For players new to MMOs and new to Age of Conan in particular. Here's a glossary of terms you may encounter in the game or its forums:
AA / Alternate Advancement - It's a system of perks, feats, and abilities introduced with the Godslayer Expansion. Unlike the feats designated through the variable feat tree, players accrue AA experience points to earn AA points which once assigned cannot be removed; players can eventually collect all the AA perks, feats, and abilities. Certain AA abilities are slotted in the AA bar, while other AA perks are passive.
Add(s) – “Additionals”: automated enemies who spawn or activate within an encounter blindly(See: Mob); adds are often designed to complicate the defeat of strategically difficult enemies (See: Boss)
AE or AoE - Area Effect / Area of Effect refers to ‘area of effect’ abilities or spells; actions which affect a defined area rather than specifically target locked individuals enemies. (e.g. Tempest of Set spell “Quicksand”)
AFK – “Away from keyboard”
Aggro – to aggro (v); it refers to a hostile enemy (See: Mob) being affected by a player so as to make it actively chase or attack the player; the aggro (n): it refers to the degree of “hostility” the player has generated on the mob. In Age of Conan, aggro can be generated through an innate amount of hate (a stat) a character has or doing damage on a mob. Classes that have high survivability (soldiers) try to keep enemies occupied, so as to not attack other classes. (Also see: Swapping Aggro)
Alt – “alternate”. It refers to the alternate character a player has from their main character. (See: Twink and Bank)
AO – Anarchy Online: another earlier Funcom MMO.
Archetype – Any of the four main character roles: Soldiers, Mages, Rogues, and Priests. Each archetype is divided into 3 classes.
Armor Rating - An Age of Conan statistic that determines how much physical damage will be mitigated (absorbed) from enemies' successful attacks.
Assassin - (aka Sin): A Rogue class that employs stealth DPS and critical attacks.
Attribute – Basic character stats: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence –, and Wisdom.
Bank / Bank-Toon – A character created to provide extra inventory. (See: Mule)
Bear Shaman – A Priest class that balances melee combos and healing
Barbarian – (aka Barb): A Rogue class that employs DPS and critical attacks.
Bind – 1) With regards to looting, binding means associating an item with a character such that it cannot be sold or sent to another character; this is done to prevent the game world economy from stagnating by ensuring constant demand for new loot (See also: Bind on Equip). 2) For dungeons (encounters), it refers to the location (See: Instance) being associated with a character or group; usually binding is on a cool-down timer after which the encounter re-sets and the character can start it afresh. 3) And with regards to character death, sometimes a character will be forced to re-spawn after death, to a bound resurrection pad (often the closest); some pads must be located before they can will bind.
Bio or Biobreak - a bathroom break
BoE - “bind on equip”: Items that become associated exclusively with the inventory of a character who equips it. If unbound, the item can be traded.
BoP – “bind on pickup”: Items that become associated exclusively with the inventory of a player after it has been looted. Such an item cannot be traded. In raids and group play, BoP items should not be taken (See: Ninja) until all group players agree or until the item has been rolled for and assigned by the automatic looting system (See: Need/Greed/Pass roll).
Bori / Shrines of Bori – A contentious play option introduced for PvP use; many PvP players feel that it is PvE content and shouldn’t yield PvP rewards; while others feel that farming this system allows them for catch-up with advanced PvP characters.
Boss – a significant and challenging enemy that appears at the end of a quest or as part of a instance. (See: Mini-Boss)
BRB – “be right back”
BRC – Black Ring Citadel, the of occult sorcerers and in Keshatta; its three wings are the locations of the second-tier of raid encounters.
Bot – A typically illegitimate unauthorized and discouraged type of play, in which some of a character’s performance is automated to perform repetitious actions, so as to gain experience and level with less user intervention. Games Masters (See: GM) monitor for such dishonesty, and should suspend such players’ accounts. Age of Conan permits guilds to use the chat bot, BeBot, as a guild and raid management tool: BeBot can include scripts to help with encounters that require timed activities (e.g. Killing Yaremka the Soul Eater in Wing 1 of BRC)
BTW – “by the way”
Buff – A temporary effect that’s applied to a character that enhances performance (See: Debuff)
Camp(ing) – The practice of waiting in a location to encounter specific mobs, loot, or other events.
Class – the specific ‘profession’ of your character within the main archetypes. Class determines the choice of feats to which a player will have access.
Combat Rating - An Age of Conan statistic that adds your various bonuses from items, perks, stances, etc. to determine the potential for your damage per second (DPS)
Crafting – A system that allows players to manufacture objects from crafting materials that are dropped as loot or purchased from a vendor.
