Agility better than Ranged Crit. Chance items?

[Lieutenant Columbo]

Agility does two main things for a Hunter... increases overall damage and the ranged crit. chance.

So the question is, is it better to get items that increase Agility or items that give + percentage increases to ranged crit. chance?

At the moment, my Agility is 437 and my ranged crit is 20.2%, so basically my chances of hitting critically are 1 in 5, i.e. 1 shot in every 5 is likely to crit.

I know someone, the same level and race, who has Agility of 306, but who has got a couple of items that give +1% to ranged crit. chance, to give a ranged crit. of just over 21%. Even at 21% the odds are still basically 1:5.

The question is, which is the better?

My argument is that it's better to have more Agility, because then every shot will be doing more damage. I'll still be critting too, maybe not quite as much, but enough as to make no real difference. Whereas the person with lower agility will perhaps crit slightly more but won't be doing the same overall damage on every shot as I would.

Does this sound right?

[Dirtball]

Pretty much correct but remember that agility also gives a better evade chance so your evade % will be higher than your friends (assuming he doesn't have lots of items with 1% evade chance etc)

Of course all the rest of both your stats are a deciding factor as well but I'd probably go with your set up over his.

[Ceriad]

Agility also increases your chance to actually hit the the target - heres the definition from wiki (The font of all lies ;) :-

"Agility (http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Agility) increases your ability to evade (http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Evade) and parry (http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Parry) incoming blows, increases your chance to critically hit a foe, and adds to the amount of damage you deal with a ranged weapon. It also reduces your miss chance. 50 agility equates to 1% Crit Chance."

In case you werent aware, you may be able to increase your % crit chance by changing your class traits, a number of them have +1% crit as a line modifier. I think the 4 below all do that.

Deadly Precision
Heightened Senses
Rapid Recovery
Sturdy Traps

[Dirtball]

50 agility equates to 1% Crit Chance
This is not true. The higher you get your agility the less effect it starts having on your crit hit chance.

Wiki truly is the font of all lies ;)

[Pingu]

Why not have both?
:D

[MéLAnoR]

Well there is one thing misleading agility does not boost your damage points that much, especially over 350.
Having agility grants you more evade and parry rates which increases your survival but you shouldn't sacrifice vitality too much.
If your a hunter dependant of crit hits like me using deadly precision to gain focus better have ranged crit items too.
I have around 420 agility and 23% crit rate average without buffs.If i'm on a farming lower lvl mobs duty than i boost ranged crit as much as possible but if things get thougher i either slot vitality /morale items or items with evade/parry stats for survivability.

[Lieutenant Columbo]

Thanks for the feedback. :)

One thing I can say is that not too long ago my Agility was 399 and my ranged crit. chance was 19.9%. I don't have any items with +ranged crit. chance on them.

Recently, I got some items with good Agility bonuses, to give me an Agility of 437. My traits are still the same as before and the extra 38 Agility has given me 20.2% ranged crit chance, so basically .3% difference for the extra Agility.

As I say though, if you think more in odds, rather than percentages, you are still going to have around a 1 in 5 chance of critting, if your ranged crit is closer to 20% than it is to 25%. It's difficult to get near 25%, which would be 1 in 4 chance of critting. So, the question is whether it's worth chasing the extra percentage increases beyond a level that is difficult to achieve without sacrificing something else?

[nightbyday]

i will go with melanor on this

If soloing or PvP focus on crit chance (with out sacrificing vitality or power to much) so + crit better.

However in fellowships i prefer agility, nice solid regular damage so easier to control aggro with silly damage spikes, plus the other addition bonuses from agility (note once past 350 agility i would prefer vitality or will)