Crit vs Vulnerable
The two best damage buckets in the game, and the eternal reroll question between them. The answer is arithmetic — small bucket beats big bucket — with one twist: uptime.
Quick answer
Crit multipliers apply only when you crit (so crit chance gates the bucket); vulnerable applies whenever the enemy is vulnerable (so uptime gates it). Whichever condition you satisfy more reliably is the bucket worth feeding first — check both gates in the damage calculator.
The twist: uptime beats size
vuln bucket ×1.8 at 40% uptime → avg gain 1 + 0.4×0.8 = ×1.32 crit bucket ×2.0 at 60% chance → avg gain 1 + 0.6×1.0 = ×1.60
A bigger multiplier with worse availability loses. This is why "always take vulnerable" and "always take crit" are both wrong — the answer is conditional on your build's uptime and crit chance, which is why the comparator works from your numbers: stat priority comparator.
Rules of thumb that hold up
- Below ~40% crit chance: crit damage affixes underperform — fix the chance first.
- Below ~50% vulnerable uptime: vulnerable affixes underperform — fix the uptime (aspects, skills) first.
- Both gates satisfied: feed whichever bucket is currently smaller; rerun the comparator after each big change.
- Additive last: it shares one bucket with everything else — the classic trap explained in how damage works.
The 30-second decision
- Enter current stats in the comparator.
- Set option A to the additive affix, option B to the crit/vulnerable affix you're considering.
- Take the bigger marginal gain. If within ~1% of each other, take the one matching your playstyle variance (crit for burst, vuln for sustained).