Crit – To crit (v): dealing a critical hit either with a spell or melee (an attack that does considerably more damage than a normal) ; crits are mitigated by armor to a small degree, but the critigation stat of some items specifically helps against crits.
Critigation – an item stat that improves a character’s ability to mitigate critical hits. It was introduced with the Khitai expansion Rise of the Godslayer.
Crowd Control or CC – Abilities or spells / abilities that temporarily that cause enemies to be stunned, knocked-back, rooted in place, etc. CCs can be the key, strategically, to winning an encounter. Enemies can also use CCs.
Conqueror – (aka Conq): A lighter Soldier class that combines provides buffs and CCs: less focussed on aggro, it usually serves as a versatile off-tank (See: Tanking).
Damage – the number of points removed generally from the enemy’s health (less often from stamina, mana, or energy) that results from a successful attack by spell or melee.
Dark Templar – (aka DT): A heavier Soldier class that employs debuff and stamina drains; very effective as a tank (See: Tanking)
DCd – “Disconnected”: when a player’s PC or internet unexpectedly prevents them from playing; their character may freeze or disappear.
Debuff – A temporary effect that to a character or enemy that impedes performance
Demonologist – (aka Demo): A Mage class that employs summoned demons to assist their combat.
Destiny Quest – A long series of quests that players must complete as they level-up; the quests are initiated by Kalanthes, the Priest of Ibis who meets players on at the opening scene. Some quests aspects are determined by archetype and each race has a different seer who also helps direct portions of the quests. (E.g. for players to get quests from Conan himself, the Mark of Acheron tattoo that all characters have from the outset, must be eliminated by finding Crom’s Rock area: it's part of the "Phoenix of the East" destiny quest).
DKP – “Dragon kill points” an elaborate scoring system used in some guilds to distribute loot based on contribution to the guild or within a given raid.
DoT – “Damage over time”: class of effect that deals damage over a time period. Though the DPS may be low, the cumulative effect can be higher over their duration.
DPS – “Damage per second”: 1) the amount of damage done in one second; DPS used casually to indicate the typical damage of an item or by players to determine effective their actions are in play. Some classes are intended to be spec’d for heavy DPS (Eg. Necromancer) and are thus crucial to ‘burning down’ enemies; likewise some enemies are designed to become more hazardous if the DPS rate is too high. 2) DPS is an Age of Conan basic statistic that is the sum of the equipped melee or ranged weapons' item-DPS (shown in the item's tool-tip window) and the Combat Rating (seen by mousing over 'DPS' in the "Attributes Window" in the "General Tab").
Epic(s) – 1) Very high level items that are difficult to acquire (aka ‘purples’ due to the colour of the font in their descriptions window) 2) Game zones that have more changing enemies and in which better loot drops; players usually select “epic” before they enter the zone.
Encounter – An automated set of events and calculations that unfolds as combat in a computer RPG. Sometimes encounters are complex and require strategy and coordination; while in its simplest an encounter is the act of fighting a single enemy.
Experience – A system of points accrued by completing tasks/quests, killing enemies, or crafting. Advancement in levels or abilities is usually associated with this system.
Evade - A tactic that can occasionally result in lessening or avoiding damage in melee combat; double-tapping to move out of range can improved the odds of this beyond the normal Evade Rating.
Evade Rating - In Age of Conan, a character has a basic chance to avoid a strike or hit from a melee attack. This chance can be augmented by items, stances, feats and so forth.
Farm(ing) – Collecting items, money or tokens, by repeatedly playing a quest, instances or killing specific enemies
FTW – “For the win”: a comment that describes an action or effect that ultimately determines a victory. (e.g. Throat slash FTW!) Sometimes sarcastically employed … as is the companion phrase FTL “For the loss”.
Gank – To gank (v): to be overwhelmed and killed by a large group or other powerful enemy (mobs) or by PvP player(s).
GM – “Game Master”: GMs are players-characters in MMORPGs who do not actually ‘play’ per se. They enforce game rules and assist the questions and complaints of the players. In Age of Conan, GMs, when they do rarely appear in game, appear as large characters with the Funcom logo on their capes. Most GM interaction is done through the chat window and the petition system.
Godslayer Mode – Another name for Hard Modes in Khitai group dungeons (instances). This kind of HM is triggered by s specific action inside the instance that results in more demanding challenges, but also in higher quality rewards. If too challenging, the Godslayer trigger can be ignored and the zone’s encounter plays as an NM or “Normal Mode”, with easier gameplay but more modest rewards. (See also: Epic, Hard Mode/HM, and Unchained Mode)
Griefer – A player whose actions inflict annoyance and disrupt the play of other players needlessly. (E.g. in PvP, ganking noobs; or in raiding, Ninja-looters)
Guilds – Larger player associations that support members and organize group play.
