Sometimes you start to remodel a house and realize the only place to start is a pack of matches. You salvage what you can, pour a new
foundation, and end up better off all around.
The 2.5 release, directionless decision making, some really dubious class balancing, makeshift fixes (tomes, stances, listsend, etc...) that would never exist in the new client, mudflation, and problems taking advantage of what should be default features has left this once great server in a sorry state. True, you could continue working on 2.5 fixes (how many years in the making?) which will
probably take less time and
might end up working, or start a new server from scratch with all of the lore, dev experience, player experience, and excellence that is Shards of Dalaya.
Bonus: go back in the story to when Kaezel controlled most of the landmass. This greatly reduces the amount of work needed (few zones, could have a lower lvl cap, a permanent newbie area so new players years from now aren't all alone, etc...) to get the server up and running AND gives players a chance to experience key moments in the World's history.
2nd Bonus: Makeshift fixes and bad decisions can be eliminated in mass.
3rd Bonus: All new improvements (auras, instancing every X tiers to mitigate poopsocking, all those windows that do not work, etc...) could be implemented in mass.
I guess the biggest question is of motivation. Does the dev team of SoD want to be bug fixing or working on content? Do the players log on to marvel at their throbbing t13 e-peens or is this meant to be a social game with lots of players? Will you attract more new players with a those
low tier guilds that form every couple of years or a game that functions properly?