Resisting Paralyze

[Faust]

Here is a little update on this issue...

Resist Table

Chance to resist with 100.0 Resist
spells cast by a GM Mage, GM Scholar
Circle 1 - 66%
Circle 2 - 56%
Circle 3 - 46%
Circle 4 - 38%
Circle 6 - 24%
Circle 7 - 12%


What Spells Can Be Resisted?

Buffs (Heal,Bless,Strength,Intelligence..) can't be resisted.
Debuffs (Curse, weaken..) can't be resisted.
Poison can be resisted completely.
Paralyze can be resisted but very rarely (mostly when cast by non-gm mages).
Directdamage spells (Energy bolt, explosion, flamestrike..) can be resisted and the damage is halved.
Mindblast can be resisted and damage is halved, however stats are more important here than magic resist.

NON-DIRECT-DAMAGE ATTACK SPELLS
Note all of this explained thus far does not cover the effects of duration spells that do not do "direct damage". Most of those are, at this point, unresistable in their numeric affects on your stats. However, higher resistance has proven to significantly reduce the duration of these spells. The numeric effects of these spells on stats are easily tabled for you here:

Various Notes:
The new function of the spell Poison is a complete mystery at this point. It is known that higher levels of resistance reduce the level of poison received and seemingly the duration that it remains potent. However, the UOSS currently has no conclusive data to share on this spell.

The spells Mana Drain and Mana Vampire work slightly differently. The calculation for the chance-to-resist these two spells is known to be similar, if not identical to the calculation for direct damage spells. However, instead of reducing their effects by half, when these spells are resisted, they are completely resisted, having NO AFFECT on their target. When they are not resisted, they take a percentage of Mana OUT of their target's attributes. In the case of Mana Vampire, that mana is given to the attackers attributes. How this percentage of mana is calculated, noone seems to know. Observations seem to show that these spells can take as much as 65-75% to as little as 30% of the mana currently available to the defender.

The Mind Blast spell is another complete mystery. Originally this spell compared the INT of the attacker versus the INT of the defender, and the loser suffered severe damage. Now, it's rather unknown exactly how this spell works with resistance and evaluate intelligence, or even how much damage can be accomplished by using it.

This is pretty much the only information that could be found at this moment. Most of it has been reviewed by pretty much anyone that has done any previous research on the nature of resist and so forth. Since paralyze is obviously a non-direct damage spell it could fall either way at this point. It could side with debuffs reducing the timer or follow suit with the way it works in regard to resisting the poison spell(another spell with a timer) by resisting the spell as a whole.

[Kaivan]

The above information pretty much covers all of the differences between UOR and T2A resist. During T2A, time duration spells such as poison and debuffs (and yes, paralyze too) were never fully resistable. At that time, if a player did resist a spell of that kind, the duration was reduced. In the case of debuff spells and paralyze, it was a straight chance to reduce the time of the spell (and almost always only occurred when a player of less-than-GM magery cast the spell). Poison was somewhat similar in that the intensity and duration could be reduced, and supposedly in very rare cases it could be fully resisted when the spell was cast by very low level players on a player with very high resist (the effective "level" was reduced to less than one). This changed with UOR when debuff spells were made unresistable, and poison was turned into a full resist spell (this may have been a product of the fact that poison as a spell was changed with UOR to only cast level 1 poison with GM magery making a "reduction" in the intensity effectively zero out the spell). Included in the UOR style changes was paralyze as a rarely resistable spell.

The main point is that during T2A, the information that exists shows that time duration spells could only have their duration reduced, not eliminated, and since paralyze was a time duration spell, it fell under that category.

[Faust]

I would like to see how the demo handles duration spells in regard to resisting these type of spells. I am starting to find it harder to believe that resist had little if anything to do at all with the duration of non-direct spell timers after resisting them. First, the poison spell inside of the demo uses the lowest poison level for the spell(if I am remembering the code correctly) making this article lose some credibility since it clearly states the "potent level" can be reduced after resisting the spell. I just find it hard to believe that two different conditions would be laid out for damage and non-damage spells and think it was more of an "on or off" situation when resisting making it a condition where you either resisted it or not with some spells being meaningless.

