Spell Making Session #13 - Voting

This is the voting thread to decide the winner of the 13th Spell Making Session. You can find all the individual submissions in this thread, or download them all in a pack (Spell Making Session 13.rar).

Note that the poll is now score-based rather than rank-based; the change is mostly cosmetic, the math behind the voting is the same as in the third hero contest, the only difference is that now you should assign your favourite submission the highest number rather than the lowest. As before, it's the order of submissions that matters, not the actual score (for example, ranking three submissions with the scores 3,2,1 is the same as 10,8,1), ties are allowed (two or more submissions may be given the same score) and if you don't give a score to all the submissions then the unranked ones will be considered tied for the last place.

The poll has closed on Friday, February 20th at 23:59 UTC.

The votes have been processed using the Schulze method. You can vew the details here.

The winner is Zerzax with his Arcane Roulette spell. Congratulations!

• Autocast (+11):
  Quite simply, Autocast is the most awesome spell in the contest.
  Novelty: I've been waiting for a spell with this kind of functionality.
  Spell Effect: It works very well. The elemental mechanic is easy to understand, uncomplicated, and those little orbs following the hero around is just adorable.
  Spell Design: The tooltips are concise, without error, and informative. The visuals are perfectly matched to the spell's effects.
• EnergySpike (+10):
  The spell is so well executed and fun to cast repetitively. The only issues are minor: its tooltip is worded strangely and the miss visual effect is superfluous and disproportionate in size to the other effect visuals. That this was done in GUI is quite impressive.
• DeathCarrier (+9):
  Entertaining spell, decent functionality. However, it could be improved if the otherwise superfluous spell jumps did something.
• Chaosplosion (+8):
  Functional, mediocre.
• ArcaneRoulette (+7):
  Good spell, but not exceptional.
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+6):
  Offers a fascinating mechanic and decent visuals, otherwise mediocre.
  -2 Spell Design: Tooltips lack relevant information, such as the duration of the "luck".
• Distort (+5):
  Cool idea that could have been better designed.
  -2 Spell Design: Tooltip does not explain what a distortion does (Hex). Tooltip does not display the chance of the effect. Targeting interface lacks an AoE circle.
  -1 Bug: Spell effect persists for at least another few seconds after the sphere shrinks.
• LuckyWheel (+4):
  This would be the second most awesome spell if it worked properly.
  Novelty: Fascinating functionality, if not impractical to implement.
  -1 Spell Effect: Enemies don't even realize it's cast on them. After the effect ends, the creeps went back to sleep.
  -2 Bugs: The spell bugs out; it returned an error reading "Doublefree of type: LuckyWheel__SpellData". It can also be exploited to cross pathing barriers on resurrection.
  
  Why the hell would you post "NO GUARANTEE FOR BEING BUG FREE!!!"? It's not as though we're going to overlook that.
• MirrorImage (+3):
  Fun idea, fun to play, but very poorly designed.
  Gross Imbalance: I killed every enemy on the map with one hero without healing. This would be overpowered in nearly any implementation.
  -2 Spell Design: Increasing mana cost per level. the tooltip is excessively long and poorly worded.
  -1 Spell Effect: Multiple illusions push the hero out of position, singling it out to human player.
  -1 Multi-instancability: It's limited to one instance per player.
  -1 Bug: It leaks one location per instance.
• GoblinRocket (+2):
  I wish this spell were better designed, since it's a cool idea.
  -2 Spell Design: Hotkey F is not highlighted in tooltip. There is no mention of a maximum range, despite play testing which indicates there is. The rocket always curves to the hero's left, which is silly.
  -1 Spell Effect: Effect area is slightly larger than targeting circle. More importantly, I found that the rocket usually hit the hero, especially when targeting outside some unknown maximum range.
  -2 Bugs: Units in the target area take exactly 15 damage. Worse, I managed to crash the game while casting the spell close the the playable map edge. I sent the rocket outside the map and we all know how much the game loves that.
• RandomAwesomeness (+1):
  This is the worst spell, unconscionably awful. The tooltips are worthless and the effects are practically worthless.

My own spell, Vex, is functional, balanced against Banish for duration, but suffers from a lack of information in the tooltip and a fatal lag-causing bug.

