Luck

Lucky crit rolls visualized in a tree diagram.

Luck is a mechanic that rolls a number twice, with Lucky rolls applying the best result, and Unlucky rolls applying the worst result. Modifiers that state when Damaging refer specifically to damage ranges, and not related mechanics such as accuracy or critical strike chance.

Lucky and Unlucky modifiers affecting the same thing will cancel each other out.

Effectiveness

With percentage rolls, such as critical strike chance, lucky/unlucky rolls will be up to a 100% more/less modifier, changing linearly towards 0% as critical chance increases. As for damage rolls, the average damage from the roll will be at up to 33% more or less, when the minimum damage is close to zero, but will have a much weaker effect when the minimum damage is closer to the maximum.

Calculations

Binary Rolls

Either roll can make the hit critical, so your critical strike chance on the solid line will be increased to the dash-dotted line on lucky rolls.

More specifically, the lucky critical strike chance can be calculated from the following formula:

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} CritChance_{Lucky} = 2 \times CritChance_{Default} - {CritChance_{Default} } ^ 2

   </math>

For example, the lucky critical strike chance for an default critical strike chance of 40% could be calculated as follows:

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} CritChance_{Lucky} = 2 \times 40%- 40% ^ 2 = 64%

   </math>

It should be noted that these calculations neglect the effect of accuracy on critical strikes.

Derivation of lucky rolls ▾ [Expand] ▾

This is a problem that can be solved with conditional probability.

Let A be the default critical strike chance on the first roll, then the chance to NOT crit on the first roll is:

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} B = 1 - A </math>

(1)

If the roll failed the die will be cast a second time with the same probabilities. The chance to crit on the second roll is (1) multiplied with A:

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} C = B \times A </math>

(2)

The total probability to get a lucky critical strike is the sum of A and (2).

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} \begin{align} CritChance_{Lucky} & = A + C \\ & = A + B \times A \\ & = A + (1 - A) \times A \\ & = 2 \times A - A^2 \end{align} </math>

(3)

Damage in a Range

Given an integer roll between <math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} min

   </math> and 

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} max

   </math>, the normal expected value is 

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} \frac{min+max}{2}

   </math>. 

A lucky roll has expected value <math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} \frac{min}{3} + \frac{2*max}{3} + \frac{max-min}{6*(1+max-min)}

   </math>. 

Note that the last term in this is always between <math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} 0

   </math> and 

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} 1/6

   </math> and therefore is negligible (it is a byproduct of the fact our uniform variable only takes values over the integers.) This simplifies the formula to 

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} \frac{min+2*max}{3}

   </math>. 

The average damage is effectively nudged closer toward the max damage, and further from the minimum damage. The damage boost, on average, is a sixth of the difference between minimum and maximum damage.

Example 1: You shoot a level 20 FireballFireballProjectile, Spell, AoE, Fire
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (6-25) Mana
Cast Time: 0.75 sec
Critical Strike Chance: 6.00%
Effectiveness of Added Damage: 240%
Projectile Speed: 1040
Radius: 9Unleashes a ball of fire towards a target which explodes, damaging nearby foes.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent4Phantasmal1% increased Projectile Speed2% reduced Projectile Speed
3% increased Area of Effect3% increased Effect of non-Damaging Ailments on Enemies
-2% more Damage with Ignite0.25% chance to Debilitate Enemies for 1 second on HitDeals (9-1095) to (14-1643) Fire Damage
(20-39)% chance to Ignite enemies
(50-88)% more Damage with Ignite
Projectiles gain Radius as they travel farther, up to +(0-9) RadiusPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.. The maximum damage is 1643, and minimum damage is 1095, for an average of 1369. The difference between minimum and maximum is 548. If the damage is lucky, you get an average 548/6=91.3 extra damage, for a new average damage of 1369+91.3=1460.3 damage. This is a 6.6% damage boost.

Example 2: You cast a level 20 SparkSparkSpell, Projectile, Duration, Lightning
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (5-21) Mana
Cast Time: 0.65 sec
Critical Strike Chance: 6.00%
Effectiveness of Added Damage: 125%
Projectile Speed: 560Launches unpredictable sparks that move randomly until they hit an enemy or expire.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent4Phantasmal1% increased Projectile SpeedProjectiles Pierce 0.1 additional TargetsFires 0.1 additional Projectiles2% of Lightning Damage Converted to Chaos DamageDeals (2-29) to (70-1326) Lightning Damage
Base duration is 2 seconds
Fires (4-6) additional Projectiles
(0-19)% increased Projectile SpeedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.. The maximum damage is 1198, and minimum damage is 63, for an average of 630.5. The difference between minimum and maximum is 1135. If the damage is lucky, you get an average 1135/6=189.2 extra damage, for a new average damage of 189.2+630.5=819.6 damage. This is a 30% damage boost.

How much does lucky improve our expected value - if our minimum damage is <math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} 0

   </math> then we get a 

<math display="" style="background-color:transparent; padding:0;"> \color[RGB]{163,141,109} 33%

   </math> more multiplier. As the minimum damage increases our percentage increase decreases.

Related items

Base items

The following base items are related to Luck:

Item	Item Class		Buff Effects

Unique items

The following unique items are related to Luck:

Item	Base Item		Stats

Related skill gems

The following skill gems are related to Luck:

Skill gem
Vaal ArcVaal ArcVaal, Spell, Chaining, Lightning, Duration Level: (1-20) Souls Per Use: 25 Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 0 sec Cast Time: 0.80 sec Critical Strike Chance: 5.00% Effectiveness of Added Damage: 180%Requires Level 12A shocking arc of lightning stretches from the caster to a targeted enemy and chains to other nearby enemies. Each time the beam chains it will also chain simultaneously to a second enemy, but no enemy can be hit twice by the beams. Also grants a buff making you lucky when damaging enemies with Arc for a short duration.Per 1% Quality:1Superior1.5% increased Duration of Lightning AilmentsBase duration is 4 seconds Deals (38-924) to (64-1539) Lightning Damage 100% chance to Shock enemies Chains +(5-9) Times 100% increased Effect of Lightning Ailments 100% increased Duration of Lightning Ailments 15% more Damage for each remaining Chain Modifiers to Buff Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention CorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.				12

Related passive skills

Passive skills

The following passive skills are related to Luck: No results found for the given query.

Keystone passive skills

The following keystone passive skills are related to Luck:

Name	Stats
Dance with Death	Can't use Helmets Your Critical Strike Chance is Lucky Your Damage with Critical Strikes is Lucky Enemies' Damage with Critical Strikes against you is Lucky

Related modifiers

The following modifiers are related to Luck: No results found