Jargon, decoded

The glossary

304 words from World of Warcraft, MMOs, esports and every game chat you have ever been flamed in — what each one means, and how people actually say it. Every entry has its own link, so you can send it to the friend who just asked what a twink is.

Word of the day

AV

PvP

Also: Alterac Valley

Alterac Valley: 40 v 40 across a whole zone, ends when a faction boss dies. Can last hours or minutes depending on the era.

“AV weekend, honor is doubled, everyone's queueing.”

See also: Battleground, Honor

9 of 304 words for “Add”

Add
Raiding & dungeons
An extra enemy that joins a fight — a spawn during a boss or a patrol you didn't see.
“Adds at 50%, off-tank picks them up.”
See also: Boss, Off tank
Addon
WoW
A player-made UI modification: damage meters, boss timers, questing helpers.
“Which addon shows the debuff timers?”
See also: Macro, WeakAura, Damage meters
Damage meters
Raiding & dungeons
Also: Meters, Recount, Details
Addons that show live damage and healing per player. The reason every DPS knows exactly where they stand — and the name of this site.
“Damage meters say the rogue did 40% of the raid's damage.”
“Post meters after the boss.”
See also: Parse, DPS, Logs
Off tank
Raiding & dungeons
Also: OT
A second tank for adds, tank swaps or whatever the main tank isn't holding.
“Off tank takes the adds on Garr.”
See also: Main tank, Add
Resilience
PvP
A PvP stat from later expansions that reduces damage from players and crit chance against you. Not in vanilla; Forever may add its own version.
“No resilience here — stamina is the PvP stat.”
See also: Stamina
Spell power
WoW
Also: SP, Spell damage
Bonus damage or healing added to spells. Written on gear as 'increases damage and healing done by magical spells' or per school (fire, shadow, frost).
“I'm at 380 spell power, ready for BWL.”
“+healing is spell power that only heals count.”
See also: Attack power, +Healing
WeakAura
WoW
An addon framework for custom on-screen alerts and displays. Half of raiding UI is WeakAuras.
“Import my WeakAura for the Sunder stacks.”
See also: Addon
Cleave
WoW
Damage that hits a few targets near your main one, as opposed to a full AoE. Also the warrior ability.
“Cleave the two adds while tanking the boss.”
See also: AoE, Single target
Kite
PvP
To keep an enemy at range while damaging them, usually with snares: hunters, frost mages and any tank dragging a boss around.
“Frost mage kiting a warrior across the whole zone.”
“Kite the adds through the fire.”
See also: Snare, Root

WoW

World of Warcraft, especially vanilla, Classic and Forever.

79 words

Raiding & dungeons

Group PvE: pulls, loot rules, wipes and parses.

47 words

PvP

Battlegrounds, duels, twinks and world PvP.

31 words

MMO

Words shared by every online RPG.

47 words

Esports

Competitive play, broadcasts and the meta.

21 words

Gaming slang

What people say in every chat, every game.