GTG – “good to go” or “got to go”: contextually determined.
Guard – The neutral (yellow) mobs in cities that control players: in PvP areas guards are meant to discourage ganking and griefing.
Guardian – (aka Guard): The heaviest Soldier class that employs high survivability and high aggro in group encounters.
Gratz / gz – “Congratulations”: entered in chat as to praise a player who has met a goal, levelled, or won a better than average reward.
HM / Hard Mode – Group dungeons (instances) that have a trigger that makes them more challenging to complete, but which improves to overall quality of the end rewards. A hard mode is triggered within the zone; if too challenging, the trigger can be ignored and the zone’s encounter plays an NM or “Normal Mode”. (See also: Epic, Unchained Mode, and Godslayer Mode)
Heal – A spell or ability that restores the target’s health. Sometimes a call for assistance in an encounter
Health – often called “hit points” or “HP” (terms from all MMOs’ venerable tabletop ancestor Dungeons & Dragons) that represent the character’s life numerically. When health reaches zero, the character normally dies.
Herald of Xotli – (aka HoX): A Mage class that employs Fire-magic and transmutation to DPS enemies
Hit Rating - An Age of Conan statistic that is based on your characters' inherent stats and bonuses that determines your chances of delivering damage per second.
House of Crom – A huge encounter zone planned from the game's early development cycle. For many years the zone was unreleased, but in 2011 the zone was complete and unveiled in 2012 as a pair of huge instanced zones: 1) the Vile Nativity, a six-player instance and 2) The Threshold of Divinity a social instance. In these areas epic loot drops, as such were a welcome addition to the game.
IMHO – "In my humble opinion." Also seen as, IMO - "In my opinion"
Immunity Chance - An Age of Conan statistic used to determine the characters chance of resisting being hit by a spell-based attack. This chance can be augmented by items, stances, feats and so forth.
Instance – A specific ‘copy’ of zone such as a dungeon (e.g. Tortage Underhalls or Tortage Night locations); an outdoor area (e.g. Acheronian Ruins or Lachiesh Plains); or a raid area (e.g. Yakhmar’s Cave) that is automatically created on a server for a specific group of players. Server instances allow various groups to play in the same areas in parallel. For example, 12 different instances of Atzel’s Fortress could exist all at the same time, each with a different group playing the same encounter. Likewise some instances are ‘social’ instances, in which several groups or individuals can play simultaneously, compete, or cooperate.
Jade Citadel – The abode of Emperor Yah-Chieng, ruler of Khitai. The location of Age of Conan’s fourth-tier of raiding content
JK / j/k – “Just kidding”
Jump(ing) – Using the spacebar to make the on-screen character jump. Age of Conan generally doesn’t prevent characters from jumping off cliffs or ledges to their death. In PvP, some players use jumping to break animations and attacks, this is often regarded as unskilled or illegitimate play.
K / KK / Kay – “Okay”
Kite – To bait or lure a mob, so that it follows a character to a strategic area; can be used by a Tank so a group can divide and conquer a group of mobs.
Kylikki's Crypt - One of the three first-tier raid zones; it's located in the Field of the Dead.
Latency – Latency the relative time delay between the game client (the part of the game running on the player's PC) and the servers (the part of the game controlled by Funcom’s computers). (See: Lag)
Lag – When latency noticeably impairs gameplay; sometimes Lag is unexpected, momentary and high this is called a “Lag Spike”.
LFG – “Looking for group”
LFM – “Looking for more”: more members are being sought out.
LFT – “Looking for team”
LMAO – “Laughing my arse off”
LOL – “Laugh out loud”
LOM – “Low on Mana.” Mages and Priests may text this to tell group that they are running low on mana, and so healing or offensive buffs may run out soon.
LoS – “Line of sight”: when interaction required an un-obscured view such as with ranged abilities. (e.g. Bows or missiles; but also effects, such as the Conqueror’s in combat-rez).
Loot - Currency or items etc. that come from (‘dropped’) a mob’s loot container when it’s defeated. Some loot is random and others result when a questline is completed.
MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
Mini-Boss – A somewhat infrequent but robust enemy that may have a particular strategy. Mini-Bosses often provide challenge to new players, but are regarded as just a different flavour of mob by experienced ones. (See: Boss or Mob)
Mob - An AI controlled enemy: the main automated adversaries in player-versus-environment content.
Mod – “Modification”: any add-ons by third party programmers designed to supplement the games systems. In Age of Conan, mods are either modules in BeBot chat tool or custom UIs.