I could very well be wrong but this is something that should be looked into in my opinion.

I know that debuffs could not be fully resisted but I don't ever remember in the history of UO that poison couldn't be resisted(meaning an actual neglect of the poison) as you stated above Kaivan... To be honest in a way I hope that I am wrong about this, because the reduction in the timer seems more logical and makes it better in my opinion. I just find it hard to believe that this idea of "difference" between t2a and uor as you suggest exists with the notion that they were different when resisting them. I have a good feeling that they function relatively no different from pre-t2a all the way up past the uor era with very little change besides the chance upon resisting. I am mostly referring to debuffs and poison with this statement too. Paralyze may be the only exception since it worked completely different in the pre-t2a era compared to t2a. The spell was once unbreakable until the timer ran out even if damaged until it was later changed. It seems that a timer reduction for this spell makes a lot more sense in regard to resisting it based on the way that the spell worked back then.

I sent a message to Batlin a minute ago to get confirmation on the way these spells handle resist on the demo. This way we will at least have a starting point on the topic to build from that towards resolving any possible issues with this topic.

[Faust]

Update:

Batlin has confirmed several different resist functions for the non-direct damaging spells.

Debuffs(weaken, clumsy, feeble, curse) - Resist is not checked in the demo for these spells.
Poison - Resist only neglects the application of the spell does not alter the duration or potent level of the poison.
Paralyze - Resist will cut the duration in half.
Mind Blast - Resist is not checked in the demo for this spell.
Mana Drain/Vamp - Resist only neglects the application of the spell just like with the poison spell.
Damage Spells - Resist will cut the damage in half.

This pretty much confirms my previous statements after reading the information provided by Batlin from the demo code. The only timer cut in half is the paralyze spell. Debuffs function the same way in the demo as it does in the UOR era based on my provided resource posted earlier on in this thread. Poison functions exactly the same way as I described and stated in the UOR era. Again, the UOR era reduced the effective rate of resist making the spell much harder to resist than was possible in the t2a era.

This does not mean that some of these spells possibly were never changed. However, a few of the spells like debuffs and poison is pretty concrete given the fact that they work exactly in the same manner inside the demo and UOR eras. This tells me that they more than likely worked no differently in the t2a era until proven otherwise.

[Hemperor]

Update:

Batlin has confirmed several different resist functions for the non-direct damaging spells.

Debuffs(weaken, clumsy, feeble, curse) - Resist is not checked in the demo for these spells.
Poison - Resist only neglects the application of the spell does not alter the duration or potent level of the poison.
Paralyze - Resist will cut the duration in half.
Mind Blast - Resist is not checked in the demo for this spell.
Mana Drain/Vamp - "Waiting for confirmation on this."
Damage Spells - Resist will cut the damage in half.

This pretty much confirms my previous statements after reading the information provided by Batlin from the demo code. The only timer cut in half is the paralyze spell. Debuffs function the same way in the demo as it does in the UOR era based on my provided resource posted earlier on in this thread. Poison functions exactly the same way as I described and stated in the UOR era. Again, the UOR era reduced the effective rate of resist making the spell much harder to resist than was possible in the t2a era.

This does not mean that some of these spells possibly were never changed. However, a few of the spells like debuffs and poison is pretty concrete given the fact that they work exactly in the same manner inside the demo and UOR eras. This tells me that they more than likely worked no differently in the t2a era until proven otherwise.

No offense... but none of that information applies if you read my original post.

[Faust]

Actually, it matters a whole lot since we now have a foundation to start and build from... Pretty much most of the spells(as I already have stated) function no different in UOR meaning there obviously would be no difference during the t2a era since they did not change... Debuffs and poison is a great example of this. Paralyze can be disputed as previously stated in my last post. However, there is no telling "what that patch really means...

