About Dalaya

Welcome to the Dalaya server!

This new chapter is led by the dedicated creative development team responsible for some of your favorite experiences in Shards of Dalaya. With the previous administrator unreachable and the blessing of the original server's owner, we've launched this new server to ensure continuity and open the door to fresh opportunities.

Our goal is to recreate an immersive EverQuest experience, enriched with Shards of Dalaya lore and unique custom content, while carrying the torch forward into the future. Now free to innovate, our volunteer team is focused on enhancing the game world with new quests, NPCs, and expansive zones. We maintain the excitement and challenge of both classic Shards of Dalaya and original EverQuest, with improvements that streamline gameplay and remove some outdated frustrations.

Key Features:

  • Over 150 zones and 19,000 NPCs, crafted with care and creativity.
  • Streamlined raids for 18 players, ensuring every participant plays a critical role.
  • Dungeons brimming with valuable loot and challenging encounters, blending nostalgia with fresh content.

Our server is a testament to the community's dedication and creativity, promising an engaging and evolving gaming experience. Join us on Discord, where our active community and supportive staff are available to assist with any questions. We look forward to the adventures that await in the world of Dalaya!

Dalayan Differences

For those coming from EverQuest Live or other servers, you'll notice that Dalaya has its own unique feel. It uses the familiar graphics and zones from EQ, but almost everything else is different! Here's what you need to know:

General Overview

  • Unique Game Environment: Dalaya is a distinct game that just happens to use EQ assets. Unique story, characters, quests, and itemization. Familiar names like Trakanon or Centi Longswords don't exist here. Factions, zones, quests, NPCs, and more have been significantly altered, but many assets are reused from Live.
  • Active GM and Developer Presence: Expect regular patches, events, active support, and rule enforcement.
  • Two-Boxing: Players are allowed to run two characters from a single computer, but each character must be on a separate account.
  • Custom Lore and Content: Content ranges from levels 1 to 65, including AAs. There is a heavy emphasis on tier-to-tier progression, with rich 6, 12, and 18-man raid content.
  • Time Matters: Shops close at night, NPCs may disappear, and some quests are time-dependent. Pay attention to the in-game clock!
  • Faction: Be mindful of faction-based quests; killing certain NPCs can lock you out of major questlines.
  • Global Chat Channels: OOC and auction channels are global, while /shout is local to the zone.

Classes and Abilities

  • Class Roles: Broad roles like tanking, DPS, and utility are similar to Live, but each class has unique abilities and differences.
  • Class Balance: There is no bad choice when picking your class. Every class is viable!
  • Charm: Enchanters are far less dependent on charm as their source of power.
  • Spells and Abilities: Many spells and songs below level 60 remain unchanged. Primary spell progression:
    • 1-50: Available at class vendors.
    • 50-60: Available in Erudin.
    • 61-65: Sold in Erimal (requires main quest progression).
    • Raid Drops:
      • Ancient spells
      • Relic spells
      • Archaic spells
      • Runic spells
  • Disciplines: Many classes, primarily Tank/Melee/Hybrid, have unique Disciplines acquired at certain levels.
  • Specialization System: All classes gain specialization points to allocate across various skills, enhancing aspects like damage output, avoidance, and mana efficiency.
  • Updated Abilities: Some AAs have been altered. The system allows for a variety of builds and strategies.

Combat and Gameplay Mechanics

  • Unique Zone Mechanics: Zones might have positive or negative XP modifiers to encourage or discourage certain hunting grounds. New area bonuses decrease over time but reset at levels 30, 50, and 65.
  • Unique Combat Mechanics: Auxiliary tanking is a mechanic where anyone, including pets, within melee range and in front of the mob contributes to reducing damage.
  • No Fleeing Mobs: Mobs won't run at low health, eliminating the need to snare every mob.
  • Spell Resistances and Charisma: Mobs are more resistant to spells initially; charisma significantly reduces spell resistance.
  • Dynamic Combat Conditions: Certain effects like healing bonuses and spell effectiveness vary based on in-game time and weather conditions.
  • Leveling: Leveling is still mainly through mob kills and grouping, similar to Project 1999, but generally faster.
  • Front Stun: All characters are front-stun immune, not just Ogres.

