A Study of Mana Disruption
by Gahread Tempestas

Editor's Note: This is an out-of-character study of the actual game mechanics of the spell Mana Disruption. If numbers and out-of-character discussions of in-game mechanics bothers you, it would probably be best to move on now.

Many sorcerers know that mana disruption has undergone some dramatic changes lately. Probably as many have registered their discontent with those changes with the powers that be. However, while casting at several targets, I noticed that they were dying when I'd done barely enough damage to kill a kobold. There is a 'hidden' component of mana disruption, and long has been. Now we get to actually see this part and measure the full effectiveness of our spell. Over several weeks, I tested mana disruption with various willing empaths. I have my suspicious that the silvers I was paying had more to do with their willingness than a desire to stand there and be mana disrupted for hours on end, but that's beside the point.

From this testing, I learned to associate the following messages with the following amounts of 'hidden' damage.

In addition, visible damage ranged from:
0 hand, guarded: 1-25
1 hand, guarded: 3-35
1 hand, neutral: 5-50
1 hand, offensive: 10-50
2 hand, offensive: 10-60

The above is a guide, although I am very confident in its accuracy. Outside the ranges shown above, the given result can still occur. Exceptionally crit-damaging blows may see their ranks stepped by up to 6 ranks. In one case, a 31 hidden damage cast that snapped the neck of the target and killed them returned the 'a devastating hit' message. Those extreme jumps will be very obvious, while the typical variance is no more than 1 rank.

Notes on damage:

No consistent pattern was found among individual casts, beyond higher success margins will yield generally more powerful hits. After examining the averages of the casts, a number of conclusions can be drawn:

Casting in offensive with both hands free can increase the total damage done by roughly 50% over guarded with both hands occupied. For the fighters out there, this is similar to going from a short sword to a falchion. Moving to offensive with a shield out at all times gives a respectable 25% bonus on average.

When the visible damage was looked at separately, the increase from weapon and shield in guarded to nothing in offensive was 70% or greater. This is where the critical hits, along with stuns, knockdowns and instant death by critical hits comes from. Even going from guarded with a weapon to guarded or neutral without one produced a 30% gain in visible damage. Going all the way up to offensive did produce further gains, but much smaller in proportion to the gains from putting away your weapon in the first place.

Unless you have the defenses to move into offensive stance anyway, doing so for the purpose of increasing mana disruption effectiveness is outweighed by the increased risk.

Against 1-2 creatures, it is possible to move to offensive and create a script to prepare 702, wear your shield, cast it and remove your shield. Doing so gives the hunter minimal risk time while dramatically increasing the effectiveness of the spell. If done against a small number of creatures, a sorcerer can more or less become as effective an attacker as they were pre-growing pains! Care must be take though, for the sorcerer's defenses will be extremely low.

At the lower end of the scale, below a 120 enroll, and at the higher end, above 160, the differences are most pronounced. Hunting in aggressive stances with one hand free will let the caster average 50 damage or more per hit, even at below 120 endrolls. At more conservative stances or with both hands full, the caster can expect to average 30 damage at low endrolls. Similarly, an aggressive caster can break 100 damage on 150 or 170 endrolls. In a more defensive posture, a 190 or 210 endroll might be required.

Again, mana disrupt seems to be extremely random, varying by 50 total damage on similar strikes under the same conditions. Perhaps with the aid of this research, the life of a sorcerer may seem a bit easier and less incomprehensible for other practitioners of the Art.

The Non-picker's Guide to Opening Your Own Boxes
by Lord Sol of Solhaven

1. Get deeds.

2. Open in a semi-public place or let a friend know where you are.

It's embarrassing to die from an incinerator on top of the colossus, and decay. The only thing more embarrassing would be to die from a red vial trap on top of the colossus and decay.

Do not open your boxes in a crowded public place such as the park or TC. When we want to watch you die that badly, we will light you on fire ourselves.

3. Inspect your boxes by hand first.

No matter how high a creature is in level, it will have the occasional easy trap. Check. The spell presence is rumored to help in trap sighting. You still won't see the trap, but if you want to maintain any semblance of dignity, you ought to do something other than stand there looking like a miserable fool while you wait for more mana.

4. Disarm by hand if you can.

Disarming by hand is *always* better than disarming by magic. You will still die, but you will die in a respectable posture. Dying with one hand frozen in an interrupted casting gesture will only open you to more ridicule.

You can disarm a trap if your disarm skill bonus meets or exceeds the inverse of the difficulty of the trap. (For you wizards, that's if your disarm skill is more than that number with the funny dash in front of it.) The spell disarm enhancement will provide some benefit if you have disarm skill. If you don't have any disarm skill, keep your damn fingers out of the box.

5. Know your traps.

Some traps are not disarmable by magic. You could bring those to a picker with skills to protect his hide. You could also show a little backbone, pop the box anyway and use the contents to replace your deed.

I'm not going to tell you which traps these are because I want you to suffer.

6. Use the full name of the box when casting, along with MY.

The coffee on the Hearthstone porch has been molested enough. It doesn't need your filthy essence all over it.

7. Use the Lores if you can spare the mana.

They make a clear difference. The effectiveness of your lore when using Unlock or Disarm is based on minor elemental spells known, unless you're using Disarm Enhancement to open a box or vice versa, in which case you deserve what you get.

8. Disarm is not Limb Disruption.

Lackwits.

9. Unlock is not Eye Spy.

See above.

10. Don't panic.

You are on fire. Someone just walked past you and noticed nothing amiss. There he goes again in the opposite direction. Your flesh is boiling off in sulfurous chunks. Your tongue has liquefied. You are going to die. Do not panic. Accept it like the tough fearless bugger you are.