Supposedly it's something like this:
Every buff/debuff has a "counter" (lower level buffs have lower counters).
Dispell targets a certain number of "counters" and gets stronger with each level (cancel magic > nullify > pillage etc.). Note: it gets stronger in both how effective it is at stripping a buff "counter" (it's harder for the buff to save) AND it can strip more "counters"
When you get dispelled, there is a behind the scenes roll starting with the first buff slot. If the first buff slot "saves" against the dispell, then it goes to the next and so forth until the dispell gets as many successful dispells as the spell allows. Sometimes this will remove 0 buffs from your buff bar, but the buffs remaining lost some of their "counters."
Because of this format, it's possible for two buffs with counters of 1 in your first buff slots to succeed on the save, but then clarity fails, so it gets stripped from slot 3.
This also means that junk buffs are more valuable versus *stronger* dispells as they have a higher chance of stripping the junk first (thereby using the successful debuffs before they get to the good buffs). This is why you almost always lose your first 2 debuffs with dragons, etc.--in fact, some of these dispells might be unresistable (in that the buffs themselves can't save).
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