Main Tank / MT – 1) The character with high survivability who keeps the enemy’s attention away from weaker classes. Less often, 2) “mis-tell” to send a /tell message to the wrong other player.
Mule – An alternate character that exists mainly to provide extra inventory. (See: Bank / Bank-toon)
Necromancer – A Mage class that can employ groups of summoned undead or AoE spells to damage enemies.
Need/Greed/Pass Roll - an automated aspect of group or raid looting, through which players vie for desired loot once the raid's leader makes it available. Needing, in theory gives players an advantage, so as to generate more favourable rolls; it is implemented to account for classes who raid and who require specific items of loot. Greeding, in theory, is the fair play mechanic, for all rolling-players to get a chance at an item. Passing simply excludes a player from the competition. It is possible for a Greeding player to beat a Needing one. It is considered poor conduct to click need constantly on mundane loot that drops in a group or raid, and in some cases can result in ejection from the party.
Nerf - To reduce the power of an ability, item, player, or action. (See: OP)
Newbie - A new player to an MMORPG
Ninja / Ninja Looting / Ninja-ing – Is the taking loot without the permission of other players. Due to BoP mechanics, it can result in petitioning a GM to undo the offense. Often it is a very frustrating type of griefing, in which the ‘Ninja’ leaves the group without trying to undo the action.
Noob / Newb / Nab / Nub – The pejorative forms of newbie
NP – “No problem”
NPC – Non-player character (i.e. An automated character)
Nuke – A spell or ability that inflicts the highest damage.
Off-Tank / offtank / OT – A character assigned the task of assisting the main tank: a) by swapping aggro or b) by drawing adds away from the main tanks activities. In Age of Conan, the Conqueror was originally intended to be the off-tank class and was initially restricted to heavy armor; but later all soldiers classes were revamped, so main tanking is possible with several classes. (See: Tanking)
OMG – “Oh my god”
OMW – “On my way”
One-Shot – To kill an adversary with one attack. Skilled Rangers or assassins, who deliver a crit, have been known to one-shot very tough mobs.
OOC – “Out-of-character”; used in Role play.
OOM – “out of mana”
OP – “Over powered”: when an item, effect, ability, character, or enemy is not balanced with the typical expectations such that it defeats its enemies too easily. (See: Nerf)
PB – Point blank
PC – Player Character: the player is the real world individual who can have several characters that inhabit the Hyborian Age.
PKer – Player Killer: a player who kills other players; and PK – “Player killing”.
Port or Path – To teleport (v) or a port (n) or a path. An object, scroll, character, or ability, that moves a character to another location.
Power Level(-ling) – A play activity in which a higher level character tries to help a lower level player increase their levels faster. In Age of Conan, the most common form is for a high-level character to group with lower-level ones. Then the higher level player will single-handedly farm high-level enemies near by, while the group members passively acquire very high XP that can increase their levels. The window for this is somewhat restricted and off-line leveling and XP booster potions, are more effective in the long run. Power leveling can result in players who never master all aspects of their character class, and who miss out on enjoyable content.
Priest of Mitra – A Priest class that uses CCs and heals to defeat enemies. It is regarded as the most robust healer class, when appropriately spec’d.
Proc – “Programmed random occurrence”: small cumulative bonuses to damage or other buffs that occurs randomly when an item, spell, or ability is activated.
Protection - An Age of Conan stat that is used to determine the amount of damage that is mitigated from a magical attack: (a character may have differing amounts of protection from holy, unholy, cold, fire, or electrical magic damage).
PuG – "Pick up Group": a group assembled quickly, from the pool of any interested players (in a guild or just in game), to play group content of any size. PuGs are generally fun but can result in Ninja looting.
Pull – An action by which a player attracts a single or a group of enemies, so that the enemies can be fought within a safer area away from other similar enemies, enemy spawn points, bosses, allied players, or from the influence of other adversarial players.
PvE – Player vs. Environment activities. In other words, when game play means interacting with the in-game monsters (mobs) or NPC (as opposed to PvP).
PvP – Player vs. Player activities.
Pwnz – (Plural) Slang for repeated victories over an enemy; (derived words: Pwnage, pawning etc.)
Quest – Missions or tasks (sometimes in chains or trees of tasks) which characters must complete in RPG games. Questing result in XP, loot, or other benefits (e.g. admission to an area that was previously not accessible).
QQ – A text emoticon that represents a pair of eyes weeping: used as an insult towards a player who complains about a game feature or turn of events.
Race – Refers to the playable ethnic origins of a character: Stygian; Aquilonian; Cimmerian; or Khitan are the playable races within Age of Conan. (e.g. in an attempt to re-create the atmosphere of Howard’s source material, Stygians are restricted to the more nefarious magic oriented classes etc. This restriction has had mixed response from the player community.)