(* Automatic vote: Vex +13 *)

• ArcaneRoulette (+12): This was my favorite submission by far. It's functional, not buggy, fun, and most of all, random.
• LuckyWheel (+11): I really enjoyed the roulette spinner idea and the way it was implemented. The presentation is nice and it runs smoothly.
  The main drawback is the time it takes to cast the spell from start to finish. Ruins functionality in an actual map.
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+10): Simple but effective and nice. Although it isn't "random", it's actually themed with luck making it fit the contest specifications better than most.
• EnergySpike (+9): It's random. It works. It's clean, and it's efficient. It's also slightly boring, needed a little more pizazz.
• Vex (+8): I like the random effects but honestly, it's boring. The functionality this spell provides is the only thing that saved it. There's nothing visually appealing and it isn't very user interactive.
• Chaosplosion (+7): It's a cool implementation of the idea, but it is still rather generic and it didn't seem to work consistantly. The autocast didn't always autocast like it should have.
• DeathCarrier (+5): It works and doesn't have any bugs. However, the random factor doesn't work very well. It's bound to hit one of the units in an area, but its damage is AoE, so the variation is very limited.
• RandomAwesomeness (+4): Yes, it's random. It's also buggy and the description is haphazard. Noone wants to read a page long tooltip. It didn't work consistantly.
• MirrorImage (+3): It's a critical strike version of Mirror Image, and on top of that it basically splits damage. Might as well have a 50% evasion ability.
• Distort (+2): Cool idea, graphically pleasing. Bad implementation and the tooltip gives the user no idea of what the spell does. It's like an inverted Phase Shift ability mixed with hex.
• GoblinRocket (+1): Vague tooltip, a rocket that backfires most of the time, and you sit there watching it fly around randomly. The rocket wasn't the prototype, this spell was. Needs more development.

I'm kind of disappointed. A lot of the spells were generic and boring. Only a few really stood out as unique, functional, and fun. At least it made it easier to choose the higher scores.

(* Automatic vote: Autocast +13 *)

• GoblinRocket (+12): Honestly my personal favorite. I found it simple, executed well, I liked how smoothly the animation worked and the little hint of the rockets failing propulsion. The negative effect made me very happy! :P
• ArcaneRoulette (+11): Was a nice spell all in all, seemed fairly balanced, I didn't run into any real problems. The roulette effect is hard to see though.
• Autocast (+10): Great concept and I could see why some people may have been confused slightly. I was at first but on use I picked it up and really enjoyed it.
  Some changes I would have made is a lower chance to gain an element and also have it fire a random element rather than a preselected version. Other than that it was wonderful :P
• RandomAwesomeness (+9): It had a great concept, however the tooltip was so long that it actually got cut off (Never seen that before). The spell name lacks any imagination. Also I'm pretty shure if used sequentially before the first one fires it skips either the first used or all of them up until it fires.. Other than that I loved that it target friendly and enemy units :P
• Distort (+8): Was an interesting spell to say the least. I don't like that only enemies could tear the "warp" or w/e and the effect of the hex seemed a bit long and it fired quite frequently.
• MirrorImage (+8): Was an overall decent spell, I think you shouldn't have had the images spawn atop of the hero as it only creates one and can cause the hero to be selected far easier by a human player (Pretty shure that overrides your auto attack image order).
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+8): It was a good spell overall but some of the things I noticed was that the animation persisted through death. Also a buff icon on the Hero representing it being active would have been cool and I think my buff dropped a couple times during combat with a critical firing.
• Vex (+7): I liked the concept, I think it lacked a little randomness to it, but honestly I couldn't give it a full run due to the excessive lag it produced.. If you come up with a lag-free version I would love to try it.
• Chaosplosion (+7): Now it was indeed a wonderful spell. Would have ranked it alot higher if it wasn't for a few problems I noticed. When the explosion triggered on some units, the buff wasn't removed and it was a bit overpowered. Easily multi cast on several targets each exploding for 100+ AoE damage? Little much IMO.
• DeathCarrier (+6): Was an awesome spell all in all but honestly I didn't see it as fitting the profile of the contest since it only jumps to units and then explodes. Yes I know it was random units but that didn't really make me feel as if it was a luck based spell.
• LuckyWheel (+6): I loved your roulette wheels animation, it was very well made, but there were quite a few problems. I got an error upon death, some units were removed from the wheel even while still alive, the spell seemed impractical for actual in-game use as it removes sever units from play to execute and it didn't wake up sleeping units when used.

