Can savage bosses crit?

I'm fairly new to savage raiding so don't be too critical with me. I've noticed on m1s that there are times I die to the first protean hit, not every time, just some times, and I doubt it's my item level since I'm at IL 711 currently. For reference I'm playing caster so I do have the least HP of all dps classes. I also understand I can cast addle but that messes up my opener. I've tried moving slightly further away thinking that could be why I die on the first hit, but it still happens. If the boss can crit, that makes sense, if it's just a simple issue of needing to use addle to mitigate the damage, I can do that as well, I'm just looking for answers as to why it's happening.

Mechanics can't crit you.

If you feel like taking too much damage, use better mitigation like Reprisal and Shield the party before the AOE

Also, are you eating a high quality max level food? Even though mechanics don't crit, there is still a variance to the damage values. At low IL, the vitality from that will be the difference between living and dying when the damage is on the higher end of that range.

They removed all critical hits from bosses and mobs back in SB so no, enemies criting aren't a thing anymore.

The reason you are sometimes dying is probably a big inconsistency between healers and mitigation deployed by your team for the attack. The first boss also massively uses physical damage, which plays havoc on casters, which can amplify this problem a lot. Surviving by less than 5% of your total HP is not okay, and even if something doesn't kill you, you need to make sure your team (which includes everybody for mitigation, and you for your personal defenses) mitigates better, since the damage variance can go up to 5%, so something that doesn't outright kill you but gets you that low could have.

I have noticed random damage spikes on quadruple crossing from Black Cat in savage, honestly. Obviously it's not a "crit" as the numbers aren't bold and there are no "!"s, but randomly, on the first mechanic, I'll sometimes take 130k+ damage from the first baited protean. As PCT, I only have about 124k. It's not a vuln up, as this is the very first hit of the very first mechanic. I'm not getting double tapped. And I've confirmed that all the same mits are present for it. (My Addle, MNK's feint, and a reprisal.) Other times, all the same conditions, I'll take about 70k damage. In both instances, there's a succor shield on the party, but no other shield type mits. I'm not saying it's a crit, but something is causing a spike in damage on this attack.

Thank you for the information everyone I think it was lack of mitigation, I adjusted my opener and everyone used mitigation now I'm surviving with 25-50% health.