Minor rule changes

[Neo Eternity]

Greetings, patrons of Twilight Isle.

The first two cycles of the new Duel of Magic have been a great success, and we're glad you all have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, there are still kinks. The ward in the Annex, for example, is still partially obscuring focus uses. We've lost touch with the only person who can do anything about it without a whole lot of restructuring... so at some point in the future, there's going to have to be a whole lot of work done. We profusely apologize for these inconveniences.

After watching how the dramatic changes have panned out, We are introducing some smaller changes that have been in high demand for a long time. They are as follows:

The healing arte of the ward has been improved to quickly dispel stun effects, namely, those that occur with reciprocal reflections. Basically, mirrored reflections will no longer cause duelists to be stunned for an entire round. It was originally left around as an accidental but welcome side effect, but it confuses new callers and complicates things for no good reason. You'll still get stunned if you flash reflective shields at each other... just not for an entire round. This one has actually already been in effect for some time, so this post simply makes it official.

The Ring of Klytus can no longer be earned by Magi. Magi have consistently placed high, if not top, in the cycle rankings for much of the old Duel of Magic's history, but they are the rank that can least make use of the Ring of Klytus. It wasn't meant for them anyways. At the end of the cycle, they almost always end up declining it so that a lower rank who fought hard and fought well can reap its benefits. From now on, at the end of the cycle, when the Ring is awarded, it will automatically skip Magi. If the Ring holder becomes a Mage while holding it, they may continue to hold it. This still leaves Wizards with little reason to hold the Ring, though. This is something I wish to soon rectify.

And now, the final change, the one most likely to be controversial. When a Keeper defeats an Archmage in challenge, the former Archmage will receive the tower that the former Keeper retires. In effect, they will switch titles. The way we deal with empty towers is usually through tournaments. And because tournament saturation in the duels as a whole is pretty high, we just give the tower in the All-Ranks Tournament. This leaves the tower empty for a month, and that is problematic. There are still other ways that a tower can become vacant, but this way, the most common one is dealt with. There are no Keepers registered for tomorrow's tournament, so there is likely still plenty of time to debate this change before it would come to be used, if you would like it repealed.

Thank you all for participating in the Duel of Magic. We hope you continue to enjoy our mystical bloodsport.

[Lem DeAngelo]

I'd like to propose an alternative to the proposed change of giving a Tower to an Archmage that has been defeated by a Keeper. What if the Tower is awarded to the duelist with the best cycle ranking instead? That duelist can choose to accept the Tower or RoK. That way the Tower will be awarded to someone who proves themselves over the course of the cycle. The downside is that the Tower would be vacant for 2 months, but there would likely be an increase in regular dueling with a Tower and RoK up for grabs. I think the increased competition outweighs the Tower being vacant for a month.

I'm bringing this up today since there is a possibility that this could happen tonight with a Keeper facing the Archmage. If the Keeper wins, could we hold off on awarding the Tower to the retiring Archmage until we've heard if there are any other ideas?

[Harris]

I think this idea would have merit if the Keeper titles were limited to Magi, like Opals and Baronies are limited to Emeralds and Warlords, respectively.

I don't think leaving a tower vacant for two months and putting it up as an end of cycle prize is going to increase regular dueling. The fact remains that DoM has the least stringent challenge requirements out of all the sports, but still yields the least challenges overall, which is the primary method of gaining a Keeper title. If someone wants a Keeper title they'll have at least two opportunities to challenge for one during the two month timespan of a full cycle. Essentially there is always going to be an easier, more available way to gain a Keeper title and that's through challenging, which is available almost immediately when someone makes rank, i.e. Enchanter.

There's no real bonus incentive for duelists that want a Keeper title to duel during regular hours, since the vast majority of the duelists on the standings are already eligible to challenge for a title anyway or will be by the time two months are up.

[Rachael Blackthorne]

The Ring of Klytus can no longer be earned by Magi. Magi have consistently placed high, if not top, in the cycle rankings for much of the old Duel of Magic's history, but they are the rank that can least make use of the Ring of Klytus. It wasn't meant for them anyways. At the end of the cycle, they almost always end up declining it so that a lower rank who fought hard and fought well can reap its benefits. From now on, at the end of the cycle, when the Ring is awarded, it will automatically skip Magi. If the Ring holder becomes a Mage while holding it, they may continue to hold it. This still leaves Wizards with little reason to hold the Ring, though. This is something I wish to soon rectify.

I propose that the Ring of Klytus skip a Wizard who is also a Neophyte. For one, Wizard rank already gives the maximum amount of Foci (3). Two, should the Neophyte drop a rank, they still get the +1 advantage if the Mage Mentor is present. Having both RoK and the Neophyte benefit is overkill to the Wizard, since the cap on Foci is 3 and the only way the double stack of Foci would benefit and give the cap of Foci would be if the holder/Neophyte dropped to Enchanter rank.

The RoK should be a reward to the duelist who can actually benefit from using it, not just the duelist with the highest participation and win/loss ratio.

