Mission maps, commonly abbreviated as MM, are special maps that're accessible via regular field maps. They are equivalent to instances in other MMOs, meaning each party gets their own, personal copy of the map.
Mission maps usually form the bulk of the time spent by a player in Dragonica. For the most part, they give the best experience efficiency, especially when compared to typical field maps. Furthermore, mission maps can give loot upon completion.
Mission maps are usually joined with parties
- Number of mobs in the map will increase proportionately to the number of players.
- Boss maximum hitpoints will increase proportionately to the number of players.
Depending on the difficulty of the maps, (called F#, # being the difficulty number of the mission map, such as F1 for difficulty rank 1, or F3, for rank 3) a mission will have 1-4 runs and finish with a boss in the boss room.
Party structure[]
All parties may or may not be organized/balanced. However, it is generally accepted that to get a 'S' rank and completing the mission in under 4 mins, you need to be in a balanced party.
What makes a balanced party? It should be made up of members that have at least one for each of the below roles.
Map Runs[]
Players will start from one end and kill their way to the other end of each maps.
All monsters must be killed during the runs. Everyone must stand in the portal to go to the next run. Only one person needs to activate the portal to bring everyone over.
In the later levels of the game, the mission path might have multiple deviations and/or have platforming sections. Generally such runs have a much lower experience per time unit ratio, making them undesirable for grinding.
Above F1 maps, there will be more than one run before the party reaches the boss room, where they kill the boss to get loot 'rolls'.
A run generally refers to the area in which monsters are contained. Having more than one means you will need to defeat the monsters throughout the next map before being allowed to enter and battle the Boss Monster.
Combo-er[]
- Needed to let everyone get four loot rolls at end of mission.
- Moves far ahead of the party/starts killing from opposite end of the map and backwards.
- Normally for classes that do more hits and less damage.
- Good ones can get enough combos for other members in F1 maps, even if they tanked the boss or mobs.
- Jesters/Hunters/any AoE-er...
Only one of these is needed in any party. They serve to get 150 combos over and over again to get upwards of 100 combo points for the party. Combo points are important for the party to get an S rank for loot rolling.
Professional combo-ers may use level 5 weapons or 0 durability weapons to reduce their damage, thereby increasing the number of combos they can get from a mob. This is extreme and normal practice is to use class such as jesters and hunters who hits many times and have low damage.
To prevent other party members from breaking up their combos, they should move far ahead of the rest of the party.
AoE-er[]
- Needed to finish the mission quickly.
- Moves ahead of the party and kills, leaving not more than 4 mobs behind.
- Normally for classes that do less hits(faster) and more damage.
- Good ones know not to interrupt other members, move quickly and never leaves a full health mob behind.
- Jesters/BattleMage/Gladiator/any Combo-er...
Must have at least one, more is good. These attempt to clean out larger groups of mobs during the run in as little time as possible. They determine how fast the party can finish the mission.
AoE-ers always have multiple Area of Effect skills for this role. However such skills also have a long cooldown and can break the combos of others, thus good AoE-ers will know where to place their skills where it hurts most and not disrupt the combo of the party's combo-er. Mobs taken up by other AoE-ers should also not be targeted as the skills will be wasted.
Should stay ahead of the cleaners and not leave more than a few mobs behind.
Cleaners[]
- Needed to ensure party does not get delayed by one remaining mob un-killed.
- Moves behind the party and kills cleanly, patiently.
- Normally for support classes and those useful in boss rooms.
- Good ones do not leave survivors behind and buffs/heals the party at the end, and doesn't be a smartass and try to be combo-ers/aoe-ers.
- Acolyte/knight/any others...
One is normally enough, and AoE-ers should not be made to clean-up as it slows down the mission (however AoE-ers should not leave too many behind as well). This role makes the difference between a fast and slow party.
Cleaners are normally the lower level members of the party, and those that have spammable but weak skills. They typically have buffs for the party, which should be used at the start/end of the runs to catch those AoE-ers and Combo-ers before they move off.
They should not be made to fight groups of more than 4 mobs, but can assist the AoE-ers in killing their mobs. Should always keep an eye out for surviving mobs.
Boss room[]
At the end of each sequence of runs, the players will enter a room where there will be a Boss, a miniboss (in most maps) and adds (mobs that spawn alongside the boss, usually respawns after being killed).
Only the boss needs to be killed. Mini-bosses and adds serve to distract the players. Upon killing the boss, time will be in slow-motion for a few seconds and the boss will have a dying animation (many skills have glitches if they last hit the boss) Everyone can rush down the boss and tank/dodge all his hits, even fast parties do not need roles for killing the boss.
However for slower/lower level parties, it can be infinitely useful to have someone in the below roles. Mobs that spawn with the boss are called adds.
Tanker[]
- Needed for the other members to drop the boss without time-wasting distractions and dodging.
- Lures the boss into the corner and make the boss back-face the other members.
- For classes that takes less damage or heals back easily.
- Good ones can hold the boss's attention throughout the fight and do not jump(jumping de-aggros)/gets knocked-down.
- Knight
Not necessary needed role but has to be the warrior class. Knight's impervision skill is even better for holding aggro as a knocked-down player loses aggro of the boss.
Most lazy players just tank the boss and heal back later. Tankers should not jump for no reason or they risk losing aggro of the boss, and sometimes if the boss approaches a player and he is already knocked-down he will deaggro as well. This role is only viable if there is a good combo-er to ensure loot rolls are good.
Should always lure the boss to a corner and make the boss face the wall.
Mini-boss killer[]
- Grabs the mini-boss's attention
- For classes that can stun or fight well in 1v1 in pvp
- Warriors/Archers/...
Less needed but easier than tanking, this person will attempt to kill off the miniboss. Mini-bosses only serve to distract players in the boss fight and can lead to deadly stunlocks with the other adds and boss itself thus delaying the death of the boss.
Classes with good long air combos (for launchable mini-bosses) or reliable spammable stuns are great for this role.
Cleaner/Sweeper[]
- Reduce number of mobs in the map, making it less dangerous and laggy.
- Kills quickly and moves fast.
- Normally for AoE-ers.
- Good ones lure the adds to the boss and AoE everything and the boss together.
- Jesters/BMs/...
Sweepers kill all the adds quickly and before new ones respawn.
They kill off all the adds as quickly as possible and return to killing the boss if new ones have yet to spawn. This act lets the party concentrate properly on the boss until new ones spawn again, killing the boss faster.
Players may also form parties that are only made up of sweepers to grind the adds only (not killing the boss until 2 hours later) for experience, since respawned adds still give exp and gold.
Loot Rolls and Mission Ranking[]
Upon the death of the boss, players get to see their rank and score for the mission. Their rank determines how much loot they gain.
Ranks very from D, C, B, A and S-SSS. The amount of loot gained depends on the rank. Ranks D and C only gives one item; Rank B gives two items; Rank A and S gives three and Rank SS and SSS gives four items.
The over-all rank depends on performance through-out the Mission Map
For more details regarding the scoring system, see: score.