Ranger – (aka Rang): A Rogue class that specializes in ranged combat and tracking.
Raid – An instanced PvE encounter requiring about 24 participants in which groups are organized to coordinate to defeat very challenging enemies.
Regen – Short for regeneration of health, mana, etc.
Respec – The action of re-adjusting some characters’ feats, abilities, or base stats to change the style of play. Age of Conan allows characters to have multiple feat trees to permit quick shifts of specs.
Rez or Res – Means resurrection: at the rez pad after death, or in situ, as the result of other players’ (or a player's own) spells/ability; certain potions allow players to self-rez, with varying degrees of heath, mana, etc. restored.
ROFL – “rolling on floor laughing”
Roll – When players employ a simulated dice roll or random number generator system as a fair way to distribute loot.
Root – The result of abilities or spells that hold a target in place for a time.
Server – Due to technical reasons, each server can only support a limited amount of players. Each MMORPG typically has several servers. Players cannot interact with players on other servers though they can usually transfer for a fee.
Shard – Shard of the Exiled God: a very high level crafting resource used to craft the Ibis weapons required for third-tier raids. In other MMO games, the term can sometimes refer to a server (aka realm).
Sieges – A massive PvP option promoted at launch in 2008, as Age of Conan’s end-game content for guilds during the tenure of Gaute Godager, the game’s original Game Director. Sieges have had a mixed history as many players encounter lag making PvP very unsatisfying. Some players and Funcom assert that the use of cheat bots has also impacted siege play. As Age of Conan is moving to a more system’s based content in 2013, this system may be revamped.
Solo – The act of playing alone. Some MMOs cater to this other encourage group play: Age of Conan offers a few soloplay instances and crafting as central activities for solo players.
Spawn – When a character or NPC appears out of nowhere resulting from logging-in, resurrection, teleporting but most often used to describe where and when an NPC appears in a scripted location or pattern.
Spec – Short for specification such as the feat build/specifications of your character in terms of skills/abilities/magic/powers/etc.
Stun – A crowd control ability that immobilizes an enemy and prevents them from attacking. Age of Conan, as it includes character collision mechanics, also allows for momentum stuns.
Swapping Aggro – The tactic of switching a mob's attention back and forth between two tank characters. Each player endures higher damage when they have the aggro, while the other uses the reduction of DPS to re-charge health, mana, or stamina. By swapping aggro, two players can defeat or control an enemy that neither could deal with alone. (See: Tanking and Off Tank)
Tanking / Tank – As a noun, it means a character with high survivability that holds an enemy off the weaker characters: as a verb, it means the tactic of getting and holding aggro on enemies before other team members employ their abilities.
Tarantia - The capital of Aquilonia. In Age of Conan, three main zones and several instances are provided to depict the city: OT, "Old Tarantia"; TC, "Tarantia Commons"; and ND / TND, "Tarantia's Noble District".
TAS – Thoth Amon’s Stronghold : the palace of King Conan’s chief enemy, Thoth Amon, and his followers in Keshatta; it is the location of the third-tier of raid encounters.
Tempest of Set – A Priest class that uses elemental magic for DPS and AoE combat; has healing options but is often the least robust of the healers.
Toon or ‘toon – From ‘cartoon’: another name for a character but which connotes the actual in game avatar which is an controlled CGI ‘cartoon’ image.
Trash / Trash-mob – Automated enemies that must be defeated or avoided before an encounter’s main activity is undertaken (See: Mob)
Twink(ing) – Sending currency or powerful items to a lower level character, called a twink (usually a player's own alt). In Age of Conan, ‘twinked’ characters are often obvious by a preponderance of rare (blue) items or resources.
Unchained Mode – An entry option for encounter zones (group and solo) that offer more challenging play and better rewards. (See also: Hard Mode or Epic)
UO – Ultima Online. One of the first MMORPGs released back in the late 90’s.
UI – “User interface” the on-screen elements like icons or text, that help the player negotiate the in-game world.
Valeria - An affiliate of Conan's, who players meet and receive quests from on Tortage
Vistrix's Lair / the lair - An instance for a first-tier raid; it's located in Atzel's Approach.
WB / wb – “Welcome back”
Wipe – When all the characters in a group or raid to all die. The instance encounter will reset and dead individuals will need to be rezzed on the spot or travel from the nearest pad.
White Hit - Making a basic attack by means of the "1", "2", "3", "Q" or "E" keys only (i.e. not as part of a combo) intended to deliver your basic DPS stat to your opponent.
WOOT – “Yay”.
