MMORPG glossary: tank, healer, DPS, aggro, cooldown, wipe and other gamer terms

MMORPG chat can be baffling: “LF tank for heroic, have heals, DPS 220+ ilvl, no wipes” — all in one message. We’ve put the key player terms into one glossary: what each means, and how it works in Zarhold, a card MMORPG in your browser. Keep it handy and your first dungeon will make a lot more sense.

The genre and game modes

• MMORPG — a massively multiplayer online role-playing game: a shared world where thousands of heroes play at the same time.
• PvE (Player vs Environment) — fighting creatures: quests, dungeons, raids. PvP (Player vs Player) — fighting other players: the arena, battlegrounds, duels.
• Dungeon, instance — a separate location with a chain of bosses. In Zarhold dungeons are for three players.
• Raid — a bigger dungeon for a bigger group. In Zarhold raids and world bosses are for five, for level 60 heroes.
• Heroic — a harder mode with better rewards. In Zarhold raids and world bosses have one: enemies are much tougher and boss epics are better.

Group roles

• Tank — keeps enemies focused on themselves and takes the hits. In Zarhold the Barbarian, Revenant, Lightbringer and Druid can tank.
• Healer — heals the group and casts shields. The Priest, Stormbringer, Lightbringer and Druid can heal.
• DPS (damage per second) or damage dealer — deals the damage. Any class can do it.
• Hybrid — a class that can fill more than one role. Talents decide which one it plays.

A dungeon group is a tank, a healer and a damage dealer; a raid is a tank, a healer and three damage dealers. Details: Group roles.

Combat

• Aggro (threat) — who an enemy “wants” to hit. In Zarhold every bit of direct damage adds threat for the attacker, and an enemy hits whoever has the most. Damage over time and healing don’t generate threat.
• Taunt — a tank ability that forces enemies to attack them. In Zarhold the taunt is the Class Power of tank specs: it keeps every enemy on the tank for two of their turns and cuts the tank’s damage taken by 40%, followed by a turn of rest.
• Cooldown (CD) — the time before an ability can be used again. In Zarhold your Class Power can be used once per turn, and racial abilities recharge in 3–5 turns.
• Buff and debuff — a boost and a weakening: more damage for a couple of turns, less damage for the target.
• DoT and HoT — damage and healing over time. In Zarhold they tick at the end of the affected fighter’s turn.
• AoE — area of effect, hitting every enemy at once. In Zarhold such cards hit every target for their full base value, with a smaller bonus from your hero’s Power per target.
• Stun, CC — stuns and similar effects: the target skips a turn. No chains: after a stun a fighter gets at least two turns of their own before they can be stunned again.
• Dispel — removing effects. In Zarhold a dispel strips harmful effects from you or an ally and helpful ones from an enemy; it won’t lift a stun from an ally.
• Enrage — a boss getting angry when a fight drags on. In Zarhold every rage step adds 18% to the boss’s damage.
• Wipe — the whole group goes down. In Zarhold a fight is only lost when everyone has fallen, and you can restart it with no penalty.

Everything about boss fights: Fighting a boss.

Loot and gear

• Loot, drop — items and materials from enemies.
• Roll — how a group splits loot. Zarhold uses “Need” and “Greed”; Need always beats Greed.
• Loot lockout — a limit on how often a boss gives loot. In Zarhold every raid boss and world boss drops loot once a day, until the daily reset at 03:00 Moscow time.
• BoP and BoE — bind on pickup and bind on equip. In Zarhold gear from green quality up is personal on pickup, while crafted items and blue items from enemies bind on equip: until you put them on, you can sell them on the auction house. Details: Personal items.
• ilvl (item level) — how strong an item is. Zarhold’s raid epics are 226, or 232 in heroic.
• Gear — your hero’s equipment.
• Tier set — a class armour set with bonuses for the pieces you collect. In Zarhold that’s Tier 1.
• Farming — running content again and again for loot.

Your hero and progression

• Level, ding — your level and levelling up. Zarhold goes from level 1 to 60.
• Spec — specialisation: the talent tree that decides your role and deck. From level 20 in Zarhold you can keep two.
• Respec — resetting your talents. In Zarhold it’s always free.
• Build — your chosen set of talents. Zarhold lets you save up to three loadouts.
• Alt — another hero on the same account. A Zarhold account has 10 hero slots.
• Main — your primary hero.

The economy

• AH — the auction house. Zarhold’s is buyout-only, with no bidding: a listing lasts 48 hours, and the fee is 5%.
• Crafting — making items with professions. Zarhold has six crafts, three gathering professions and three secondary ones.
• Gold — money: Zarhold uses copper, silver and gold.

PvP and ratings

• Arena — rated fights against players. Zarhold has 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5, each with its own rating.
• BG (battleground) — a large PvP fight. In Zarhold it’s five-on-five with two modes.
• Ladder — the player rating table.
• Season — a period after which ratings are finalised and rewards handed out. A Zarhold arena season lasts 60 days.

Community

• Guild — a players’ club with its own bank, ranks and chat.
• GM — depends on context: guild master (the guild’s leader) or game master (a member of the game’s staff).
• Party — a group. In Zarhold up to five heroes.
• Server wipe — erasing everyone’s progress. Zarhold won’t have one: the world and heroes stay.
• Residents — a Zarhold term: heroes of the world with their own gear and talents who fill empty party slots and think about their own moves. Details: The world’s residents.

MMORPG slang: FAQ

What do “tank, healer, DPS” mean?

They’re the three group roles. The tank takes the hits, the healer keeps the group alive, and DPS deal the damage. In Zarhold you pick your role before entering a dungeon, and each class has its own set of roles.

What is aggro?

Aggro is threat: it decides who an enemy will attack. Whoever has dealt the most damage has the most threat. The tank’s job is to hold threat, for example with a taunt.

What does cooldown mean?

A cooldown is the time before you can use an ability — or get a reward — again. Loot lockouts are often called cooldowns too: in Zarhold a raid boss drops loot once a day.

What is a wipe?

A wipe is when the whole group dies. The word is also used for erasing all progress on a server — which won’t happen in Zarhold.

The bottom line

MMORPG slang only looks scary for the first half hour. After that it saves time: “have tank, need healer” and everyone knows what’s up. The best way to learn the glossary is to run a dungeon: create a hero, and the beginner’s guide will show you where to start.