The following spells have had their chance of resist and their effect adjusted:
Mana drain
Mana vampire
Paralyze

My post was an overall basis on resist for non-direct damaging spells not just these three spells listed inside your original post... This patch says the "chance" and "effect" was adjusted. This doesn't mean the way it is resisted was changed and thrown out in all honesty. This could have been a tweak to the way the spells actually worked. I still believe in my heart that para was changed to a full scale resist and so forth, but there really is no concrete evidence to suggest that notion being based on my opinion alone.

[Mikel123]

My explanation of resisting paralyze still holds true to me for the way that I remember it. The chance of resisting the spell was very rare and when it did happen a very unusual sparkle effect was displayed resisting the spell entirely.

Update:

Batlin has confirmed several different resist functions for the non-direct damaging spells.

Paralyze - Resist will cut the duration in half.

This pretty much confirms my previous statements

Um, really? Where did the "sparkles" come from? Were you bedazzling your monitor back in the day? Come on, be honest.

[Faust]

Did you happen to not realize that "pretty much" means mostly but not entirely when used in this context?

Also, try reading a little further next time before hitting that "reply" button.

"This does not mean that some of these spells possibly were never changed. However, a few of the spells like debuffs and poison is pretty concrete given the fact that they work exactly in the same manner inside the demo and UOR eras. This tells me that they more than likely worked no differently in the t2a era until proven otherwise."

Did you happen to notice the "this does not mean that some of these spells possibly were never changed." in my post? Shall we fall back to the original posters initial response that clearly states that the chance AND effect of a resisted paralyze was adjusted?

I don't think anything else needs to be said in regard to your response...

[archaicsubrosa77]

wasn't there some kind of dispel, or other way you could break paralyze with? Like it was like a bubble popped or like when you casted dispel field on a gate..

[Hemperor]

Glamdring> *^Lucian* Will spells like Paralyze and Curse ever be resistable?
Faceless> Paralyze will in the next update. Curse isn't but could be in the future.

The following spells have had their chance of resist and their effect adjusted:
Mana drain
Mana vampire
Paralyze

[Kraarug]

Glamdring> *^Lucian* Will spells like Paralyze and Curse ever be resistable?
Faceless> Paralyze will in the next update. Curse isn't but could be in the future.

The following spells have had their chance of resist and their effect adjusted:
Mana drain
Mana vampire
Paralyze

So this shows that a resist Paralyze spell functioned differently than the demo suggest.

[Derrick]

It was my initial recollection that paralyze was completely resistible, and it was implemented that was on UOSA open. Some information was provided long ago that indicated that paralyze duration was simply halved on resist, and we made the change to the current system.

This is certainly open for discussion, it would of course be preferred to find indisputable information on this so that we don't make similar repetitive mistakes on this mechanic,

[Hemperor]

I'm going to open up two more topics for discussion on the resistance of certain spells, I'm doing far too many things at once to get to the bottom of all of them.
Posting Poison and Mana drain topics right now, all are pretty much related.

[Ulor]

wasn't there some kind of dispel, or other way you could break paralyze with? Like it was like a bubble popped or like when you casted dispel field on a gate..

I remember this but I have not researched it for T2A accuracy:

You could carry a pouch that had Magic Trap cast on it. If you got Paralyzed, you could open the pouch, causing a small explosion and breaking the paralysis. PvPing without trapped pouches was practically asking to die.

[Hemperor]

wasn't there some kind of dispel, or other way you could break paralyze with? Like it was like a bubble popped or like when you casted dispel field on a gate..

I remember this but I have not researched it for T2A accuracy:

You could carry a pouch that had Magic Trap cast on it. If you got Paralyzed, you could open the pouch, causing a small explosion and breaking the paralysis. PvPing without trapped pouches was practically asking to die.

That works here.