WTB – “Wishes to buy”
WTS – “Wishes to sell”
Xp – "Experience points"
xD – A text-emoticon that aims to represent eyes closed tightly and a big grin … expresses goofy irony
Xotli – An unsavoury being of immense power and danger from the outer dark whose return is being presumably touted by the Heralds of Xotli.
Yakhmar's Cave - An encounter zone located in the Eiglophian Mountains for first-tier raid loot; it is the most basic raid and a suitable one for new players.
YG – Yellow Gremlin a now defunct online database that helped players track other players, weapon stats, and plan feat trees.
Zerg – A tactic whereby a large group of characters storm a target. Generally lacking in finesse, many encounters are specifically designed to discourage it [The name comes from the classic real-time-strategy game, Starcraft; in which one faction a hive-mind alien horde, the Zerg, defeated enemies by sheer force of numbers].
Zone – An area (huge or small) of the game world that loads and provides a play environments for quests, mini-games, or raids.
AA / Alternate Advancement - It's a system of perks, feats, and abilities introduced with the Godslayer Expansion. Unlike the feats designated through the variable feat tree, players accrue AA experience points to earn AA points which once assigned cannot be removed; players can eventually collect all the AA perks, feats, and abilities. Certain AA abilities are slotted in the AA bar, while other AA perks are passive.
Add(s) – “Additionals”: automated enemies who spawn or activate within an encounter blindly(See: Mob); adds are often designed to complicate the defeat of strategically difficult enemies (See: Boss)
AE or AoE - Area Effect / Area of Effect refers to ‘area of effect’ abilities or spells; actions which affect a defined area rather than specifically target locked individuals enemies. (e.g. Tempest of Set spell “Quicksand”)
AFK – “Away from keyboard”
Aggro – to aggro (v); it refers to a hostile enemy (See: Mob) being affected by a player so as to make it actively chase or attack the player; the aggro (n): it refers to the degree of “hostility” the player has generated on the mob. In Age of Conan, aggro can be generated through an innate amount of hate (a stat) a character has or doing damage on a mob. Classes that have high survivability (soldiers) try to keep enemies occupied, so as to not attack other classes. (Also see: Swapping Aggro)
Alt – “alternate”. It refers to the alternate character a player has from their main character. (See: Twink and Bank)
AO – Anarchy Online: another earlier Funcom MMO.
Archetype – Any of the four main character roles: Soldiers, Mages, Rogues, and Priests. Each archetype is divided into 3 classes.
Armor Rating - An Age of Conan statistic that determines how much physical damage will be mitigated (absorbed) from enemies' successful attacks.
Assassin - (aka Sin): A Rogue class that employs stealth DPS and critical attacks.
Attribute – Basic character stats: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence –, and Wisdom.
Bank / Bank-Toon – A character created to provide extra inventory. (See: Mule)
Bear Shaman – A Priest class that balances melee combos and healing
Barbarian – (aka Barb): A Rogue class that employs DPS and critical attacks.
Bind – 1) With regards to looting, binding means associating an item with a character such that it cannot be sold or sent to another character; this is done to prevent the game world economy from stagnating by ensuring constant demand for new loot (See also: Bind on Equip). 2) For dungeons (encounters), it refers to the location (See: Instance) being associated with a character or group; usually binding is on a cool-down timer after which the encounter re-sets and the character can start it afresh. 3) And with regards to character death, sometimes a character will be forced to re-spawn after death, to a bound resurrection pad (often the closest); some pads must be located before they can will bind.
Bio or Biobreak - a bathroom break
BoE - “bind on equip”: Items that become associated exclusively with the inventory of a character who equips it. If unbound, the item can be traded.
BoP – “bind on pickup”: Items that become associated exclusively with the inventory of a player after it has been looted. Such an item cannot be traded. In raids and group play, BoP items should not be taken (See: Ninja) until all group players agree or until the item has been rolled for and assigned by the automatic looting system (See: Need/Greed/Pass roll).
Bori / Shrines of Bori – A contentious play option introduced for PvP use; many PvP players feel that it is PvE content and shouldn’t yield PvP rewards; while others feel that farming this system allows them for catch-up with advanced PvP characters.
Boss – a significant and challenging enemy that appears at the end of a quest or as part of a instance. (See: Mini-Boss)
BRB – “be right back”
BRC – Black Ring Citadel, the of occult sorcerers and in Keshatta; its three wings are the locations of the second-tier of raid encounters.
