Crit damage, worthwhile building for?

I've found a new favorite God, which is Fenrir. I feel a little like a fox in a henhouse with it, perfect utility and all. Was looking at the numbers of my build, and saw the crit chance - but is there any way to increase crit damage? Or is it a static value, like 50% more of your original attack damage?

From previous gaming experience, I'm used to not only increase crit chance and mitigate crit damage, but to increase the crit damage as a percentual value (like, you deal 75% crit damage, which is mitigated by 20%, which ends up being 55% additional damage as crit damage).

Also, would anyone know about and share with me some sort of in depth Wiki or whatever, where I can read about all these things. :-)

Hi Bockisch,

So, it works like this. First, you want to know the base damage of your basic attack. For Fenrir, it's 38 (+2.3 per level). Technically then, at level 1, he will deal 40.3 damage as a base, and at level 20, it's 84.

Then you want to calculate your power from items. Let's say you've built 200 power, and just for ease of calculation, you're at level 20. Your basic attack damage is then 284.

Crits work off of % chance, so when you build crits, you obviously don't get the crits every time unless your crit chance is 100%. When you DO crit, it doubles your base damage (not considering Deathbringer's passive). Thus, your base basic attack damage from a crit would be 568 (284 x 2 = 568). If one of your crit items is Deathbringer, its passive increases crit damage by an additional 30%, so the calculation would be 284 x 2.3 = 653.2.

THEN and only then do you look at the mitigation factors...any actual mitigation (e.g. Oni Hunter's Garb or Spirit Robe), as well as physical protections (which are both inherent in every god, and with items that increase protections). THEN...yes, there's more, THEN your protection reduction and penetration is applied.

It's a bit complex to calculate. You can do it based on hard numbers, and I can provide you with 2 references.

1. The Word of Thoth is a great reference tool and describes all the various mechanics and how they interact.
   
   
2. My Items Guide has a chapter talking about pen/protection reduction and how those are all calculated. It's a different read, and you may get something out of it.

Hope this helps.

Just pointing, I don recommend crits on Fenrir.

I had good matches with him, carrying my team, everything only using skills and snowball. Take this match as example.

And then here's the kicker...generally, crits aren't usually suggested for Fenrir. Take a look at pro builds (this link is for ranked conquest, not tournaments).

https://smiteprobuilds.com/Builds?p_filters_page=1&p_filters_search=&p_filters_god=1843&p_filters_pro=~&p_filters_opponent=~&p_filters_role=~&p_filters_league=Ranked:Conquest&p_filters_sort=~

No crits anywhere. There are reasons, as his kit doesn't really benefit from crit damage, the way some other gods do.

• He has no attack progression (which is not exactly a reason, since Hunters often build crit, and they have no attack progression).
  
  
• He has no attack speed steroid ability to help increase his damage output.
  
  
• His abilities can provide some great damage...much more so than basic attackers, who usually rely on basic attacks because they can't rely on their abilities for the bulk of their damage potential.

His typical build path, depending on mode and role, is usually one focusing on power, penetration, CDR, and/or protections. He works very well as a bruiser (some damage and some protection) because his base damage on his abilities is strong.

That said...if playing around for funsies, it CAN work. But here's what you'd want to do.

• Build enough attack speed in the full build to make multiple basics worthwhile.
  
  
• Build Hastened Katana so you can stick.
  
  
• Build at least 2 crit items. To make crit mathematically worthwhile, you really want to have a somewhat reliable crit chance, which means at minimum around 40-50%. Understand when you do this, though, you have to dedicate 2 slots to crit items...this limits the rest of your build flexibility. Here, I'd recommend a combination of either Rage or Wind Demon, plus Deathbringer as the 2nd crit item.
  
  
• Activate Seething Howl anytime you're going in with basics to gain the nice physical lifesteal buff to help sustain you when you take damage.
  
  
• Save Unchained when initiating a fight, to help you escape should the fight be going poorly.

Again, this is not a suggested build path unless you're just having fun/trolling. But you might try a build like this (not in Conquest):

Ninja Tabi, Hastened Katana, The Executioner, Rage or Wind Demon, Deathbringer. That's 5 items. I'd suggest a protection item somewhere in there so you don't just get blown up. Consider something like Hide of the Urchin...either after Tabi, or after Katana.

Thank you all!

Yeah, I'm quite familiar with similar mechanics from ESO. There you have a base value of +50% for crit damage (i.e. not chance). There are means to increase crit damage by skill passives etc. Like I have a PVP Nightblade (much like Assassin in Smite) with over 100% crit damage (depending on abilities active, it can be a bit different), and very high penetration. Generally you look for raw weapon/skill damage and penetration (in PVP) there too - unless you are picky about targets like me, and go for either high health tanks with no real (crit) resistance, other Nightblades (glass cannons) and magicka toons with their shields down etc. ;-)

So far, I've played Fenrir mostly around the lanes, flanking people who get across the middle, and/or generally been staying at the back - making quick visits to the front, or chasing down and bursting or fetching fleeing enemies.

Anyway, so the way to go for Fenrir is more like raw base damage and high pen? What kind of God - as a random example - would benefit the most from crit chance? Are we speaking like damage over time/AOE kind of abilities, those who spam ranged base attacks (thinking like Neith), or have abilities with series of strikes?

I know for example stamina Dragonknights in ESO can do great with high crit; where you can have like 4 different bleeds, some 2-3 poison damage and burning status active at once. As DOT's can crit there, it's usually bye bye in a few seconds unless the can purge it all or have insane heal over time and can burst heal the rest. Generally they have no real execute, except maybe one class ultimate.

Gods who benefit from crit are any hunter, but mostly AA-based hunters (Xbalanque, Jing Wei for example) benefit from crit the most (except Cernunnos, who you just go attack speed qins/pen build). Some assassins like Mercury, Ne Zha (not 100% sure), Serqet, some others can do well with crit. Don't build crit on warriors. Also some assassins have basic attack progression chains that may make crit a horrible idea on them (e.g. Kali).

Can you explain a bit more?

Yes, if the basic attack hit in the progression is less than 1.0, you're getting less than 100% of your crit's basic attack damage, so even if the progression means the basic attack will be faster in the chain (except for the Loki nerf, where it kept the same attack speed), you're still getting hardly any good use from crit in that situation. In the case of Kali it's why an alternative attack speed path that includes Qin's Sais is used instead.

Edit: This is also made worse by the fact that crit is based on crit % chance itself so not only in this situation would you need to rely on random chance to give you a crit proc, but that crit proc itself will be underwhelming.

Ahh thanks!

Ne Zha has a crit chance booster in his Flaming Spear and both Armillary Sash and Wind Fire Wheels can crit, so I'd say crit items are good on him, but two is the minimum you want, say Rage and Deathbringer.

Kali's attack progression (attack chain) is 1/.5/.5x damage and swing time, which means you're doing 100% damage on her first swing, but only 50% damage until you reset her chain with an ability or complete two more swings. This reduced damage also applies to critical damage, so you're not doing 100% crit damage on her 2nd and 3rd swing. You're better off with attack speed items like The Executioner and Qin's Sais on her. And, unlike Ne Zha, none of her abilities can crit, so you're lowering your potential damage output by building crit on her.