[Lem DeAngelo]

Harris,

It's a fact that DoM has less challenges than DoS or DoF, but I think the reason behind that is a different discussion unrelated to the question of "What do we when a Keeper becomes Archmage?" The only 3 options I know of are to hold a special tournament, give it to the retiring Archmage, or award to the best duelist at the end of the cycle. Neo mentioned that we're saturated on tournaments and I personally don't think an Archmage should receive a Tower that they didn't earn. So the only other idea on the table right now is to award it via regular dueling. We can speculate, but we don't have any proof as to whether or not there will be an increase in regular dueling if a Tower was awarded to the best duelist. The only way we can get proof would be to try it, or look at the data on when RoK was introduced 5 years ago (which would not quite be an equal comparison anyway).

As to the reason why DoM challenges are low, my opinion is because there's no great advantage to holding a Tower. You get free rent and occasionally a chance to put the fury on another Keeper. I think that could be another discussion for another corkboard though.

[Harris]

My point about challenges is directly related to this idea. A challenge is the easiest way to gain a Keeper title. The concept is that allowing a title to remain vacant for two months will be balanced out by an increase in dueling, incentivized by the fact a title will be awarded. That's the boon. Title up for grabs = more dueling for the cycle.

The point I'm making is that titles are already more easily available to duelists by way of challenge. This would be a great idea if only Magi could challenge for Keeper titles. Then everyone Wizard and below would have legitimate incentive to increase their dueling to try and win a Keeper title that wouldn't normally be accessible to them. But since Enchanters and above can challenge already there's no *bonus* incentive to duel more during the cycle. Why duel more to try and gain a title that you're already eligible to challenge for at any point?

Plus, the idea that the "best duelist" would gain the title wouldn't always be true. If a Keeper or several Keepers are at the top of the cycle rankings then the title would have to be passed down until someone is eligible.

Naturally this is all speculation. But it's generally best to look at an idea from all sides before implementing it. No idea is perfect.

[Lem DeAngelo]

I see your point that the easiest way to attain Keeper is to challenge, but that doesn't mean that everyone wants to challenge for a title. I still think think that tournaments that offer a Barony, Opal, or Tower would have more participation than a normal tournament. We could look through the histories to try and disprove it, but that's a lot of digging that would have to be done. I'm not going to continue to speculate because without the data, it's just hypothesizing.

So if the Tower isn't offered via tournament, via cycle rankings or given to a retiring Archmage, then what is your suggestion? At this point those are the only three ideas that I know of, and one of them isn't possible (tournament-unless the masses demand it? Occupy Twilight Isle).

And I'm definitely not presenting my idea as perfect. I simply brought it up as an alternative and then asked for other ideas. We can play devil's advocate with every idea until we find the best option.

[Harris]

I'm pretty content with the present idea of title swapping. The issue seemed to mostly be that the title would be vacant for a period of time and swapping alleviates that. DoS has the same clause for potential title swapping when a Baron dethrones the Overlord and I've never really taken any issue with how that works.

Really it just boils down to general opinion of what's more important. Personally I don't like seeing titles go vacant for months at a time. I prefer a quick turnaround of no more than a couple weeks if possible. If a better, equally immediate (or close to it) idea comes up then I'd be all for it.

[Lem DeAngelo]

What about instead of a full cycle, the competition is the first 1 or 2 weeks of the cycle? And if that's a decent alternative, then would we add a minimum duel requirement?

[Neo Eternity]

Whoa, this cork thread blew up all of a sudden.

The current paradigm of title swapping was directly inspired by Duel of Swords. There's no point re-inventing the wheel when round ones work perfectly fine, after all. I'm not really looking to change it; there aren't really any very compelling reasons to do so. I'd have been fine with Shadow gaining Water should Xanth have won the challenge match. You know the drill, though. If you've got a good reason, my ears are always open.

As for the Ring of Klytus and Neophytes, that is something I have been mulling over for a while. After all, Squires and Mentees don't get to hold the Talon or the Claw. (At least I'm pretty sure it works like that in Fists.) The Ring has been held by a Neophyte at least twice now, and the way benefits stack up merits at least some further examination.

I have a solution in the works for Wizards holding either the Ring or a Neophyte title.

[DUEL Misty]

Just a couple cases in point. Nayun held the RoK while she was a Neophyte. A. Dagger Sasc currently has the Claw, and he's got a Mentor. Those are two examples just off the top of my head.

[Nayun]

Personally, I think the RoK should be Apprentice through Sorcerer only.

[Lem DeAngelo]

Personally, I think the RoK should be Apprentice through Sorcerer only.

I tend to agree with this. When we acquired the ring from Klytus 5 years ago, we discussed whether or not to allow mages and wizards to win RoK via the rankings. The ring was intended to assist young duelers that showed skill (win %) and dedication (show of activity) to the sport. We decided to allow mages and wizards to be able to win RoK, but we would leave it up to those duelists to decide whether or not they wanted to accept it or let it pass to a lower ranked duelist. Considering that RoK so often does not fulfill its primary purpose, I would agree with Nayun RoK should be for duelists below wizard.