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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

All words

4 of 304 words for “Debuff”

  1. Debuff

    WoW

    A harmful effect on an enemy or you: Sunder Armor, Curse of Recklessness, Faerie Fire. Vanilla bosses have limited debuff slots, so raids plan which ones go on.

    “Sixteen debuff slots, warlocks don't put Corruption on.”

    See also: Buff, Uptime

  2. Tank swap

    Raiding & dungeons

    Trading who tanks a boss mid-fight because of a stacking debuff.

    “Tank swap at three stacks.”

    See also: Off tank, Mechanic

  3. Uptime

    Raiding & dungeons

    How much of a fight an effect was active: a debuff, a buff, a DoT, or you actually hitting the boss.

    “90% Sunder uptime, nice.”

    “Low uptime because of the knockbacks.”

    See also: Debuff, Parse

  4. 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

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.

79 words

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