Bot – A typically illegitimate unauthorized and discouraged type of play, in which some of a character’s performance is automated to perform repetitious actions, so as to gain experience and level with less user intervention. Games Masters (See: GM) monitor for such dishonesty, and should suspend such players’ accounts. Age of Conan permits guilds to use the chat bot, BeBot, as a guild and raid management tool: BeBot can include scripts to help with encounters that require timed activities (e.g. Killing Yaremka the Soul Eater in Wing 1 of BRC)
BTW – “by the way”
Buff – A temporary effect that’s applied to a character that enhances performance (See: Debuff)
Camp(ing) – The practice of waiting in a location to encounter specific mobs, loot, or other events.
Class – the specific ‘profession’ of your character within the main archetypes. Class determines the choice of feats to which a player will have access.
Combat Rating - An Age of Conan statistic that adds your various bonuses from items, perks, stances, etc. to determine the potential for your damage per second (DPS)
Crafting – A system that allows players to manufacture objects from crafting materials that are dropped as loot or purchased from a vendor.
Crit – To crit (v): dealing a critical hit either with a spell or melee (an attack that does considerably more damage than a normal) ; crits are mitigated by armor to a small degree, but the critigation stat of some items specifically helps against crits.
Critigation – an item stat that improves a character’s ability to mitigate critical hits. It was introduced with the Khitai expansion Rise of the Godslayer.
Crowd Control or CC – Abilities or spells / abilities that temporarily that cause enemies to be stunned, knocked-back, rooted in place, etc. CCs can be the key, strategically, to winning an encounter. Enemies can also use CCs.
Conqueror – (aka Conq): A lighter Soldier class that combines provides buffs and CCs: less focussed on aggro, it usually serves as a versatile off-tank (See: Tanking).
Damage – the number of points removed generally from the enemy’s health (less often from stamina, mana, or energy) that results from a successful attack by spell or melee.
Dark Templar – (aka DT): A heavier Soldier class that employs debuff and stamina drains; very effective as a tank (See: Tanking)
DCd – “Disconnected”: when a player’s PC or internet unexpectedly prevents them from playing; their character may freeze or disappear.
Debuff – A temporary effect that to a character or enemy that impedes performance
Demonologist – (aka Demo): A Mage class that employs summoned demons to assist their combat.
Destiny Quest – A long series of quests that players must complete as they level-up; the quests are initiated by Kalanthes, the Priest of Ibis who meets players on at the opening scene. Some quests aspects are determined by archetype and each race has a different seer who also helps direct portions of the quests. (E.g. for players to get quests from Conan himself, the Mark of Acheron tattoo that all characters have from the outset, must be eliminated by finding Crom’s Rock area: it's part of the "Phoenix of the East" destiny quest).
DKP – “Dragon kill points” an elaborate scoring system used in some guilds to distribute loot based on contribution to the guild or within a given raid.
DoT – “Damage over time”: class of effect that deals damage over a time period. Though the DPS may be low, the cumulative effect can be higher over their duration.
DPS – “Damage per second”: 1) the amount of damage done in one second; DPS used casually to indicate the typical damage of an item or by players to determine effective their actions are in play. Some classes are intended to be spec’d for heavy DPS (Eg. Necromancer) and are thus crucial to ‘burning down’ enemies; likewise some enemies are designed to become more hazardous if the DPS rate is too high. 2) DPS is an Age of Conan basic statistic that is the sum of the equipped melee or ranged weapons' item-DPS (shown in the item's tool-tip window) and the Combat Rating (seen by mousing over 'DPS' in the "Attributes Window" in the "General Tab").
Epic(s) – 1) Very high level items that are difficult to acquire (aka ‘purples’ due to the colour of the font in their descriptions window) 2) Game zones that have more changing enemies and in which better loot drops; players usually select “epic” before they enter the zone.
Encounter – An automated set of events and calculations that unfolds as combat in a computer RPG. Sometimes encounters are complex and require strategy and coordination; while in its simplest an encounter is the act of fighting a single enemy.
Experience – A system of points accrued by completing tasks/quests, killing enemies, or crafting. Advancement in levels or abilities is usually associated with this system.
Evade - A tactic that can occasionally result in lessening or avoiding damage in melee combat; double-tapping to move out of range can improved the odds of this beyond the normal Evade Rating.
Evade Rating - In Age of Conan, a character has a basic chance to avoid a strike or hit from a melee attack. This chance can be augmented by items, stances, feats and so forth.
Farm(ing) – Collecting items, money or tokens, by repeatedly playing a quest, instances or killing specific enemies
FTW – “For the win”: a comment that describes an action or effect that ultimately determines a victory. (e.g. Throat slash FTW!) Sometimes sarcastically employed … as is the companion phrase FTL “For the loss”.
Gank – To gank (v): to be overwhelmed and killed by a large group or other powerful enemy (mobs) or by PvP player(s).
