The terms used in Guild Wars are often obscure. This article exists to index all terms that a player might encounter in-game. This is not a dictionary, nor is it a list of all articles on the GuildWiki. Only terms and slang should be placed in this list.
There is a separate list dedicated to common abbreviations, if you're looking for those.
If the term you're looking for isn't on this list, you might try the system-generated glossary category index, which is often more complete but less generally useful. If you see a term in the index that isn't in this article, please come back and add it!
Index: # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Numeric[]
- 1: Commonly used in party chat to indicate readiness.
- 1.5k armor: Refers to armor that usually costs 1500 gold to craft that has the best possible stats.
- 12v12: 12 vs. 12 player-vs.-player Alliance Battles in Factions.
- 15k armor: Refers to Ascended Armor and Obsidian armor that usually costs 15 platinum to craft.
- 55: Refers to the Invincible Monk build, which is unique in that the monk has only 55 HP at level 20.
A[]
- AI: Short for "artificial intelligence." Generally refers to the actions of henchmen and monsters.
- Account: The account you use to connect to Guild Wars.
- Active prot: A monk that uses Protection Prayers but not maintained enchantments.
- Adept (NPC): NPCs involved with the Oracle of the Mists in Factions.
- Adept (Staff): Staff upgrade.
- Adjacent: Skill range that requires you to be right next to your target.
- Aeromancer: Elementalist dedicated to Air Magic.
- Aftercast delay: The time after using a skill in which your character cannot move or use skills.
- Aggro: When monsters switch from passive to aggresive. Can be used as a noun or a verb.
- Aggro circle: See Danger Zone.
- Allegiance: Refers to joining either the Luxons or the Kurzicks.
- Alliance: A group of guilds banded together, usually under a faction.
- Alliance Faction: The amount of Kurzick or Luxon faction held by an alliance, used to control outposts.
- Ally: Anything that isn't trying to kill you.
- Alpha: An early stage of testing for upcoming Guild Wars chapters.
- Annihilation: An arena and challenge game type, in which you must completely destroy the other team.
- Archer: Ranger specializing in marksmanship.
- Area boundary: "Portals" from one area to another.
- Area of Effect: Skills that effect more than a single target. Abbreviated AoEs.
- Arena Guard: NPCs that teleport you to arenas.
- Armor penetration: The extent to which damage ignores an enemy's armor.
- Artisan: Crafter that combines common crafting materials to make rare crafting materials.
- Ascended Armor: Armor that looks better than standard level 20 armor. Generally considered a status symbol.
- Ascension: Attaining legendary heroic status, which allows you to survive fights with certain enemies.
- Attribute Point: Used to raise attributes.
- Attribute quest: Quest that rewards 15 Attribute Points.
- Attuned: Being under the effect of an attunement spell so as to lower your energy costs.
- Avatar: Representative of the Gods of Tyria. Players only ever interact with avatars, never with the gods directly.
B[]
- Backline: Refers to line of spellcasters behind the tanks in an attack formation.
- Battery: A necromancer who uses Blood is Power.
- Beta: The testing stage after alpha but before public, commercial release.
- Beta Weekend Event: Events that allowed players to play before the release of Guild Wars. Replaced by World Preview Events.
- Blessing: A temporary bonus, usually granted by an NPC for a price.
- Block: Completely avoiding damage from an attack. Granted by certain skills.
- Blue item: In terms of item rarity, the most common uncommon item.
- Body block: The act of preventing other character from passing through your physical location.
- Bonder: Monk that uses Life Bond and/or Life Barrier.
- Bonus: In missions, refers to extra objectives that grant extra experience and (in Factions) skill points.
- Boon prot: Monk that uses Divine Boon and Protection Prayers.
- Bot: An automated program generally used to farm items. Bots are prohibited.
- Buff: A skill that increases the abilities of a character.
- Bug: A flaw in the game that prevents it from working as intended.
- Build: A template of skills and ability allocation that fulfills a role needed in a party. See builds.
- Build number: Essentially the version number of the Guild Wars release.
- Bundle tank: A defunct strategy to outwit the enemy AI using carryable items.
C[]
- Call: Broadcasting your actions over the team channel.
- Campaign: E.g., the Prophecies or Factions campaigns. Also known as chapters.
- Cancel stance: A stance used less for its intrinsic benefits and more to cancel another stance's downside.
- Capture: Usually refers to skill capture or screen capture.
- Capture the Relic: A "capture-the-flag" game mode in the Global Tournament.
- Cast: To use a spell or skill.
- Caster: Any character that relies more on spells than weapons.
- Celestial: In Factions, an suffix indicating something of incredible power.
- Challenge: A practice player-vs.-player-style mission against AI opponents.
- Character: Generally refers to the in-game representation of other players. "John Doe" is the player, "Ragnar the Mighty" is the character.
