How do you get high crit rate and severity?

ozoa

I've seen some characters with really really good crit rates and severities. What combination of abilities and talents would you want if you were going to make a very Crit Heave build?

Also, I am sure gear makes a huge difference in the equation. Please point to what I should be aiming for.

flowcyto

For crit, Dex SS + Dex and crit rating on gear is the obv way. Ego PSS's 6th Sense w/ Dex SS, or Int PSS's Expertise w/ Dex SS should also get high crit. AoPM also boosts crit via boosting Dex. Builds that stack Con can get very high crit% when using ES/NM.

Guardian's Find the Mark (for ranged builds), Warden's Slaughter (melee combos only) or Upper Hand (melee w/ proper debuffs), and Vindicator's Mass Destruction and Focused Strikes also boost crit via specs.

High severity is usually done by combining 2x Ruthless or Ruthless + Merciless in various specs- most commonly Ward/Guardicator, and w/ either Ego PSS (Follow Through), Dex PSS (Deadly Aim), or Str PSS (Brutality). Since severity rating (not flat severity% from specs) DRs heavily, you typically don't want to grab more than one severity rating boost on gear.