Did a bit of testing tonight with contested disablers. Basically the contests seem like they're all or nothing, not sure how this is supposed to be but I think it could be made to be better. Basically what i'm trying to say is that if your even 10 points less your opponent it could mean the difference of failing a fully prepped (highest mana) disabler, while the other guy that was 10 points ahead could minimum prep disable the other guy. This testing was done at the 70-100 stat range level.

Also, did some testing with magical barriers. Same deal here pretty much... you either break the barrier or you don't, if you put enough mana into the spell and manage to break the shield it gives the max duration to said disabler. Did testing with a necromancer with worms mist and a moon mage with shear. Tried different spell prep amounts and basically they failed to a certain point, and then when they passed they disabled the other person for 10-12 seconds, pretty much both ways.

So it a nutshell it didn't seem like the shields did much except for the initial buffer, if they passed they still did the same amount of damage. (rt) I thought with new combat being how it is, magic might still be on the scale that if you break a certain point you get maximum yield, even though other factors should blunt the damage of certain spells. Maybe its just me it just seems like some spell contests arent contesting all aspects properly.