As for my personal spell, I would totally give it a 20 lol, j/p actually I would have probably given it only a 7-9 because its impractical for regular use but fun to use none the less!! :P

(* Automatic vote: EnergySpike +13 *)

• Autocast (+12): Looks very practical and balanced. Very good idea, but it wasn't too descriptive on what the extra elements did. All in all, it seemed to have the most professional design and implementation.
• EnergySpike (+11): Interesting spell. I liked the variety, and the texttags helped me see what was happening. Sometimes this hurt me a LOT, but it still seems like something I'd use in a serious match. This is simple, clean, and useful.
• ArcaneRoulette (+10): I liked the rotating auras, which really added to suspense. I found overgrowth to be a little overpowered, but it wouldn't be too hard to balance. In a ladder setup, these effects are a little on the powerful side, but still balanced depending on the intended mana cost and cooldown. Solid spell overall, and it has an interesting double-edge effect which seems to have more favorable effects the closer the caster is to danger.
• Vex (+8): The different effects were interesting, and I'm not sure if I saw them all. The time stopper was really neat. At level 3 the spell took away 20 armor, Ouch! The spell is never the same, but some of the effects aren't balanced if we are judging this for a ladder type game.
• DeathCarrier (+7): Cool idea, the damage seems to be dealt to the picked AoE regardless though. I think you could've added to this by giving a small chance to sporadically detonate early to deal extra damage. I agree with the person above, it would be cool if the bounces did something.
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+7): I used bladestorm and it did a lot of extra damage! Not sure if it was intended or not. Looking at the actual spell, I like the increasing chance, but it kind of seems like it makes it into a crit every X number of hits type thing. Props on the updating tooltip. Something to make it a little more interesting would incorporate a higher damage multiplier at lower percentages. Also I think the texttag should be shown above the blademaster like the other critical / evasion effects are shown above the attacking unit.
• Chaosplosion (+6): I like the idea, but at level 3 it seems to explode before I can apply another buff, which makes the whole point of adding chance per buff mostly un-needed. This spell will level a whole army in seconds, so the balance is very questionable. However the idea is neat and could become very balanced with some tweaking.
• GoblinRocket (+4): This generally seemed to hurt more than help, but I really found the random swerving interesting. If I were using this in ladder, I'd probably try not to cast it a lot since the chance of it hitting the target seems to be lower than the chance of it going to some random area or hitting me.
• Distort (+2): This spell doesn't have much to do with luck. None of the aspects seem to involve chance, except the enemies reaction time, but that applies for all AoE spells such as Blizzard and Flamestrike. I think it would've been cool to see some different effects happen for each attack, such as a curse or a slow. Cool use of the special effect to create the sphere, but as the person above me said: An AoE target would've been more proper than a point target.

My Wc3 wouldn't show some of the maps in the playlist, so I didn't vote for them.

I made this spell to give me a reason to learn structs. The first voter enlightened me to the fact that these spell are supposed to be balanced for ladder matches. I know my spell isn't geared for ladder, so please be constructive instead of ruthlessly bashing it, as I didn't see this aspect in the spell session thread. I'll keep this in mind for next time though.

(* Automatic vote: RandomAwesomeness +13 *)