Travel and Zones

  • Zone Connectivity: While familiar zone layouts are used, connections between zones are often different. For example, Kaladim is a high-level ghost town now.
  • No Plane of Knowledge: Travel is limited to foot or teleport spells via Druids and Wizards, with the Mansion of Portals offering limited zone-to-zone transit.
  • Boats and Transit: Boats are not currently functional, but translocators are available due to potential bugs.
  • Zone Cautions: Many zones are not as you remember from Live. High-level threats exist where you might not expect them, so explore carefully!

Recovery and Death

  • Death Mechanics: On death, players respawn with Death Fatigue, limiting actions for 4 minutes. Experience debt replaces XP loss and can be bought off.
  • No Corpse Runs: Items and equipment are not lost on death!
  • Death Recovery: There is a short recovery time after dying where players cannot use their abilities, spells or attack. Experience debt will also be accrued but can be instantly cleared at any healer NPC for an increasingly steep cost based on level. Some resurrection spells reduce experience debt.

Economy and Equipment

  • Pristine Loot System: Looting items directly grants slightly better stats. Items lose this pristine status when traded.
  • No Bazaar: A Listing System replaces the Bazaar for buying and selling.
  • Unique Item Mechanics: Bind on Equip items can be unbound for a price, and most augments are destroyed when removed.
  • Expable Gear: Some equipment, such as Adept loot, starter gear, and many quested items, scales in power with the player's experience level.

Grouping and Raiding

  • Group XP Mechanics: There is no xp penalty to grouping, so there's no reason not to fill groups to maximize rewards.
  • Adventuring Bands: Share XP gains even when not in the same group or online, with a maximum level gap of 10 levels.
  • Raiding Rules: Raids are capped at 18 members with strict class composition limits.
  • Class Diversity: Bonus loot chance starts at 11 unique classes. Maximum bonus chance is achieved with 15 unique classes.
  • Adepts: Adepts are unique raid-style enemies designed for players under a specific level. These encounters often require larger groups and coordinated strategies due to their high HP, strong regeneration, and powerful attacks. The rewards for defeating adepts are substantial, with loot that scales in power with the player's experience level.

Tradeskills

  • Reworked Tradeskills: New tradeskills and recipes unique to Dalaya. Alchemy and Tinkering are now available to all players.
  • Tradeskills for Everyone: Nearly all tradeskills can be performed by any class. Some races do get tradeskill bonuses though.
    • Make Poison: Exclusive to Rogues, as only they benefit from it.
    • Enchanters: The only class that can enchant metal, but enchanted metal is not required for skill-ups.

Differences For Players Coming from Shards of Dalaya

  • Patching Capabilities: Expect regular patches and updates to improve gameplay.
  • New Class/Race Combinations:
    • Dwarf Ranger
    • Wood Elf Beastlord
    • Froglok Necromancer
    • Froglok Rogue
    • Froglok Shadowknight
  • New and Updated Zones:
    • Evil Frogloks will start in the new zone, Leaga Malath (by Duke).
    • Dwarf Ranger and Elf Beastlord will start in a custom zone, Goldleaf Glen (by Grinkles).
    • Bleak Blind, a new 65+ exp and 6-man zone (by Fuwok).
    • Dreadfang Spire, released as a 6-man zone (by Juff).
  • Disciplines: Disciplines have replaced the stance system, with plans for a more comprehensive implementation.
  • Tomes: Now integrated into the AA system.
  • Stamina Adjustments:
    • Ogres no longer gain bonus starting stamina.
    • Ogres now have -5% Stamina drain (reduced from -12.5%).
    • Overall stamina costs have been reduced.
  • RoF2: Dalaya is transitioning to the RoF2 client. Integrating additional features from this new client will be an ongoing project.








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