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

11 of 304 words for “LAN”

LAN
Esports
A tournament where everyone is in the same room on the same network. No lag, no excuses.
“LAN finals in front of a crowd.”
See also: Ping, Lag
Balance
WoW
How you split survival against damage: more stamina and armor, or more crit and attack power. The line PvP players argue about. This site's gear planner has a knob for it.
“Balance for PvP: enough stamina to survive an opener, the rest into crit.”
See also: Stamina, Equivalence points, Twink
Build
WoW
A complete plan for a character: talents, gear and how you play it. A shared build is a link.
“Send me your build.”
“This is the standard 31/8/12 Mortal Strike build.”
See also: Spec, Talent, BiS
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
Diminishing returns
PvP
Also: DR
Each repeated stun, fear or root on the same target within a short window lasts less, and the fourth doesn't land at all.
“He's on full DR for stuns, save the kidney shot.”
See also: CC
Hitbox
Gaming slang
The invisible shape that decides whether an attack lands.
“That hitbox is bigger than the model.”
See also: Desync
Leeroy Jenkins
WoW
The 2005 video of a paladin charging a room of dragon whelps while his raid was still planning. Now a verb for charging in without a plan.
“He Leeroyed the whole pack while we were still buffing.”
See also: Pull, Wipe
Beta
Gaming slang
A pre-release version: playable, unfinished, changing weekly. Forever is in beta as this is written.
“Beta numbers, don't plan your whole build on them.”
See also: PTR, Datamine
Faction
WoW
Alliance or Horde. You can't talk to, group with or trade with the other one.
“Faction balance on that server is 70/30 Horde.”
See also: Server
Tick rate
Esports
How many times per second the server updates. Higher is fairer.
“Low tick rate is why your interrupt didn't land.”
See also: Ping
Zug zug
WoW
What orc peons say. Now: charging in and hitting things, especially as a warrior.
“Fury warrior, no plan, zug zug.”
See also: Leeroy Jenkins

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.