• ArcaneRoulette (+11): Really nice spell with a huge configuration part. It works well and is easy to understand.
  Not more to say about it.
• DeathCarrier (+9): Simple and non bugging skill.
  However i personally as caster want the gold for the mana used in that cast ...
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+9): Really nice concept behind the spell.
  However you could have removed those debug messages and i got some PUI error when using bladestorm and this ability fired.
  Error: 'Index requested for null unit'
• Chaosplosion (+8): The spell itself is nice to see in action and doesn't bug.
  The code is well written and clean.
  However the chance to explode is quite high, so it's not real luck i suppose.
• GoblinRocket (+8): The code most likely looks fine, even though it's kinda non sense to use PI and PI2 as global due the fact that there's a blizzard constant call bj_PI.
  You also missed 1 leak at the onSpellCast function, you set loc equal to null but never remove it.
  The spell itself is nice, however the chance that it will turn against you is way too high.
• Autocast (+7): Good Spell, it works good and is easy to understand.
  However i had sometimes a bug which forced all units close to the caster to press stop when he got an element, but it's so rare that you most likely won't notice it.
• MirrorImage (+6): The spell itself works fine with some exeptions, the hero will be pushed when creating multiple mirror images.
  It's also way too strong, but that's just configuration.
  You could cut down the length quite much if you would merge the triggers and use mathematical operations in your random conditions.
• RandomAwesomeness (+6): This spell is fun to play with, but there are non-configurable usage of abilities. Also i had a bug with the possession part, the enemy die just before the spell effect fired and then there came 1 possession effect every sec.
  Some more work and this spell most likely is very good.
• EnergySpike (+5): Well, the spell itself looks nice but the trigger is just horrible.
  I took a look for 5 sec and closed the map instantly due the fact i saw like 6 leaks on the very first scroll page of your spell.
  Even when made in GUI leaks are a 'must not'.
  I wanted to reduce the score by .5 points for every leak i find but in this case i'll make an exception because it would be unfair to get 1 point for this hell of work.
• Vex (+3): The spell looked nice at the beginning and it's well designed.
  However that lagging bug makes the map quite often un-playable.
• Distort (+2): 1 Event + 2 Conditions + 4 Actions == New Spell? I don't really think so, even though it looks good.
  But the effort in this spell must have been almost 0 (well... i didn't really but much effort in my spell too, but this is too less in my oppinion)

To my own spell, Lucky Wheel, i knew there were some bugs and most of them are already fixed at this moment.
I couldn't fix them in time, therefore also the warning.
I personally never got any message "Doublefree of type: LuckyWheel__SpellData" as Archmage Owenalacaster, so i can not really tell under which circumstances it appears.

(* Automatic vote: LuckyWheel +13 *)

• LuckyWheel (+12): Loved the idea, however its obvious that a spell like this would not be usable in a normal game, since it pauses/disables the casting units (and the targets) for a pretty damn long time.
  Although i didnt like that the pointer wasnt that accurate all the time, and the minimum ammount of targets around the hero should be at least 2, since the spell doesnt look that well with only 1 target.
  Code looked well, but personally i would put as much as possible in the spells struct, since i LOVE structs and it wouldnt hurt :)
• ArcaneRoulette (+11): Really liked that randomize effect...However the spell tooltip wasnt the best, the learn tooltip was better.
  Code looked well, of course some more documentation for the config section would be nice :)
• DeathCarrier (+11): Well written code, and i like that idea, but i wouldve wanted a extra explosion animation or something ...that "explosion" was pretty disappointing.
  Although its kinda useless to have a random ability choose a random unit, but then does AoE damage, would be more reasonable for single target damage.
• Chaosplosion (+11): Nice Idea, but i think the spell itself would be a little bit overpowered for a real game.
  Next time please place your create function at the top of the struct and the destroy at the end :) much easier to read.
  Code looked ok (didnt take a deep look at it, but you have a unused group g there :)
• Autocast (+10): Nice idea. but i didnt like that the elements were units...this would make this spell unpractical for maps with more custom spells, since all those element units would have to be excluded from GroupEnums and stuff ...
  And kinda many triggers related to the spell...which i dont like thaat much. I like to have all stuff related to one spell in one trigger ...well sadly thats not possible in GUI for more complicated spells.
• Distort (+3): Nice effect, but the first time i cast it nothing happend at all, dunno, wasnt able to reproduce this bug myself again.
  And the Tooltip wasnt that good aswell.
  Pretty cheap Triggers, and i think you forgot to kill those dummy units.
  And i didnt like that i got surrounded by enemies after typing "foes" (XD), and that Tornado sound wasnt fitting that well.
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+3): Hmm ...me doesnt like debug messages that much ...and the spell itself was ok, but the idea wasnt that special, feeled like some random (boring) AoS spell.
  And basically the attack speed increase was more valuable as the critical hit itself.
• EnergySpike (+2): Pretty basic idea, and the floating texts didnt look that good, they could need some movement / fading.
  Also your spell has some leaks (esp Unit Groups).
  Beside that, i dont know if this spell would be that useful in a real game :(
• MirrorImage (+2): Too many triggers for one spell. And the effect didnt look that special, could've been done better even with GUI.
• RandomAwesomeness (+2): Idea was good, but not executed that well.
  Using 3 systems for this quite basic spell is not the best.
  Also you should recylce Groups, and why are you nulling those unit struct members ? not necessary since they are globals.
  
