Hear a lot about these on the forums. Can anyone explain them? Here's what I know:

There are three spells (aura/barrier/shield) and there are wands, talismans, etc out there that will apply these. Some sort of damage reduction? Shield seems to just be -AC, but is there more to it than that?

I *think* some of these items are limited, and some are specific to individual characters...and that there is something to do with finding your own sleeks. There are edges, I think, to locate these (Aura Attunement, etc) but I'm not sure what the level requirement is, and if this is how people usually find them.

There are limited items in the game, and limited preps are not an exception to this. After the item is over limit, you do not find it from it's normal location.

Sleek rods are a bit different from this, however. The sleek rods are character specific damage reduction wands. The wands are hidden in the game in specific locations, which are different for every character. The game has predetermined locations where your sleek rods can be hidden. These locations are often referred to as sleek spots. The game chooses locations for your character's sleek rods randomly, although some possible locations are excluded in the generation due to alignment-based roleplay restrictions not allowing you to get the rods from those locations (EG. goodies don't have to kill a goodie mob to get their sleeks). After you have found your sleek spot, the wand always respawns into this same location for that character. The wand respawns for your character only and other characters cannot empty your location. There is some cooling time with the respawn, but otherwise you can reliably find your wand in that spot.

There are three kinds of sleek rods. Sleek amber rod, which gives aura spell, sleek black rod, which gives barrier spell and sleek sienna rod which gives shield spell. These three damage reduction spells are often abbreviated as ABS in forum jargon.

>Hear a lot about these on the forums. Can anyone explain
>them? Here's what I know:
>
>There are three spells (aura/barrier/shield) and there are
>wands, talismans, etc out there that will apply these. Some
>sort of damage reduction? Shield seems to just be -AC, but is
>there more to it than that?

All three are damage reduction, also stone skin, and (I think) minor/major ward. Barrier is around 40%, aura, shield, and stone skin are like 20%ish.

>
>I *think* some of these items are limited, and some are
>specific to individual characters...and that there is
>something to do with finding your own sleeks. There are
>edges, I think, to locate these (Aura Attunement, etc) but I'm
>not sure what the level requirement is, and if this is how
>people usually find them.

I believe all sources of A/B/S are limited, and there are many that are held by appropriate mobs/item locations, etc. However, the "sleek" system consists of wands (sleek black rod, sleek amber rod, sleek sienna rod) that are all level 60, and I don't think ever max out in the sense other limited equipment does. However, you can only collect 3 of each from your own locations at a time.

The (Aura/Barrier/Shield) Attunement edges don't help you FIND your wands, merely give you a 2nd location you can obtain them.

With enough observation experience, and a generally-well-known quest (interact with other mages in the game, they may help direct you), you learn a spell called detect artifact, which will help you find both sleek wands, and "standard" sources of ABS. The helpfile should give a pretty good idea.