3.3.6 is on Live, Future developments, Ghostwolf Building Progress

W00T!!!
Ok all I can say is this is a huge bonus for getting raid gear on the Tier 1 and Tier 2 raids. 3.3.6 Patch comes out today. You can read all the details Here.
But the real prize is the following:

Raids / Group Encounters
Raid Tier 1

• Yakhmar, Kyllikki and Vissitrix will now drop 1 guaranteed Simple Relic I each for all raid members when killed.

Black Ring Citadel

• Yaremka, Sabazios, Seruah, Chatha and Leviathus will now drop 1 guaranteed Simple Relic II each for all raid members
  when killed.

 Why important? Well look, we constantly have alts that we want to push through raids and such. But also, of late, I am seeing an influx of beginning raiders come into the game. So this assists them in avoiding months of grinding for gear. Now, that won't do much for them SKILL wise, only time in the trenches does that. But, especially for young raiding guilds this helps them get their crews ready for that next level. I am VERY happy about that. See, do a T1 sweep once a week, pug or not and everyone is guaranteed to gain enough relics that in a month they have another piece to their sets. Furthermore, it's not sooo much that it becomes a total cake walk. I think the pace is just right and it brings new life back into the old raids. Yes, I expect some basic issues for about three days folks, but this patch is a boon to all of us young raiding guilds. Anyways I'm pretty stoked about it. It also means one more obstacle out of the way till the new crafting revamp.

In further news, the devs decided to listen to feedback from the TL players.  It's been put out that they will hold back the sprint revamp as they saw fundamental flaws in the system after extensive testing and feedback. While I know a lot of players really want this sprint mechanic to be released, FunCom did the right thing this past week and decided to hold back till they could properly fix the issues or scrap it. They are getting smart about avoiding bullshit new mechanics that could screw the entire system up. I would prefer that it get's scrapped now and then fixed than released into a mess.

T3 Barracks, can you spot the lil Ghostwolf pup?

Oh, for the Ghostwolves, we got our T3 Barracks up now and hit renown 11 this week. The guys and gals are hard at work there. Next project is the Alchemist shop, then the Temple and finally the Tradepost. Walls and Tavern will be placed last priority right now. Though we do of course have the ability to get the tavern to T2 upgrade level.

On the raiding scene, we are pretty comfortable with Wing 1 BRC, working on Wing two on Saturdays,  and have started to call out PUG T1 raids during the week to help our new raiders who want some action and of course help the server community. That's not an arrogant statement. The fact is, there are a lot of unguilded players or small guilds that don't have the raid capabilities to really host a raid. So, couple times during the week we hold 1 T1 raid a night. We get a few of our folks on that need gear as they are building their skills and reputation with us, see if any of our allies in The Walking Dead want in, then open the rest to Global and help those other players still working on their gear. I think this is actually a good policy for all guilds out there that can field enough to host a run. First, it's plain good PR. Yup, you as a guild build a reputation on being friendly and helpful to the rest of the server. Second, it helps your new lv 80 players when you have already progressed to the next level. Third, it's just plain fun to go beat the snot out of your old raiding nemesis's.

UPDATE:

After the patch release there was chaos abound! The first day, no one could get into raids or dungeons correctly and there were serious log in issues to the character screen. So far, as of this writing, things are working correctly.. Tonight I take my crew on a quick Vissy run so we will see how it works out and if the relic returns are in place. Lag was initially an nasty little surprise but now seems to have tapered off. Same with the FPS meters. They saw all the issues at hand after I had dedicated a thread to listing the bugs encountered. Hopefully everything is fixed at this point. I'll update more if it seems relevant.

So there you have it folks, a bunch of happy goodness for everyone! Till next time, may you pave the roads you walk with glory, bloodshed and plenty of ale!