Been playing for a long time, still a noob. Point me in the right direction for finding talismans of shield, aura, maybe some stoneskin potions or something. I could tell you where 2 stoneskin items are, thats it. Nothing more, I am a blank slate. Many hero chars, no prep knowledge = many worthless hero chars.

Obviously the standard responses will apply:
"Ask IC"
"Make an explore char"
"If you have to ask..."
"Go to areas where magic is used" (or some such thing)

I ask because I care.

Don't spend all your time asking for knowledge. Often it just annoys people.

Just be a good ally to them (in terms of effort and friendliness), and they'll probably decide to point stuff out to you in order to make you better at fighting beside them.

(By better, I mean more effective, not more skilled.)

I was in the same position with my first 30 or so chars. What
really changed it for me was when I made a goodie and joined
Fortress. Sure they get bashed a lot for having noobs all over
the place (like me) but they are also very VERY helpful when
it comes to showing you stuff. And not just running all over
the place so that you don't register it but they take their
time, letting you take it in your own time so that you
remember. At least that was the way for me.

There aren't a lot of talismans of those things and they're all limited. Just FYI.

n/t

nt

But every major city should have them right?

.

.

nt

In my limited wand knowledge this has been terrible advice. More often than not the place/mob that has a wand is more like an afterthought in an area rather than it particularly fitting in. Just some random mob in an otherwise non-particularly-magical area that happens to be magical. To a certain extent it has to be this way or otherwise every wand would be located somewhere in the tower of sorcery or something silly.

Anyways, the best way I've discovered to find wands is to totally ignore area/mob types is to get the detect wand thing and systematically walk the entire map. Not that I've actually walked the entire map... but basically just enter every room of every area that I think is reasonably safe and see if I see pink. This is best/easist done with a good/neutral conjurer or a muter.

The second most effective way for me is to find someone else in game who is also looking for their wands. That way we can share each others locations.

Best of luck.

I really hate this answer. Why? Because it's a cop out and probably ends up hindering more players than it helps.

In theory, this should work great- with people able to learn rudimentary, then more advanced prepping by learning to do it in game with veteran players.

In practice hardly anyone discusses preps save for wand-users on the hunt for their coveted sleeks. Asking anyone (even good-aligned allies) in game usually gets a very vague answer, an outright fabrication ("I don't know where X comes from. I took it from some PC's corpse") or, worst of all, the player makes note of your lack of knowledge and capitalizes on it later.

In my experience a lot of PK-oriented players will avoid talking about preps deliberately to maintain an advantage. Another reason is to avoid ending up with the item in question getting nerfed, moved or guarded.

Why not just admit that CF has a culture of secrecy to new players? The only answers to the question "where do I get X" that actually have any value are:

Make an explore character and find it yourself.

Get an OOC buddy to show/tell you.

...that I didn't know existed. Three separate players told me three separate spots, and in one of those three I found a fourth (that was unusable by me, but still, now I know it's there.)

So yeah, your whole argument just doesn't fly with me.

In fact, I didn't even *ask* for help. It must have just been obvious I needed it. :P

People were kissing your royal ass.

I don't think Hanord is a good example.

two of the three were shown to me before I even got war master. One, in particular, was a guy probably feeling a little pity for me because I was on at great odds and (at the time) sucked. He probably thought I was a noob. :P

Also it was well within his role to help me. He wasn't in my cabal or an Oath, though, FWIW.

:)

I would imagine just by doing a normal amount of character snooping throughout the years you would have accumulated a ridiculous amount of prep knowledge, just by accident. Are there really times when you're hurting for area/prep/quest knowledge?

I hope this isn't snarky sounding or anything, it's honestly just my impression of what would happen from normal immortal type activities.

It's a catch-22. I am sure that many of us could gather location information of things if we really wanted to. But, one of the things that we are told when we decide to become an immortal is this:
There are going to be certain things that you are going to see as the man behind the green curtain. With that, some of the magic will be lost. It is inevitable.

This, I found to be true. But, by the time I was high enough to learn about certain things, the more I wanted to keep the magic part of the game. There is a reason why we still like to play and not just be an imm. The "I Win" button doesn't exist. And really, I wouldn't want it. Cheating for the sake of cheating is lame. Exploring is still fun for me.

Just recently, I had a character find a sleek that I didn't know existed and that was a nice reward for exploring.

I had a friend who would buy them as soon as they came out and gloat that he completed a game. He seemed surprised that I thought it was kinda stupid.

I bought one for a game and after finishing the game in a night thought to myself, I could have saved 20 bucks and just bought the magazine.

Most of my snooping is when mortals are interacting or pking - not when they are prepgathering or leveling. Boring to watch, and usually not when you get good RP out of them.

But yes, I know/knew a ton of prep locations. Seems like I'm always learning new ones though.

It depends on how you ask, or don't ask.

I've gotten lots of help (sometimes needing it, sometimes not) from other players with preps and wands and the like. I don't think I've asked for it in a long time.

I've also helped a lot of my characters' allies with this stuff over the years.

On the other hand, the character who's begging for wand help the very first time I meet him or who's complaining every day about how much it sucks that he can't find his barrier? There's always at least one of those in whatever non-Battle cabal I'm playing, and I can't be bothered to do anything but ignore them.

I have had several mages ask other mages about sleek locations. Even as an evil character you can still get a lot of help. It seemed like most people were willing to tell me most of the sleek locations they knew, if not all. I now have a pretty good list of sleek spots.

Sleeks were the exception in my experience. To be honest though, finding something that is bound to my characters pfile isn't that big a deal. I've found all the sleeks I know by myself and I also don't tend to complain all that much about them. Further, no one has any qualms about sharing sleek info because they know that another player knowing the spot isn't going to cause said sleek to suddenly hit its limit.

My problem is with limited preps, particularly potions. I suppose this can also extend to a point with limited gear.

My last comment on the subject will be to simply remind everyone that finding all this stuff yourself is the best way to do it, even if it requires you to try and heard a bunch of cats behind you into an area explore.

My first bards was told there to find all those talismans in game, more than that they were lead there by hand with explaining all the way there. I do the same to everyone who asks me and do it for free. Talismans, sleek spots, limited wands - if I know where to get them I'll gladly share.