There is no inherent buff to damage or crit from behind. Flanking is the only gear that grants this luxury (but it's not solely benefit - it has it's own drawbacks). There is one other way to guarantee a crit, which is Shadowy Disguise. Simply being hidden/crouched and/or behind a target does not guarantee crit. Sneak attack damage yes, under proper conditions, but this and crit are separate concepts.

Nestor wrote: »

Gilliamtherogue wrote: »

You do not need a melee weapon to get off a sneak critical, you only need a weapon that scales with Weapon Damage and Stamina. This means any weapons except staves. The same goes for abilities, if it scales with Max Magicka/Spell damage then you cannot get a sneak critical with it.

@Gilliamtherogue

Yes, Weapon Damage skills are included that scale from weapon damage. I was not clear on that. I have also never gotten the bonus with a staff or magic based skill.

I did some testing on this with my sneaky critical strike NB. Doing the same attack sequence, starting from stealth. One was from behind the mob and then in front (Echetare's). My combat log did not show much of difference in damage dealt between the two attacks, but the difference in the Health Bar of the mob was huge. With a Frontal attack, I would ding their bar for about 15% with the opener, from behind, more like 60%. It also took more hits on the attack that started from the front, vs the rear.

So, I don't know if its a different kind of critical, or a Stealth Damage Bonus multiplier. But it is significant.

@Nestor Stealth attacks have an additional 2.75x multiplier to them that stacks on top of your current CHD (Critical Hit Damage). This means with no sources of CHD, the amp for a Stealth attack would be 4.25x or 425%. To break this number down we have 1 or 100% coming from base damage, or the original attack. .5 or 50% comes from the base CHD multiplier. Then comes in the additional 2.75 or 275% multiplier for successfully landing a sneak attack. This number can get MUCH higher with high Critical Hit Damage builds.

To further iterate, a Stealth Attack is met when your character passes the following "checks";
1. Is in the crouched state
2. Is not detected by any enemy, or deemed "hidden" by the eye
3. Is not currently in combat
4. Is at the sides of or behind the targeted enemy, being within the frontal (not telegraphed, but is a conal AoE, roughly the size of the 2h ability Carve) detection zone will deem you "detected" when you attempt to attack.

This means you cannot get the Stealth Attack bonus while in the "Invisible" state during active combat. The Invisible state can add increased damage to attacks, but only with specific passives being unlocked.