

Both gw.gamewikis.org (based on member research)and guildwarswiki.com (guildwars official wiki) state it is level dependance, where did you heard your statement from ? Flightmare

Speaking for myself, by the time I start approaching end-game content and/or am running in Hard Mode, [skill=text]Critical Strike[/skill] has a more or less permanent place on my skillbar. It's guaranteed damage and actually gets me energy. The only other alternative is to bring something like [skill=text]Critical Eye[/skill] or [skill=text]Way of the Assassin[/skill] combined with [skill=text]Way of Perfection[/skill]/[skill=text]Critical Defenses[/skill].

I don't know how I feel about it being level-independent though. I'd enjoy it, but I wonder about possible unintended consequences.

All that garbage said, I do find it interesting that we're the only class whose primary attribute becomes less effective as the game goes on.

Why lets have a good look at primaries, shall we?
Strengh - pathetic and sad
Expertise - awesome at high levels.
Divine Favor - Meh.
Soul Reaping - Meh.
Fast Casting - good at high levels.
Energy Storage - good.
Spawning Powers - Meh.
Leadership - Meh.
Mysticism - Meh.

Overall, I think CS is up there with Fast Casting and Energy Storage- always useful.
Stop complaining.

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