As my latest mage (Nevaelle) I found my black rod, but it was in a place that seemed unbalanced, compared to others I've heard of people having. Specifically, the aspect that bothered me was that it was only available for 2 (maybe 3?) out of every 168 ticks (i.e. every hour and a half). If I missed that window (easy to do), or even just got short ticks (not enough rounds to kill the mob) it meant the opportunity was lost for another hour and a half. In practice, I almost never had my sleek because it was so hard getting there at exactly the right moment.

I promise I won't re-re-re-re-rehash the whole sleeks debate, but I was hoping you might comment a bit on how you think this (kind?) of location compares to others.

What cracked me up were two things:

1) Finding other mages there who had the same spot. Once you got the time down exactly, it was easy to time out your wand runs. BUT you'd every once in a while run into another enemy mage. Found Mharlndarn there once and I wasn't sure if it was because that's where his place was or he was just chilling. It ended bad for me.

2) Other enemies knowing you had that spot and jumping you in the area when you show up or when the time is right. That actually kinda would piss me off some times :)

Edited to add: I started ABS'ing to just not get WTFPWN'd and jumped. Not really because of the mob. Mob isn't that bad for a sleek black and I think the fact that it's accessible only at those times makes it worthwhile. After all, it's not a certain other boat that comes only once a month (that would be brutal :()

I actually really have a problem with a certain spot in a certain absurdly easy to get location. Other than that they are pretty balanced (now, of course, certain spots are tougher because of differing reason).

Three mages to hero since wand change. All three found sleek black. Two of the three found at least two sleeks. Last one found all three (after first one found just black, second one found sienna + black).

It's in a little longer than 2-3 ticks.

I like the location because it's a balancing act; you have to watch for the right time to grab your wand, but getting it will be for many characters easier than most other locations.

I have been thinking that boat probably could come into port an extra time for month and stay an hour or two longer. We'll see.

>It's in a little longer than 2-3 ticks.

You're right, looking at my logs it's 4. I guess my experience of 2-3 is based on being able to fight for 2-3 and needing 1-2 to get ready/clear blindness afterwards.

>I like the location because it's a balancing act; you have to
>watch for the right time to grab your wand, but getting it
>will be for many characters easier than most other locations.

Thanks for the perspective.

>As my latest mage (Nevaelle) I found my black rod, but it was
>in a place that seemed unbalanced, compared to others I've
>heard of people having. Specifically, the aspect that bothered
>me was that it was only available for 2 (maybe 3?) out of
>every 168 ticks (i.e. every hour and a half). If I missed
>that window (easy to do), or even just got short ticks (not
>enough rounds to kill the mob) it meant the opportunity was
>lost for another hour and a half. In practice, I almost never
>had my sleek because it was so hard getting there at exactly
>the right moment.

Uhm, maybe I'm just not aware of that specific location that's somehow unique in WHEN you can get it, but from my experience - sleeks in general repop on a slow rate anyways, and it's not that you can only GET it during those 2-3 ticks, but that it won't have repopped for at least like...30min or more. (not certain the time, maybe it is an hour?)

and only for a tiny, tiny window. In this 2-3 tick window, he couldn't even always solo the mob holding the sleek before being thrown out of the boat.

Some of the rods are so easy that you can gather them easily on 35 level. Some rods are so difficult that you won't be able to gather them alone.

It's similar to jackpot/zero in ruolette, when you went all-in. On both, you have a very little chance. It is what makes mages interesting, imo.

If you are totally unhappy with your sleek location, go for the barrier attunement. It's not that difficult.

>If you are totally unhappy with your sleek location, go for
>the barrier attunement. It's not that difficult.

My understanding is that the attunement edges are very expensive, and I would probably never waste points on them unless they were super cheap. If I'm going to spend another 40 hours searching for wands anyway, it makes more sense to just spend another 20 getting back to level 35 and not be handicapped in the edge department.

Adding on to what's said in my other post, there's two additional benefits to a wand attunement if you end up finding both locations.

1) I would ASSUME both your black rods repop on seperate timers, and theoretically you could collect black wands twice as fast.
2) You'll now have two locations you might be going to for a wand, which makes it much more difficult for people to stalk a wand location to find you.

You've convinced me that barrier attunement isn't such a terrible deal, assuming that you're right about the repopping.

Actually, if you will spend 40 hours looking for your black rod, you WILL have extra edge points for buying this edge.

Actually, if you will think - to play with no sleek barrier or to play with barrier but pay extra edge points... I'm pretty sure barrier worth it, because it will help you a LOT more than any edge you can pick for the same amount of edge points.