• Vex (+2): Didnt like the idea too much, since it is pretty simple.

(* Automatic vote: GoblinRocket +13 *)

• LuckyWheel (+11): This was a smoothly done spell, with good attention to timing . It brought about a professional feeling. The only problem I had with it was the fact that in no way would I ever use this spell in any map, pausing all targeted units takes away most of the fun of spells in an RTS.
• Chaosplosion (+10): This really didn't have to do with luck, but hey it had a badass feeling to it, and there was some variation in wait time for procs. The use of SetUnitExploded was delightful as well.
• DeathCarrier (+9): A concise and fun spell, with okay effect variation and a neat script. The name didn't really describe it but I like random explosions anyway.
• GoblinRocket (+8): This was a fun spell indeed, I was impressed with the thought put into it. But the tooltip was cryptic and I had a hard time getting any good explosions off, about 1 in 10 maybe would go my way. While the "evil" idea was worth it, it procced too often to be useful.
• Distort (+7): Much as this spell had little to do with luck, it was fun to play (for a few seconds) and the use of the attachment effect as a giant bubble was innovative. It lacked effort though.
• Autocast (+6): This was a visually pleasing spell, I enjoyed using it. While using spellbook made it more organized, I feel maybe people would prefer just random chance as to what type of proc you get on attack, especially in more fast-paced maps.
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+5): Cool idea, but I think it could have been visually boosted by some variation in animation or effects.
• EnergySpike (+4): A decent spell that was fun to use. Sometimes the spell was so random it got frustrating when I tried to kill the trolls and only restored their empty mana pools.
• Vex (+3): Another good idea, but I felt that the use of autocast took some of the enjoyment out of casting it. I often got similar results when using the spell, the bandit would simply sit still, unable to attack.
• MirrorImage (+2): The tooltip confused me and I felt the implementation could have been cleaner. Despite this, it was an interesting idea, albeit one I only half-understood.
• RandomAwesomeness (+1): Presentation could have been much better, as well as little more focus to the spell. I feel there was too much variation as to the purpose of the spell.

Good job guys. Keep it coming.

(* Automatic vote: ArcaneRoulette +13 *)

• Chaosplosion (+10): Yes. Just yes.
  This spell was awesome. I could see myself spamming this to death in a real map - and to good use too! It really was a good use of luck, since every time you cast it you got more and more likely to see those units kaboom into guts and gore. That's luck, baby. This is a superd spell with just enough blast, blood, and boom for me to feel good when it worked. Superb job, whoever made this thing.
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+9): Hah, now there was a fun spell to use. I liked that you built up momentum until you expended it all in one final hit; that was neat. I think the damage should've gone up with each miss as well, since it would've really made it feel more and more painful the longer you went without critting. I liked the luck interaction, though, really good job on that. The buildup of momentum was also a big plus.
  