- Character level: A general indication of the might of a character, ranging from 1 to 20.
- Character slot: Every character created on an account occupies one character slot.
- Chest run: A form of farming in which characters run to chests in high-level areas without fighting.
- Cinematic: The cutscenes before, during, and after missions.
- Class: See profession.
- Clean: A weapon with no weapon upgrades.
- Collectable drop: Loot that can be traded in at a collector.
- Collectors: NPCs that give items in exchange for collectable drops .
- Command line: A method of changing the way Guild Wars runs.
- Competitive online role playing game: What Guild Wars is. Not quite a MMORPG.
- Condition: A negative status effect.
- Container: Any inventory item that can hold other inventory items.
- Continent: The separate regions that each campaign takes place in.
- Cooperative Mission: The missions that make up the player-vs.-environment campaigns.
- Core: Used to label any content that isn't specific to any one campaign.
- Corpse denial: Corpse exploitation with the explicit purpose of preventing the enemy from exploiting corpses.
- Corpse exploitation: Utilizing a corpse for a necromancer skill.
- Counter: Using one skill or build to specifically oppose another.
- Cover hex: A cheap hex placed immediately after a more expensive hex, to make removing the expensive hex more difficult.
- Crafter: An NPC that converts crafting materials into something else.
- Creature: Anything with a health bar that isn't dead.
- Customize: Customized equipment can only be used by the character it was customized for.
- Cutscene: See cinematic.
D[]
- Damage dealer: A party member who concentrates solely on dealing damage, as opposed to a tank or a healer.
- Damage over time: Any kind of damage that doesn't take effect immediately. Abbreviated DoT.
- Danger Zone: The white circle on the compass that illustrates the range at which mobs will aggro.
- Death penalty: A cumulative penalty to your maximum health and energy for dying.
- Debuff: A negative condition, or health or energy degeneration.
- Direct damage: Damage that comes in a single unit, as opposed to damage over time.
- Disrupt: See interrupt.
- District: An instance of a public area, to be used for trading, chatting, and forming parties.
- Divine Aura: A visual effect that owners of the Collector's Edition get while dancing.
- Drop: Usually refers to loot from mobs, but can also mean to lose connection to the game.
- Dual Attack: A devastating type of assassin strike.
E[]
- Echo chain: A strategy involving multiple uses of Echo and Arcane Echo to duplicate a spell many times.
- Elite Mission: Missions in Factions that require alliance control to enter.
- Elite skill: A skill more powerful than other skills. Only one elite skill can be equipped at a time.
- Emblem: The graphic that appears on a guild cape.
- Emote: A command that causes your character to animate an action.
- Enchantment: A spell that causes a positive effect for a period of time. Opposite of hex.
- Energy denial: A strategy that focuses on removing the energy of your enemy, preventing him from using skills.
- Environment Effect: A spell or enchantment that takes effect upon entering a certain area.
- EoE Bomb: A defunct PvP strategy that focused on the use of Edge of Extinction.
- Err 7: The error code returned by Guild Wars after a server disconnect.
- Exclusive area: In Factions, the portion of an outpost that only the controlling alliance's members can enter.
- Experience: The mechanism by which characters gain character levels and skill points.
- Exploit: A bug in the game that can be used to illegitimately benefit a character.
- Explorable area: The areas between outposts and cities.
F[]
- Faction (alliance): Kurzick or Luxon faction points used to gain alliance territory.
- Balthazar Faction: Points earned in PvP that can be used to unlock goodies on your account.
- Faction Rewards: The NPC type used to exchange faction points.
- Faction Transfer: The NPC type used to donate alliance faction points.
- Faction farming: Methods by which to accrue faction points at an incredible rate.
- Factions Campaign: The second chapter of Guild Wars. See Guild Wars Factions.
- Fame: Points accrued upon victory at Heroes' Ascent that eventually increase your rank.
- Farming: Repeatedly killing the same things to repeatedly gain the same reward, be it items or something else.
- Favor of the Gods: Reward granted to the world for noteworthy achievements in PvE.
- Ferry: A player that provides transport to Elite Missions, often for a fee.
- Fissure Armor: See Obsidian armor.
- Flag runner: In GvG, a dedicated player that plants his team's flag in the flag stand.
- Flag stand: In GvG, a point at the center of the map that can be controlled via a team's flag.
- Flavor of the Month: Refers to a build that is extremely popular, but dies out as soon as a counter is made well-known.
- Flawless victory: In PvP, a victory in which no members of the victorious party died.
- Fleshy creature: A creature that leaves a corpse and that can be afflicted with all conditions.
- Focus swap: A technique involving changing your equipment to avoid energy denial.
- Frame rate: Simply speaking, the speed at which Guild Wars graphics appear to update.