What is lucky hit in Diablo 4?

What is lucky hit in Diablo 4? Blizzard’s long-anticipated return to Sanctuary comes with a slew of new features and stats. Among them, lucky hit is possibly the most confusing as on the surface it bears quite a few similarities with critical strikes and critical hits.

If you’re trying to get your head around what lucky hit is and isn’t in Diablo 4, we’re here to help with a simple explanation of the mechanic. It’s also worth understanding Diablo 4 overpower damage, another new stat for the series, and learning how to socket gems in Diablo 4 to improve the stats of your weapons and gear.

Diablo 4 lucky hit explained

Diablo 4 lucky hit is essentially a percentage dependent chance to proc (or trigger) a unique attack, ability, or effect tied to a specific weapon, piece of gear, aspect, or skill in combat. Typically, lucky hit effects cause Immobilize, Slow, Stun, Heal, Knockback, Vulnerable, or Execute enemies below a certain health.

Another important point is that lucky hit doesn’t deal damage or boost damage per se, but instead triggers an ability or effect that itself causes damage. What this means is that you have to juggle two things: lucky hit chance percentage and lucky hit effects and skills.

Nothing beats an example, so let’s take an early game rogue build. Our character has Executing Short Sword with Lucky Hit: Up to a +1.0% Chance to Execute Injured Non-Elites and another Executing Short Sword with Lucky Hit: Up to a +1.4% Chance to Execute Injured Non-Elites. 

If we head over to our character stats (tap C then click materials & stats), we see a Lucky Hit Execute of 2.4%, the sum of the percentage chance of our two weapons. Hovering over Lucky Hit Execute, we learn that we now have a base 2.4% chance to instantly kill enemies who are below 35% life when we damage them. That is the lucky hit effect being proc-ed.

In the stat list, we also have Lucky Hit Chance Bonus, which refers to the lucky hit chance mentioned above. It essentially refers to any bonuses granted by gear to proc the Lucky Hit Execute above. As we don’t have any gear, weapons, or aspects equipped that boost the stat, our lucky hit chance sits at 0.0%. If we equip some boots, for example, with a lucky hit chance stat, then we’ll see that percentage increase.

All in all, the important factor to remember is that you need to have an item, skill, or aspect with a lucky hit effect to make the most of the mechanic. Simply stacking lucky hit chance won’t do anything without an effect to proc.

That about covers Diablo 4 lucky hit. If you’re after more lucky hit options, check our the best Diablo 4 Aspects, and make sure you know how to get a mount in Diablo 4 to make getting across the Diablo 4 map a bit easier.