I was out of the game for a long time, and from what i have read, i really enjoyed the change made. Of course will take more time to find the wands, but as it was, (have sets on previous locations) once you had the basic locations figured out, it was a piece of cake.

Here are my suggestions that i think would aid a lot the wand search:

1- Lower a bit the level of detect arctifact spell. Bring it to 45 or something like that, a 45th level mage have almost any enemy in range.

2- I really liked the idea of throwing in a wand edge at hero, to roll a "second" wand location (either aura, shield or barrier), this would priceless.

3- Add a set of wands you can actually buy in game, in a known place to anyone (like HTS). Make it like 60,80 and 100 gold for shield, aura, barrier (just the idea here, adjust the price as it would fit better). There are places you can find that amount of money in game, but in my way to see it, it would be almost as a run to grab a barrier from a strong mob. So, things could be compensate and give everyone with time, a chance to use wands.

Thanks for your time, and by the way, i am back, and glad to be back.