Spell Crit Chance vs Cast Speed

Hi,

I'm very new to Path of Exile and I want to make a lightning witch. Now, very close to the start location of the witch of the skill tree, to get to the extra lightning damage stuff, I can either choose to get 3% cast speed or 25% spell critical chance. (After that it's another two 3% speed or twice 15% crit chance.)
3% Cast speed seems very little, or am I mistaken? While 25% looks like a lot (resulting in 55% which makes more than half of my casts do a critical.) Is the cast speeds a lot worse or is a 3% increase a lot?

Remember, I'm very new, so any additional information is always appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

You have a wrong idea about crit chance. 55% increased critical chance doesn't mean half of your hits are a critical, it only means you gain 55% of the base spell/weapon crit chance.
So for a spell with 5% base crit chance, 55% would add another 2.75% to your crit chance, resulting in 7.75% crit chance. Each spell and weapon has its own base critical chance.

Other than that, both options are viable.

Critical chance is multiplicative and is off your base amount of critical strike. Say you have a base of 10% chance to critically strike, for simplicity. 25% chance increased critical strike results in a bonus critical strike of 2.5% chance.

You can read the FAQ to help with a lot of your questions, such as this one regarding critical strike.

Most people, if they do go on this route, choose for the first 25% critical strike node, then move over to the 3% cast speeds, as the first 25% critical strike is good value for a passive skill tree point.

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Phillybear wrote:

You have a wrong idea about crit chance. 55% increased critical chance doesn't mean half of your hits are a critical, it only means you gain 55% of the base spell/weapon crit chance.
So for a spell with 5% base crit chance, 55% would add another 2.75% to your crit chance, resulting in 7.75% crit chance. Each spell and weapon has its own base critical chance.

Other than that, both options are viable.

Aha, that makes a lot more sense! Explains why the crit-chance stuff is so high. Thanks for explaining it!