Herald of Ice does not benefit from increases to Spell Critical Strike Chance

Bug: Herald of Ice critical strike chance is not affected by any "Increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells" mods. This is inconsistent with the skill description because Herald of Ice has the "Spell" tag in it's description.

Disclaimer: I understand that Herald of Ice does not have any innate crit chance. All of the following examples have been performed AFTER applying base crit chance to Herald of Ice using an "Increased Critical Strikes" skill gem.


Example 1: Herald of Ice does not gain or lose any critical strike chance when the following crit wand is equipped/unequipped.
Relevant Modifier: "184% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells"


Example 2: Herald of Ice does not gain or lose any critical strike chance when Zealotry is enabled/disabled.
Relevant Modifier: "You and nearby allies have 39% increased Spell Critical Strike Chance"


Contradictory Example: Herald of Ice is socketed in a helmet that gives "Socketed Spells Have +3% to Critical Strike Chance", which does in fact modify the critical strike chance for Herald of Ice.
Relevant Modifier: "Socketed Spells Have +3% to Critical Strike Chance"


I believe this is a bug. If this is not a bug, then the skill's description should at least be updated to specify what sources of spell crit can apply to it.

Not a bug.

The spell tag that this has doesn't mean what you think it does:

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This is extremely incorrect. Gem tags do not indicate which modifiers apply to something. That's not their purpose, nor could they be adequate for that purpose.
Gem tags exist to classify gems into groups, primarily so we can give "+1 to level of socketed TAG gems" and have that mean something. They also help clarify the types of skill, such as which skills are curses.
Bow skills do not get the "Projectile" tag, because they already have the "Bow" tag, which implies they are projectile skills, and makes having the tag redundant.

not a bug

Herald of Ice has a base crit of 0% and only benefits from generic crit chance as the damage portion is not considered a spell. It is only considered a spell because you have to cast it to get the buff, just like all auras are spells.

Since it has the spell tag, the helm bonus applies generic crit chance to it so it is not contradictory.

once you give it some flat crit chance, generic global crit chance will increase it only.

also the other guy is incorrect about heralds being unable to crit.

Nvm, found it, usually linked with Assassin's mark for said crits.

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Aragorn14 wrote:

I have never heard of them being able crit, at least that I've read. Point me to where they can? :)

next time you see a diamond shrine play around with heralds, you will definitely notice the crits then.

and also this notable alone should clue you in, and google is your friend.

https://poedb.tw/us/skilltree.php?n=Self-Fulfilling+Prophecy

Yeah, I used the search here on the forums rather than using my google-fu :) Twas a mistake.

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Example 1: Herald of Ice does not gain or lose any critical strike chance when the following crit wand is equipped/unequipped.
Relevant Modifier: "184% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells"

Example 2: Herald of Ice does not gain or lose any critical strike chance when Zealotry is enabled/disabled.
Relevant Modifier: "You and nearby allies have 39% increased Spell Critical Strike Chance"

These don't work because the crit chance is specific to spells. Herald effects aren't spells and are unaffected by modifiers to spells, because they do secondary damage.

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Contradictory Example: Herald of Ice is socketed in a helmet that gives "Socketed Spells Have +3% to Critical Strike Chance", which does in fact modify the critical strike chance for Herald of Ice.
Relevant Modifier: "Socketed Spells Have +3% to Critical Strike Chance"

This works because it provides generic base crit chance. It only works with gems that have the spell tag, but the crit chance itself is not specific to spells.

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I believe this is a bug. If this is not a bug, then the skill's description should at least be updated to specify what sources of spell crit can apply to it.

No sources of spell crit chance can apply to Heralds. They have always worked this way. The spell tag occasionally causes some confusion, but there's no bug here.