I don't know this Walt Yarbrough fellow, but here is what he has to say about the next two patches, back on the Herald:

- 1.83: Hybrid Enhancements: namely the Valkyrie, the Paladin and the Valewalker.
- 1.83: Healing Enhancements: improving the Cleric, Healer and Druid, especially their heal spells and underperforming spec lines, as well as make battles longer and add utility.
- 1.83: Art Upgrades to towns, Leirvik and Underwater areas (only mid for 1.83)
- 1.83 and 1.84: finish implementing RvR Rewards, TOA Changes, and Tradeskill Improvements.

Check out the notes on the Herald

Summary:

- Nature druid & Smite cleric (GASP!) lovin'
- Earth wizzies getting nearsight...
- Boat routes in classic zones, and cheap merchant water pots!
- New "campfire" common loot for reduced downtime while expin'.

Check out the Warlock-themed cartoons this week at Camelot Addict !

For those who prefer bainshee-bashing, Rei covered them already here and here

Here's the first installment of patch 1.83: notes can be found at the Camelot Herald

Main goodies:

- Valewalker, Paladin and Valkyrie lovin'
- Major heals lovin'
- Underwater adventuring in classic zones
- Leirvik overhaul

Hey all. Some of you might know me from Catacombs.com. To those that don't --Howdy.

As Uriel takes on other duties, I'll be helping out here at CoC. I'm going to take on updating as my first task, starting with patch notes. Hopefully I'll make some meaningful progress there and be able to move onto other stuff.

And I am gone. It's been a long time coming, but today is my pseudo-retirement - I'm handing the day-to-day operation of CoC off to a small, handpicked team of successors. I think this will be a great thing for the site, as I know my own dedication has been waning, and a team is better than a single person anyway. I'll let the new staff introduce themselves, but let me assure you that you're in good hands.

For those curious about what I'll be doing - I'm moving on to Mythic's next game, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. I've got a newborn fansite for it, WarSage, which of course everyone is invited to visit if you're interested in WAR.

In this week's Grab Bag Sanya put a link to a nice interview over at Stratics. I mention this not only because there's good stuff in the interview, but also because... well.. I'm in it.

Tovin: Pendragon has a very small dedicated group of regular testers. In your mind, what should players be enticed by on Pend, to assist with bug catching and reporting there?

Sanya: We need to do more in terms of events, and Uriel from CoC has been reminding me to push for benefits like /level 50 and access to Team Lead tools for all Pendragon players (free gold, armor, MLs, etc.).

Right now, the main enticement is that it's like your own server, which has its charms, as well as some of the most fun people on earth to talk with. I play there myself. That has led to a few conversations about me and the Herald; those were incredibly creepy for me. Anyway, we need to do more there.

So, yeah, that always makes my day.

In more important news, Sanya also posted a link to Kwip's (of neenerneener.net) entry about this year's MS Walk. There are an awful lot of good causes out there to support, and hopefully everyone has their favorite(s). But if you usually skip over these things, please - read Kwip's post. Particularly if you live remotely close to Lancaster Pennsylvania...

The newest login poll (showing up surprisingly soon after the last one) is about crafting and how to fix it:

In a previous poll, improvements to the craft system came in third place as one of the areas on which you would like Mythic to focus. Based on carefully gathered feedback, we have comprised the following poll to help us determine what aspects of our craft system you would like for us to focus on the most. (Please note that we may take future polls on the craft system to help further identify areas of the craft system that need improvement.)

Which of the following would provide the most value to you as a crafter?

• I do not wish to answer this poll.
• I am not interested in crafting.
• The ability to upgrade crafted items from lower to higher quality.
• A more graduated system to allow maxed out crafted a greater chance to make high quality items.
• The ability to craft Spellcraft gem kits and sell them directly to players who would be able to apply the gems themselves.
• The ability for crafters to upgrade or enhance other loot found in the game.
• The ability to imprint a certain armor graphic onto a new piece of armor. For exmaple, this might allow a player to make a crafted piece of armor look like an epic piece of armor.
• Make shopping for recipe components a one click, one merchant process.
• Remove overcharging completely and allow all items, based on level, to be imbued the same amount.
• A clear indication on your recipe list that you have, in your inventory, the supplies needed to craft that recipe.

Update: new crafting poll, now asking how much of your playing time you spend crafting. Obviously Mythic is looking for as much info as possible from the player community before making their move!