Effective this reboot, there will be two major changes regarding our system of wands that grant Aura, Barrier, and Shield:

1) Upon use of the Discuss command with your class's guildmaster (or the Beseech command with a mage of appropriate level), every so often they will volunteer a reasonably strong IC hint as to where one of your wands is. This will happen every so often, and you do not choose which wand you receive a hint about. IC, they're pulling on lore or other information they've come across in their professional duties.

2) Once you retrieve a given wand, your location for that wand (and only that one) will move to a randomly selected location for next time.

This should be a big leg up to newer players, since they will know where to start searching. Prior to these changes, we also had concerns about some spots being easier than others, and this method (in the long run) eliminates that.

Some added notes:
- The hint is not a requirement. If you stumble over your wand without one, more power to you.
- You can end up getting the same hint more than once.
- No changes were made to the various timers. You'll still only be able to grab a wand every so often.
- No changes were made to prerequisites for getting a sleek wand. You still need to be level 30+ (35+ for Barrier), have the Wands skill practiced, no applicable Flaws, etc.
- Good-aligned guildmasters will not help evil PCs. They'll have to walk elsewhere for their hints.
- Evil-aligned guildmasters won't help anyone unless they are bribed first. Giving them 10 silver coins, a treasure item of equivalent value, or any number of gold coins may temporarily convince them to be helpful.
- This works normally with edges such as Aura Attunement. If you have two Aura spots, you may get a hint for either, and retrieving that wand will only randomize the one spot.
- This will work its way into helpfiles shortly.
- Please direct all discussion to the Gameplay forum.

Special thanks go out to Hint Project Manager (Rayihn), Chief Hint Officer (Twist), Trusted Hint Lieutenant (Whiysdan), and Assistant to the Staff of the Regional Associate Hint Manager (Strienat, who also handled key last-minute fix-its).

valguarnera@carrionfields.com