  Oh, you should probably remove the debug display commands for the submitted test map in the future. Just a heads up. :)
• GoblinRocket (+8): Haha. I thought this one was cute. Even though the luck aspect of it was more pure random chance, it was a fun spell to watch. The whole missile flying around and chance for it to spin around and blow you up made me chuckle. At the very least, this one wasn't boring; it had sufficient -- but not an overload of -- effects to make a person happy. Not a half bad spell, honestly!
• LuckyWheel (+7): I both absolutely loved and absolutely hated this spell. Okay, it was really cool and I enjoyed the wheel effect tremendously. As for its application in an actual map? It disables the caster and the struck units for a significant portion of time - that's a long time to just sit there and watch! So yeah, it's a really neat spell and all, but I think it's lack of use kinda kills it. Even though again, this spell is more like chance than luck, I still think it was pretty good times. Nicely done. :)
• MirrorImage (+5): It was cute, yeah, but it really had nothing to do with luck and just didn't feel right. What really made it silly was that if the blademaster moved, the images didn't trace him, they just sat there attacking like big sillies. I think it would've been better if the blademaster whirled around the battlefield doing the whole mirror image split thing everytime it fired. Anyways, it could've also had more to do with luck; right now it's like so many other spells in that it has only to do with random chance.
• Vex (+5): It was neat and well presented. I respect a good presentation, says a lot about the maker of the spell. Anyways, though, I didn't think it had enough to do with luck. It was just chance that you might get the spell effect you wanted. Technically by leveling it, you had a higher 'chance', since you could get more effects at once, but that doesn't really count. (The spell doesn't really interact with that chance) Also, I really disliked how it stuck sooo many buffs on the target unit of the spell. Seeing their buff bar jump to like 6 buffs was kinda ugly. Also, I hate to confess, but as a buff skill it wasn't really that exciting to use. Nicely done, but it could've been better!
• Autocast (+4): This was a strange spell, honestly. I couldn't exactly figure it out as to why I was casting stuff for charges. Personally, much cooler things could have been done with the charges. Additionally, I think the luck factor was a bit silly and easily forgotten. There are likely much cooler skill ideas that could've been used in this one's place. :p
• DeathCarrier (+4): Well, it was definitely a practical skill. It actually found use in the battle against all of those brigands. I suppose it isn't a good thing that the most impressive thing in the entire testmap wasn't the spell, but rather was the AI. I know that flashiness and special effects don't win contests, but I want to feel that spell. I want it to look like it hurt. This really just didn't - that special effect doesn't do it for me. The theme coherence was sort of there, I mean, you had the chance for it to hit who you want. I think it could've used for some more luck, though, not just chance.
• Distort (+4): Another cool spell, but still lacking in luck interaction! It was all just a big bubble that hexed units. (Which was still pretty darned cool, granted!) The tooltip was rather vague, I really didn't know any numbers or what exactly the spell did until I casted it. Really not much else to say, it had sufficient flash, but just lacked any sort of fire -- if you catch my drift.
• EnergySpike (+4): Not a big fan of this one. Any spell that has the chance to outright kill or punish the caster for nothing necessarily of gain is bleh. I think this could've used with not hurting the caster, but like, leaving a buff on struck units. The higher the level of the 'buff', the more likely the enemy unit would be hit for bigger damage. That's really more like luck; what you've got right now is just blind chance. It didn't tickle me. :<
• ArcaneRoulette (+3): I'll be perfectly honest, I didn't like this one at all. The effects were underwhelming and it wasn't blatantly obvious what was going on just from trying to cast the spell a few times. Some of the effects I couldn't figure out, like which was enrage or which the brilliance aura thing did. This really lacked in flare or excitement, I think, and was probably the most generic use of the theme of luck possible.
• RandomAwesomeness (+2): Well, hah, it was random at the least.
  I won't lie, I have no idea what all the spell could do. I possessed some units, shot lightning, hexed my allies, etc. etc. Really had nothing to do with luck, to be fair, just more chance and pure blind randomness. I think a better tooltip and presentation would've gone a long way, too. The testmap was kinda bland and not very exciting, nor was not knowing anything about the skill from its tooltip. Not bad, though. :)

As usual, I test the spells anonymously. These comments I made here are made without my having (or paying attention to) who made what spell. If I said something mean, sorry, I didn't mean to! :<

