definitelynobody
Dalayan Beginner
hi. i played this game a few years ago. i was a cleric named eisley. i was also a dev named Erlewine. i spent most of my time in Phoenix Rising and Fair-Weather Friends and as a dev I made Cesspits. i have played a lot of MMOs at a high level like everquest, WoW, project 1999, etc. but without a doubt SoD was the best times i had. was looking through the nostalgia and just thought i'd share some old stuff.
xi valla, the eternal empress - the first video released of 4.3. prior to this, the only documentation of the fight was an excellent google doc made by an excellent person (RIP), which can be viewed here. for anyone who wondered why lleoc & i kept dead shadowknight alt accounts logged out at monster spots and a spreadsheet of vah back monsters spreadsheeted so we could keep them locked down - this is why. vah back was more or less required here. keeping other guilds from getting it kept any pressure off. ranger POV because i still didn't want to show other guilds how i was solo healing it.
warchief rujik moktar - no one had made a writeup or video of this one yet, but i decided to post it anyways because we were pretty far ahead at that point. its too bad the correct models hadn't been patched in yet for the puddles. still, this fight was an absolute masterclass on how to balance a fight for Raid Strength = Healer Mana = Raid Damage. I have no clue how in the world Marza got this fight so perfect that from the very beginning he had it so well balanced that i had to use every tool at my disposal down including meleeing the entire fight and using all clickies and the big pulsing raid complete heal and JUST beat this fight at 0% mana left. this is the oldest video i believe, an early kill, so it features the classic full FWF dream team pretty much, the first people to clear this raid tier.
jyre, the mountain's fury - this one has ventrilo audio, so you'll hear some old, old voices. not mine though for some reason, issue with fraps i think. during my time as both a player and dev, marza fascinated me in many ways. this fight is a great example why - i remember talking with him during development and he described it as something he threw together for fun one night. marza was so incredibly talented at scripting that he was able to make a super detailed and interesting fight for an item that he knew would only ever be done a few times total, in one night. he deserved a lot more credit for his contributions. Marza saved this game.
claw commander era'velu - this one is from quite awhile after its release, after it was moved back outside. this was such a cool fight, when it first came out i remember spending a whole lot of time wiping at 1 or 0%. before the Super Tank era, this fight was super tricky to heal because he did massive tank damage, it was one of the hardest things i remember healing in terms of just pure efficiency required. of course, then we got the power creep and lifesteal spamming SKs etc but yeah. you can see how much effort i was putting in at this point by watching my boxed shaman in the back do nothing but fall over.
rohk, the traitorous hand - probably the most interesting thing to note here is that this was the peak of the overpowered powercreep items before they got nerfed. my character was flat out ridiculous at this point. i was the solo healer, did as much DPS as a regular dps, ran at triple speed, healed group passively from melee, and had more defense than any tank without a 4.3 robe. not too long after this, the Great Woldaff Un-Marza Patch dropped, and all our dreams were smashed, haha. it was bittersweet, but i was a dev at the time and told woldo about all of the things i considered OP and yeah, they needed to be changed. still sucked telling a dev how to nerf your own character. :]
forest gloom guide - a write up of gloom. i'm not sure who wrote this one, but it must not be too old (relatively) as it references chaotic winds running against the pillar. interesting note about that, yeah, i was the one who unfortunately caught them levitating over the slime wall while monitoring fights (a task i did for Marza, because just as he watched FWF do his fights to make sure we did them as intended, now i could handle this.) despite the fact some of them seemed to feel some grudge against me, in reality i discovered it by accident and wanted to believe it was merely misunderstanding of mechanics. from there, i simply told someone (woldo or marza?) that they were levitating over the slimes, either by bug or exploit, and it was in their hands from there. i didnt hear another word about it until everyone else did. fun fact about Gloom - lleoc and i duoed this fight one night, i believe he boxed monk/cleric and i did cleric/wiz. probably my favorite silly achievement in this game.
other junk
clockwork - just me tanking clockwork on my cleric. juicy powercreep.
mistborn - i have no idea why i recorded this and no clue whos character i was playing. a decade may have ravaged my memory, but i do remember one thing for sure - this game was a blast.
