Strands of Astral Power. Worth it?

[sum1lost]

It is pretty much a mental attack on all mages in your dominion. It devestates mages in your territory, at least it did when I used it, but if you contact an astral mage, it initiates a (sort of) magic duel between the two (if you lose, you are usually feebleminded), so with that kind of mental fight going on, its best to have a mage with either some way of curing afflictions, or very high natural levels in astral.