I got it.
I just disagreeing about the abovementioned statement.
It is not a problem of "how to get easy barrier" and "all this whining is because some players cant to know their barrier spot when they hit 30th", its a problem how to get at least a/s sleeks.

At least so is my experience with playing/interacting with about 5 different newborn mages. Of course, all of them searched a lot. Maybe its skewed, but so it is.

Maybe (just a guess) when you implemented this, 'old' spots were filled, while 'new' were empty (no mages for them), so all new mages got their sleeks right in those new locations. And it needs some time before you can have your amber in old place, sienna in some new and black again in some old.