i hope you guys are all doing well wherever you are these days. i really did love this game a lot and the amazing time spent with friends. it was an honor to be taken along for the journey with you all. maybe i'll post screenshots another time. enjoy.
xi valla, the eternal empress - the first video released of 4.3. prior to this, the only documentation of the fight was an excellent google doc made by an excellent person (RIP), which can be viewed here. for anyone who wondered why lleoc & i kept dead shadowknight alt accounts logged out at monster spots and a spreadsheet of vah back monsters spreadsheeted so we could keep them locked down - this is why. vah back was more or less required here. keeping other guilds from getting it kept any pressure off. ranger POV because i still didn't want to show other guilds how i was solo healing it.
warchief rujik moktar - no one had made a writeup or video of this one yet, but i decided to post it anyways because we were pretty far ahead at that point. its too bad the correct models hadn't been patched in yet for the puddles. still, this fight was an absolute masterclass on how to balance a fight for Raid Strength = Healer Mana = Raid Damage. I have no clue how in the world Marza got this fight so perfect that from the very beginning he had it so well balanced that i had to use every tool at my disposal down including meleeing the entire fight and using all clickies and the big pulsing raid complete heal and JUST beat this fight at 0% mana left. this is the oldest video i believe, an early kill, so it features the classic full FWF dream team pretty much, the first people to clear this raid tier.
jyre, the mountain's fury - this one has ventrilo audio, so you'll hear some old, old voices. not mine though for some reason, issue with fraps i think. during my time as both a player and dev, marza fascinated me in many ways. this fight is a great example why - i remember talking with him during development and he described it as something he threw together for fun one night. marza was so incredibly talented at scripting that he was able to make a super detailed and interesting fight for an item that he knew would only ever be done a few times total, in one night. he deserved a lot more credit for his contributions. Marza saved this game.
claw commander era'velu - this one is from quite awhile after its release, after it was moved back outside. this was such a cool fight, when it first came out i remember spending a whole lot of time wiping at 1 or 0%. before the Super Tank era, this fight was super tricky to heal because he did massive tank damage, it was one of the hardest things i remember healing in terms of just pure efficiency required. of course, then we got the power creep and lifesteal spamming SKs etc but yeah. you can see how much effort i was putting in at this point by watching my boxed shaman in the back do nothing but fall over.
rohk, the traitorous hand - probably the most interesting thing to note here is that this was the peak of the overpowered powercreep items before they got nerfed. my character was flat out ridiculous at this point. i was the solo healer, did as much DPS as a regular dps, ran at triple speed, healed group passively from melee, and had more defense than any tank without a 4.3 robe. not too long after this, the Great Woldaff Un-Marza Patch dropped, and all our dreams were smashed, haha. it was bittersweet, but i was a dev at the time and told woldo about all of the things i considered OP and yeah, they needed to be changed. still sucked telling a dev how to nerf your own character. :]
forest gloom guide - a write up of gloom. i'm not sure who wrote this one, but it must not be too old (relatively) as it references chaotic winds running against the pillar. interesting note about that, yeah, i was the one who unfortunately caught them levitating over the slime wall while monitoring fights (a task i did for Marza, because just as he watched FWF do his fights to make sure we did them as intended, now i could handle this.) despite the fact some of them seemed to feel some grudge against me, in reality i discovered it by accident and wanted to believe it was merely misunderstanding of mechanics. from there, i simply told someone (woldo or marza?) that they were levitating over the slimes, either by bug or exploit, and it was in their hands from there. i didnt hear another word about it until everyone else did. fun fact about Gloom - lleoc and i duoed this fight one night, i believe he boxed monk/cleric and i did cleric/wiz. probably my favorite silly achievement in this game.
other junk
clockwork - just me tanking clockwork on my cleric. juicy powercreep.
mistborn - i have no idea why i recorded this and no clue whos character i was playing. a decade may have ravaged my memory, but i do remember one thing for sure - this game was a blast.
i hope you guys are all doing well wherever you are these days. i really did love this game a lot and the amazing time spent with friends. it was an honor to be taken along for the journey with you all. maybe i'll post screenshots another time. enjoy.