I think it's time to start talking again about why so many people are still without wands after putting in the effort and time. The battlefield forum is full of mages who have deleted and who list wands as one of the reasons.

Detect artifact = great. No complaints from me.

Being able to cast your own shield = It's okay, but I've never encountered any trouble finding a shield wand (they're easy). It's a nice change because it frees up inventory space.

Wand edges = Is this the right way to implement extra chances at wands? The solution produces a new problem which was just as bad as the initial problem. Without wands, a mage is weak. If you choose the extra wand edges, you're out a ton of edge points... and a weaker character.

I don't normally comment, but when someone calls mages weak that is like
saying a cloud giant axe,mace sucks because they can't tank. I am unsure
what type of mage your playing but I would wager uncabaled magi vs many
other races/classes will win in pk and in several occasions can out tank
and out damage others. I still recall when there was no such thing as
sleeks, well not for everyone. Then as well as now I'll say I can pk as
well when I play assassins,thieves,warriors,and rangers as I do when I
play conjurers,shapeshifters,invokers,and ap's, which isn't that great,
but I also don't know a lot of wands and my last couple only managed to
find one of three but that's still better than none.

I'm basing this off of my experiences playing over 10 years with every class.

nt

I've tried winning arguments about the game that way before.

There's always a reason why a particular kill "doesn't count".

Based on my observations, there are quite a few people running around buffed to the gills with shield/barrier wands. I was actually rather impressed.

But that's exactly the response you would expect from a magic hating, rage-filled, froth-mouthed dwarf like meself neh?

True...but they have them at thier disposal, at will, and can use them against mages that do not have them. The mages that do not have them seem to not just need to "ask around in game" because there are spots out there that are just flat out not being found by a lot of people...so those people delete...try again and hope they get the easier places that the people you see got...or just get fed up and come here and gripe and say they will never play mages again.

I don't think the "haves" can really represent the entire population because it is thier locations that are driving the "have-nots" to a frenzy to try and find them too.

Not sure if I explained myself there...I thinks the barrier is just as big as a warrior spec...maybe a good legacy....what would half the warrior population do if they saw the other have with an extra one and themselves without, knowing that if they would have had a better RNG they could have had it as well.....delete and try again and hope for a better RNG.

An analogy (not perfect) might be:

mage w/o barrier is like paladin w/o sanc.

Can you still kill some people using other preps? Sure. It just means you're more fragile and have to avoid certain groups/characters.

Right, but add to the fact that the paladin without sanc KNOWS that somewhere, out there, he could get sanc too, and that is what will drive him nuts, expecially when he sees the other paladin getting his sanc in a place that he was just lucky, and his was there, but the one without not only looked there, but 20 other places it could have been.


The one with the sanc doesn't make things any better for the one without.

nt

I know of a 7-8 of them I think, though I haven't made it to where some of them are, but the ones I have have never been there yet..the only time I ever see those ones are in logs where someone is packing 2-3 of them sometimes.

It seems like for the non-sleeks, the people that use them, cycle through those spots like a crack addict and make sure that other people stay out of their personal stash.....which I'd always thought was the entire reason for the sleeks, so that people have a chance to get something that it otherwise almost always at limit. I've heard a lot of people say they have other sources, but they of course don't want to give it up because it is the one they use, and they don't want people maxxing it on them.

Maybe spend less time looking in high end areas.

Also, just because YOU found shield easily doesn't mean that shield is the easier want to find. My current character can lay hands on aura and barrier, and it is less common for me to have shield. So I love having a shield spell on tap.

There are plenty of places you could have got aura as a good aligned conjurer. Limited aura wands, for example, but I've never known them to be maxed out, even after I grabbed 5 of the same kind.

nt

I like Sebeok's comment in Kizzy's PBF.

I have no further comment on this issue.

>I like Sebeok's comment in Kizzy's PBF.
>
>I have no further comment on this issue.



Players need to shut the #### up because shield wands are INSIDE of cities, and I can find one? Classy. I guess I've got nothing more to say either.

Shield wands are not necessarily inside cities. JUST BECAUSE YOURS WAS does not mean others are. In fact, I can guarantee that siennas are not all urban. I would hazard a guess that only a minority are.

I need to stop wasting my time by replying to you.

>Shield wands are not necessarily inside cities. JUST BECAUSE
>YOURS WAS does not mean others are. In fact, I can guarantee
>that siennas are not all urban. I would hazard a guess that
>only a minority are.
>
>I need to stop wasting my time by replying to you.

I didn't say all shield wands are inside of cities. Read it again. Ahh, yes. Literacy! Want a venn diagram?

Don't try to change your meaning now.

You drew a distinction between shield and others, and the only defining characteristic you mentioned was that shield wands were in cities.

Sure, you can try to spin it differently now, but why even mention the city aspect otherwise, along with the shield aspect?

"Players need to shut the #### up because shield wands are INSIDE of cities, and I can find one?"

He's stating that as an interrogative. Josiah isn't saying shield wands are inside cities and everyone should shut up, he is question Seebeok's comment to that nature. Which was essentially that if a newb like Josiah could trip over one of his wands other people shouldn't complain that sleeks are hard to find.

Josiah wasn't so much saying that all shield wands were in cities, but saying it was a bs remark that just because his wand was in a city (and hence insanely easy to get) that nothing is wrong with the current system.

I don't know if Seebeok's perception is a little off base or not though. I've no idea what it is like snooping Josiah's characters, but he has played off and on for some eight or nine years. I'd hope he has at least average area knowledge by now.

He said something like "just because shield wands are in cities and a newb like me could find one".

That's not the same as saying "just because a newb like me could find a shield wand in a sity".

700 mana got me hooded demons.

Thank you. Drive on.

i could do it reliably with 400 as an orderly evil (edges are fun)

I'd kinda like to see detect artifact changed. I'd want it to go off when I enter the area rather than the room. You would still need to explore, but you'd have a lot better idea when you were close.

i approve of this idea *thumbs up*

From Kizzy's goodbye post (which, other than the targeted goodbyes, was primarily about wands):

"I didn't find aura or barrier wands. That wasn't a deal breaker, but it didn't help at_all. 3 mages and an entourage running through every major area night after night with people who know where blacks are... None of them finding any wands. That's pretty disheartening."


So if a "newbie-ish" (I'll leave how newb Josiah is or isn't alone) player in Fort who consistently searches with a knowledgeable Fort posse can find one wand in one hundred hours, then the system is operating at about where you expected/wanted it to?

I'm not trying to bait you or slide any hidden value imposition into the question, I'm just curious about how difficult (and/or time-consuming) you think it should be to find all three wands using only IC avenues. Is one per 100 hours about where you want it? Is it close enough to what you want we all really need to shut the front door?

SB

The comment in question is hilarious (at least, to me) because I know that Sebeok didn't know who the player was and took them to be a genuine newbie based on the quality of their play.

Also note that comment was made at the 23 hour mark.

Someone who clearly isn't especially good with their chosen class/combination making it to level 31, getting into some PKs on the way, and finding one of their wands by 23 hours? I don't think that's that bad.

Beyond that, to answer your question, no, although I've seen a lot of people with all/most 'new' wand locations do a lot better than that in 100 hours (100 hours which also included leveling to hero, getting cabaled, and a few dozen pkwins/deaths, let's not forget), I don't think finding one wand in that kind of 100 hours is not that bad. If sleek wands were the only wands under the sun I might, but they're not.