• Distort (+11): The best spell in the contest, it's not extremely luck related, but it IS chancy, if you get what I mean. Miss chances are cool, but in an AoE they really broaden out into a damage reduction. The part that makes it awesome is the bubble. Bubbles rule.
• DeathCarrier (+9): Quite frankly, this spell won me over with its presentation. It just looks damn nice. I love this effect anyway, and, although I feel dirty, this simply looks too good to not get a great score. Plus, you posted code, a screeny and a GIF FOR GOD SAKES.
• Vex (+9): So uhh, not original, per say. At all. But it's effective, and different, which is what makes a spell. The fact that it is painful and yet counterable makes me love it more; this kinda stuff is great for AoS's and the like, or just in general.
• IMakeMyOwnLuck (+8): slightly above par - not very original (idea's been around for a while), but well executed, which is all anyone can ask for, right? Still didn't stand out much to me though.
• ArcaneRoulette (+7): par - cool idea, but visually lacking and underwhelming
• Autocast (+7): par
• LuckyWheel (+7): par
• GoblinRocket (+7): par - I don't really like spell backfirings, since it feels like a reason NOT to cast a spell. I'd rather a chance for something additional to happen, than a chance for something to go wrong.
• EnergySpike (+5): subpar
• MirrorImage (+5): subpar
• RandomAwesomeness (+3): too crazy, sorry

I didn't really feel like reviewing too in depth below the top three. Par means acceptable, but not exquisite. Subpar means ... not good really.

(* Automatic vote: Chaosplosion +13 *)

I'll be extending the poll for a couple of days due to the downtime we've had during the server move. The new deadline is Friday, February 20th at 23:59 UTC.

• LuckyWheel (+10): The most well functioning spell of the bunch, with a nice graphical representation of the luck element. Could use short transition times instead of moving the units to their positions instantly, as well as a shorter duration, but apart from that it is a neat spell.

Most of the spells didn't really catch my attention, and quite a few had technical issues, so I ended up voting for only a single spell which in my opinion stands above the rest.

• Chaosplosion (+12): not bad, this one actually felt as though it could be used in a game, where thought was involved
  though the luck aspect was, like most, lacking
• GoblinRocket (+11): lol the first time i tried it, and the rocket twirled back around and blew me up, i laughed my ass off
  i wish you had slowed the explosion effect a bit
  a casting animation would have been nice
  the concept was neat, but the implementation not so much, i wish there were more/other malfunctions
  i actually felt like there was luck involved with this spell when playing, as opposed to others, even if internally it was just a GetRandomInt(1,10) type of thing
  even with all the negatives, it was better then most
• LuckyWheel (+10): now this was actually cool, the instant movement at the start sucked, but the rest was neat
  and even gave it a real luck feel to it
  test map was lame, how i am supposed to grab 7 people if there aren't that many in the entire map?
  would have been ice if the lightning were at the same height as the arrow
• ArcaneRoulette (+3): the initial twirl effect was neat enough, though it looked off center from ther hero
  it basically felt like a bunch of abilities thrown into one, except i could not decide what was cast, it was completely random and boring
  i guess you could consider this luck of the draw, but that is just lame
• Autocast (+3): the learn tooltip was infinitly confusing, thak god the spell tooltip cleared it up (to an extent)
  still not really sure what the spell did - i got the whole % chance to cast a spell on attack, and the changing that spell bit
  but what the deal was with the effects falling on my head, or those twirly guys that seemed to not follow me very well was, I don't know
  not real sure where luck was involved, unless luck = % chance to cast on attack
• DeathCarrier (+3): ok, so its a nuke someone randomly in the area after a few seconds, with some pretty effects, spell
  cant say this one is very good
• EnergySpike (+3): i liked the range of effects, but thats about it
  some of them seemed to be created at random positions, for some reason or another
  the concept was just silly, damage or heal every one nearby, or do nothing, with some effects attached, meh
• MirrorImage (+2): wow, what a run on sentence!
  the tooltip never said when the images had a chance to be created, was it on attack? on damage? i am still unsure
  again, another, random on something spell, and nothing more
• RandomAwesomeness (+2): seriously? that name was the best you could conjure?
  wtf is SUI anyway?
  ok, so the learn tool tip told me nothing...
  i tried casting a few times before reading the spell tooltip, and nothing really seemed to happen
  after reading the lengthy, mostly uneeded spell tooltip, i come to find out its, once again, another random spell, spell, horah!
• Distort (+1): a neat spell, but in no way releveant in a luck themed contest, sorry
• Vex (+1): omg the lag was insufferable
  ok, so basically we randomly cast spells on enemies......thats it....
  and there really wasn't a uniquness to each plight to discern it from others

I did not look at any of the maps triggers, FYI

(* Automatic vote: IMakeMyOwnLuck +13 *)