Lucky shot is one of the new effects added Diablo 4, and it’s easily one of the most confusing and complicated mechanics in the game. But, like most complex things in Diablo 4Lucky Hit can make a big difference if you intelligently weave it into your build.
Unlike some other new effects like Fortify, Lucky Hit is not class specific. So barbarians, necromancers, druids, rogues and wizards can all benefit from lucky hits.
In this Diablo 4 guide, we explain how Lucky Hit works and what effects it can provide your character.
What is a lucky hit?
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Some skills and items have a special addition that indicates a bonus effect if there is a “Lucky Hit”. Usually this bonus effect comes with a percentage chance of actually occurring, such as 5%. But Lucky Hit isn’t just a percentage chance of doing something cool – there’s an unfortunate amount of math involved.
Let’s use an example where the Pressure point passive and the Hammer of the Ancients skill for barbarians. Pressure Point, which gives abilities up to a 30% chance to make enemies Vulnerable, isn’t just a 30% chance every time you hit something. No, instead you also need to multiply this by the Lucky Hit probability of the skill you are using.
If you use Hammer of the Ancients, which has a 50% luck chance, you get a Lucky Hit 50% of the times you hit an enemy with it. And then when you use Pressure Point, you make that enemy Vulnerable 30% of the time you get a Lucky Hit. So together you have a 15% chance to make an enemy vulnerable due to pressure point while using Hammer of the Ancients.
This works the same way for item attachments which offer some incredible Lucky Hit bonuses. You can’t just take the in-game percentage on the item as gospel. You must first multiply it by the Lucky Hit probability of the skill you are using. Those two percentages together equal how likely you are to see the effect occur.
Best Builds for Lucky Hit
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Lucky Hits can have some great effects like healing you at a critical moment or restoring a large portion of your resources. Even with effects that have a low Lucky Hit probability, these events can be extremely powerful when combined with skills that are good at getting Lucky Hits, such as Hammer of the Ancients.
However, unlike critical hits or Overpower, Lucky Hits do absolutely nothing on their own. Lucky Hits are only useful if you actually combine them with a Lucky Hit bonus on your weapons or passives. Therefore, the best kind of build to focus on Lucky Hits is one where you have multiple Lucky Hit bonuses that can occur at once.
If you have an item that has a low chance of healing you on a Lucky Hit, another item that has a low chance of repaying Fury on a Lucky Hit, and you use the passive pressure point feature, you can get lucky and activate all items. three of those powerful effects on a single Hammer of the Ancients smash. The more Lucky Hit effects the better, if that’s the kind of build you’re going for. Certain items and effects can also increase your Lucky Hit chance.
Lucky Hit is an incredibly versatile effect, and some builds rely on activating the bonuses, while other builds don’t use the Lucky Hit mechanism at all.