Allow mages to move on to the next hint in exchange for some type of penalty. I am thinking something along the lines of a slay from the guildmaster or loss of experience resulting in a loss of level would be appropriate.

I can defintely envision scenarios where a mage, especially an underdog, will have a wand they cannot gather alone and don't have a realistic chance of gathering the allies they will need to gather it, or just have no ####ing clue what their guildmaster is talking about.

Loss of exp or level is nothing. It could even be advantageous to level sitters who otherwise can't avoid levelling up as they get wands.

Understanding the clue... How about role playing with other chars to get help?

I can't think of any locations that couldn't be unlocked within 24 hrs gameplay and I'm off peak time. Even the xxx lair could be done. Couple of warriors and you have a way to get out, for example.

the hint for the rats one is hard

the one in the siege is super tough

red lair is ridiculous

...so have to guess it's because they may have taken that wand out of circulation.

I had that sleek black with Dronstyrr. It was absurdly brutal. Full ABS with 1250 hp and -85 svspell and I'd die 50% of the time. It wasn't necessarily the mob itself that made the wand location brutal it was these 3 factors:

1) Insanity at the very least. For like a day. Basically, you had to wear that mask or just not talk to people or anyone would know where your black was. That made it suck badly, just in and of itself.

2) Can only flee one way, and not the way you came (you need to crawl) (which leads to...)

3) A ton of insanely tough aggro mobs right next to the mob, who, by the way, is a level 51+ invoker mob with barrier protection (and has multiple pieces of unique, pimptastic gear...IE, a tough ####er)

Honestly, with my last shifter, I didn't even bother looking for my Black hardly. I just used limited barrier (and since I had komodo/tiger, honestly, I barely ever even needed barrier) and I think I did relatively well.