So, trying to decide what character to play on the overnights with my newborn. I'd love some info in order to make the decision process easier.... 

1) I know learning all the earth and fire spells grant a mastery that boosts avalanche and immolate....do the other paths have similar? 

2) abs changes....as someone who NEVER got a sl3ep outside of one necro accidentally finding their shield wand about a year and a half ago...what exactly changed? Will it make it harder on easier for me as a newbie mage? 

3) with edges nerfed, I would think making a few of the "right" choices is even more important.....so what would the community consider as the required (for pk effec5iveness) for a mace/whip arial...for a halfie invoker...for a shield or monk paladin, for a druid, a rager assassin? 

4) help file for haven says learning it can increase duration of sanc....is this like...1 extra tick at 100 haven? Or is it like 20% at 85, 25 at 90, 30 at 95, and 35 at 100? 

5) with scions gone, do outlander and village raid tribby more often? 

6)what does an assassin give up going outlander?

1) All invoker paths have some mechanics where learning later spells boosts the power of elementary spells. You're still going to want to use the later spells for your heavy hitting, and the effect isn't huge.

2) You can get a fairly specific hint about where one of your Aura, Barrier, or Shield wands is when you use the Discuss (and Beseech, if applicable) command. (Evil guildmasters will need to be bribed-- their help isn't free.) Once you acquire that wand, your location will move, and you will soon be able to get a new hint for it. All locations are randomly drawn from a large list.

One design goal was to make the system easier for newbie mages. There's no incentive for an OOC 'list', you're told where to start your search, and every mage pulls from roughly (*) the same list of possible sites for fairness. Some sites are tougher than others, and wands pulled from tougher locations can come with extra charges and/or duration.

(*) We've endeavored to block RP-incompatible sites-- for example, an Orderly mage will not acquire a site in a protected city, etc.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

So each sleek you get is a different quest....you get one? So if you want to keep a reserve of 3 sleek barriers, you will have to find it in 3 different locations?

Wow, seems a huge change...and my first response is.....awesome! Though...

Finding a mage's sleek spots via clandestine following..leading to spectacular ambushes....that can't happen in this new system?

Is there anything in place...perhaps very expensive.... for a mage to skip a location?

For example...I've used up all my barrier, and I'm a shifter (maybe with a croc who can't solo anymore...;P )....and my next barrier, I find it, and I can't get it without a healer friend... or an invoker friend.....neither of which exist within 30 lvls of me.....

in this case, am I stuck for maybe rl weeks without a sleek barrier until another player plays a character both willing and able to help?

Maybe a system where if you die to a mob with your sleek twice...at the end of the week your sleek location will reset? Meaning you actually have to try to get it, and your loss of con will keep people from gaming the system to reset to easy locations....

Just a couple of thoughts. The way this new system is described, I'm excited to pull open my folder of mage roles that I've been sitting on for years, because I didn't want to waste one on the steep learning curve of the old system....awesome.