Dragon Saga, also know as Dragonica, or Dragonica Online before 2010, is a 3D/2D, fantasy, action-oriented, side scrolling Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (or MMORPG) developed by Barunson Interactive. The European version is published by Gpotato, the Korean version by PlayNC, Chinese version by Playcool, the US Version by THQ*ICE, and the SEA-ANZ version by IAHGames. It is a F2P game with a cash shop. It plays similar to other "action-arcade" games such as Lunia. It is comparable to the 2-dimensional MMORPGs, LaTale and MapleStory. You directly control your character and its actions with a keyboard, gamepad, or controller. The battle system is unique, and is not like traditional MMORPG's, such as World of Warcraft. Again, it is comparable to the combat systems of LaTale and MapleStory. However, unlike MapleStory, there is a Guild vs. Guild combat system.
If you are new to online games and their terms and slangs, please visit the "Game terms" catagory and read its articles to educate yourself. It is recommended, as you may be confused with these terms when Dragonica Online players use them.
Classes[]
A class or job is the pre-set primary adventuring style of a player character which determines the type of weapons and armor it can use, as well as what skills and abilities it can learn throughout its adventures.
Each class has their own, unique skills and each class has their own unique skill tree. As a character progresses, they can specialize their skills by assigning skill points in any of the skill for their class.
Currently, there are 4 beginning classes, or "first jobs." When creating your character, you will be forced to select one of these four beginning classes. As your progress through the game, you will eventually be prompted to perform a "job advancement" when you reach a certain level. Once you perform all the tasks required to go on to the next job or class, you will gain the oppertunity to equip new equipment and learn new skills. Each class has their own title and unique playing style. It is almost mandatory that you perform this "job advancement" because it will be very hard to continue playing the game comfortablely.
The level required to perform this "job advancement" is the same for all classes. Usually, the first job advancement would be the creation of your character, entering the class of your choice. On your second job advancement, each class will need to change their job to one of the two sub-classes (not a common term). From there on, your third and fourth job advancement will follow the course you have chosen. For more information, please look to the diagram on your right to sufficiently understand this.
Types of Classes[]
Warrior: As trained combatants, Warriors are similar to the Thieves in damage rate, but sacrifice a little speed in place of sheer physical hardiness.
- Knight: Armored Tanker class with high Defense and plenty of Equips; 1-handed sword and shield
- Gladiator: Max DPS (damage per second) fighter with high AoE skills; huge 2-handed swords
Magician: The scholarly Magician is the lowest in Vitality but high in Intelligence (spell points) and has quite balanced damage-power and speed despite their physical fragility.
- Monk: Well-rounded range of spells including attacks and Group Heal; restricted to ranged attacks using Mage Staffs
- Battlemage: Specialized assault sorcerer with high DPS and weaker healing abilities; Spear-staff with limited melee attacks
Archer: The Archer, being used to trekking through the wilderness, is quite well-rounded in terms of stats-distribution; not the strongest, but doesn’t have any noticeable weak spots.
- Hunter: Skills-heavy children-of-nature with "Summoning" Skill attacks; Longbow specialist
- Ranger: Highly-trained military troops with fastest firing rate around; wields crossbow
Thief: Thieves, who dart through their urban environment as the fastest class, have the power necessary for street brawls but lower Intelligence because they don't require that much mana.
- Jester: Flashy AoE brawler with wide range of attack Skills; upgraded Thief claw and shield (in CBT)
- Assassin: Poison-wielding subterfuge class with Burrow-attack; holds Katar blade
Gameplay[]
As stated before, Dragonica is most comparable and similar to other console games such as Lunia, LaTale, and Maplestory.
The concept of "Damage per Second" present in most MMO games is erased, as every individual blow you receive or give can greatly alter the course of battle. Merely placing an attack requires precision and forethought. Tanking is relatively simple; monsters usually stick to the first "aggroer." Melee classes can just walk up while range stays back and unloads without taking any damage. Healing is done through various spells and is also mildly simple, but still requires skilled players for strong bosses.
Items[]
An item is usually a small thing. It is a pronoun for replacing specific nouns, such as a "pen" or "chair".
In Dragonica Online, items are divided into four catagories: equipment, consumables or useables, cash shop items, and misallaneous items, or "etc". Items are avaliable from many places. You may kill monsters, which will "drop" items, or you may purchase them from non-player character or player-run vendors. You can pick up dropped items by simply moving over it with your character. Once you pick it up, a recognizeable sound will play, signaling that you have picked up the item(s). A message will also tell you what type of item, or what items you have picked up in the chat box.
Items in Dragonica Online range from weapons, such as swords, to items classified as misallaneous, such as "Vagabonds Heart", to Cash Shop items. Most items are tradeable between players and some are able to be purchased or sold to or from non-player character vendors.
Some equipable or useable items limit the amount of characters may use it through "caps". For example, a "Noble Mana Potion" may only be used by characters that have achieved a level of 30 or above.
Almost all equipment and useable items affect your gameplay through effects. Higher level equipment usually have higher stat bonuses that will allow you to deal more damage to damageable figures. Useable items usually have an effect, ranging from healing HP or MP over time to teleporting your character to a Town Map or boosting your stats for a limited time.
Some quests require the character to gather items in order to complete the quest. These items are usually from the "Etc." catagory from your inventory.
Control[]
You have a side view of your character and 8-way directional control, via the directional keys. The Z and X keys will unleash different attack strings depending on the combination pressed. You can use the C key to jump. Skills are placed on the quickbar, and can be activated by hitting the corresponding key (Q~R, A~F). You can make your character show its many emotes by pressing Alt+1~8(cry, laugh, wave, bow, etc.) You can also take screenshots by pressing the Prt Scr button in game.
It seems simple at first, but there are many different things that can happen depending on your timing, combination of buttons, or distance from the enemy. There are multiple cancels and combo attacks that can be accomplished depending on your skills (both hard-coded and human skill). Many skills have special properties that can disable an enemy for a while, knock them down, or push them back.