Scrapper Crits vs. Stalker Crits questions

[Redletter]

Hello, I'm stupid. I like Stalkers because my powers get glowy little rings around them that tell me if I press them, I deal critical damage.

 

I have a couple of scrappers and none of them have that. That's ok, i don't NEED it, but, it does get me thinking about critical frequency between the two. With Stalkers generally having the rule of thumb that "assassination" will give Assassin's strike its critical property after 3 OTHER powers go off (usually. Sometimes not the case, but, most times, it's the case -- i know that by the END of my chains I'm throwing out an Assassin's Strike crit to start the NEXT combo cycle).

Now, from what I've heard about Scrappers, with the ATOs you basically can set yourself up for criticals on demand. I have no idea how that works, im allergic to math. But i'd like to know how that works, because it sounds kinda cool? But like, this raises the question about Damage Caps which apparently exist and that gets me thinkiing like, does the fact a Scrapper can (apparently) crit 3 times in a row on demand even matter?

I don't know these answers, because, I'm stupid. Please help. Thank you.

[electric_emu]

When the Scrapper ATO (Critical Strikes) triggers, it gives ALL your attacks a 50% chance to crit for the next 5 or so seconds.  So you slot it into a power, proc it by using that power (as denoted by a big red "Critical Strikes" over your head) and then go to town. 

 

It follows the normal PPM rules, so if you slot it into the right power you have a lot of control over when it triggers but it's not quite as much crit control as Stalkers get.  You're still dealing with a 50% chance to actually crit after it triggers, so if your follow up includes a big ST attack you will occasionally be disappointed.  It is absolutely glorious when using AoEs though.  

[Redletter]

4 hours ago, electric_emu said:

When the Scrapper ATO (Critical Strikes) triggers, it gives ALL your attacks a 50% chance to crit for the next 5 or so seconds.  So you slot it into a power, proc it by using that power (as denoted by a big red "Critical Strikes" over your head) and then go to town. 

 

It follows the normal PPM rules, so if you slot it into the right power you have a lot of control over when it triggers but it's not quite as much crit control as Stalkers get.  You're still dealing with a 50% chance to actually crit after it triggers, so if your follow up includes a big ST attack you will occasionally be disappointed.  It is absolutely glorious when using AoEs though.  

 

Ahhhh! Ok, I thought the ATO was that it boosted the attacks crit rate by 50% of the stalker crit rate (50% of 10% for a total of 15%). What you said makes more sense. You have like, basically "build up" amount of time of a coinflip crits.

[Oysterhead]

Another thing to consider, Stalker chance to hide ATO (which should always be put into Assassin Strike) will drop you into hide, which then gives you a 100% chance to crit your next single target attack or ~50% (or 100% if you're Kinetic Melee with Burst) to crit on the next area attack. Not as good as Scrappers 5 second of 50% crit chance, but it does let stalkers get at minimum 2 crits in a row very often (orange circle AS, drop into hide, crit next attack). Plus stalkers have a higher base crit chance. All ATOs & mechanics combined, I seem to notice a lot more crits on my stalkers than scrappers? But that might just be confirmation bias. The bigger difference between the two in my mind is Stalker Build Up spam, which is always great when you can stack a bunch of those procs.

[Uun]

Critical Strikes proc lasts 3.25 seconds (not 5 seconds).