Luck and mind duels

Ylvali · #1 March 16th, 2008, 01:26 PM

I recently played MA atlantis in a MP game. When I sent my s2 w3 kings against Arco and he answered with s4 mages casting mind duels.

The strange thing is that I won 3 of 4 duels even though he had so much higher astral.

All my kings had luck items, could that be the explanation? If luck counters mind duels that would be very useful. If not can someone tell if there is some other factor in play.

Or maybe I was just very lucky?

B0rsuk · #2 March 16th, 2008, 02:51 PM

Arcoscephale doesn't have mages with base s4, so he must've used boosters. Only natural talent counts for duels. Communion, boosters etc won't help. But empower may help a little.

Endoperez · #3 March 16th, 2008, 03:15 PM

I'm still intrigued by the original question. Luck help against things like Soul Slay and Ethereal Crossbow, which are basically 999 magic damage. In theory, Magic Duel might just deal lots of unresistable, AN damage...

So, has anyone tested whether Luck can help you survive a lost duel?

Xietor · #4 March 16th, 2008, 03:30 PM

Arcos does get many astrologers with 4s magic though. rarely 5.

Ylvali · #5 March 16th, 2008, 05:05 PM

In this case it was s4 mages, without boosters or anything.

I know it could be just luck (real life version) but I�d really like to know.

Xietor · #6 March 16th, 2008, 05:15 PM

I doubt luck helps. Magic duel seems to be a different animal. Likely just got good rolls. If you are wearing armor of virtue and lose a magic duel, i think you are dead and do not return to the capital. That is an educated guess, however. Did not test it.

Ylvali · #7 March 16th, 2008, 05:38 PM

I am making a test now.

Sir_Dr_D · #8 March 16th, 2008, 10:31 PM

What happens when you have Phoenix Pyre on, and get magic dueled? WOuld you survive?

NTJedi · #9 March 17th, 2008, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Ylvali said:
I am making a test now.

results??

AreaOfEffect · #10 March 17th, 2008, 04:49 AM

The guide to the game explains the exact mechanics of Mage Duel. It's the astral level of your mage plus 1d6 versus the other mage's astral level plus 1d6. The difference between your mage's adtral level and the others were only 2, meaning your random die roll had to be above the opponents roll by 3 for 3 of those rolls.

Granted the chances of that happening out of only 4 attempts is low (1out of 54 to be exact), it still is possible. In fact, the law of averages demands that it happen when done in enough iterations.

My personal opinion is that luck certainly had something to do with it, just not the sort of luck you are referring to.

P.S.: Your odds of taking out one of his mages wasn't really that bad. He had only a 4 out of 9 chance of clean sweep. That means that 5 out of 9 times he would lose or tie to you at least once.