GM – “Game Master”: GMs are players-characters in MMORPGs who do not actually ‘play’ per se. They enforce game rules and assist the questions and complaints of the players. In Age of Conan, GMs, when they do rarely appear in game, appear as large characters with the Funcom logo on their capes. Most GM interaction is done through the chat window and the petition system.
Godslayer Mode – Another name for Hard Modes in Khitai group dungeons (instances). This kind of HM is triggered by s specific action inside the instance that results in more demanding challenges, but also in higher quality rewards. If too challenging, the Godslayer trigger can be ignored and the zone’s encounter plays as an NM or “Normal Mode”, with easier gameplay but more modest rewards. (See also: Epic, Hard Mode/HM, and Unchained Mode)
Griefer – A player whose actions inflict annoyance and disrupt the play of other players needlessly. (E.g. in PvP, ganking noobs; or in raiding, Ninja-looters)
Guilds – Larger player associations that support members and organize group play.
GTG – “good to go” or “got to go”: contextually determined.
Guard – The neutral (yellow) mobs in cities that control players: in PvP areas guards are meant to discourage ganking and griefing.
Guardian – (aka Guard): The heaviest Soldier class that employs high survivability and high aggro in group encounters.
Gratz / gz – “Congratulations”: entered in chat as to praise a player who has met a goal, levelled, or won a better than average reward.
HM / Hard Mode – Group dungeons (instances) that have a trigger that makes them more challenging to complete, but which improves to overall quality of the end rewards. A hard mode is triggered within the zone; if too challenging, the trigger can be ignored and the zone’s encounter plays an NM or “Normal Mode”. (See also: Epic, Unchained Mode, and Godslayer Mode)
Heal – A spell or ability that restores the target’s health. Sometimes a call for assistance in an encounter
Health – often called “hit points” or “HP” (terms from all MMOs’ venerable tabletop ancestor Dungeons & Dragons) that represent the character’s life numerically. When health reaches zero, the character normally dies.
Herald of Xotli – (aka HoX): A Mage class that employs Fire-magic and transmutation to DPS enemies
Hit Rating - An Age of Conan statistic that is based on your characters' inherent stats and bonuses that determines your chances of delivering damage per second.
House of Crom – A huge encounter zone planned from the game's early development cycle. For many years the zone was unreleased, but in 2011 the zone was complete and unveiled in 2012 as a pair of huge instanced zones: 1) the Vile Nativity, a six-player instance and 2) The Threshold of Divinity a social instance. In these areas epic loot drops, as such were a welcome addition to the game.
IMHO – "In my humble opinion." Also seen as, IMO - "In my opinion"
Immunity Chance - An Age of Conan statistic used to determine the characters chance of resisting being hit by a spell-based attack. This chance can be augmented by items, stances, feats and so forth.
Instance – A specific ‘copy’ of zone such as a dungeon (e.g. Tortage Underhalls or Tortage Night locations); an outdoor area (e.g. Acheronian Ruins or Lachiesh Plains); or a raid area (e.g. Yakhmar’s Cave) that is automatically created on a server for a specific group of players. Server instances allow various groups to play in the same areas in parallel. For example, 12 different instances of Atzel’s Fortress could exist all at the same time, each with a different group playing the same encounter. Likewise some instances are ‘social’ instances, in which several groups or individuals can play simultaneously, compete, or cooperate.
Jade Citadel – The abode of Emperor Yah-Chieng, ruler of Khitai. The location of Age of Conan’s fourth-tier of raiding content
JK / j/k – “Just kidding”
Jump(ing) – Using the spacebar to make the on-screen character jump. Age of Conan generally doesn’t prevent characters from jumping off cliffs or ledges to their death. In PvP, some players use jumping to break animations and attacks, this is often regarded as unskilled or illegitimate play.
K / KK / Kay – “Okay”
Kite – To bait or lure a mob, so that it follows a character to a strategic area; can be used by a Tank so a group can divide and conquer a group of mobs.
Kylikki's Crypt - One of the three first-tier raid zones; it's located in the Field of the Dead.
Latency – Latency the relative time delay between the game client (the part of the game running on the player's PC) and the servers (the part of the game controlled by Funcom’s computers). (See: Lag)
Lag – When latency noticeably impairs gameplay; sometimes Lag is unexpected, momentary and high this is called a “Lag Spike”.
LFG – “Looking for group”
LFM – “Looking for more”: more members are being sought out.
LFT – “Looking for team”
LMAO – “Laughing my arse off”
LOL – “Laugh out loud”
LOM – “Low on Mana.” Mages and Priests may text this to tell group that they are running low on mana, and so healing or offensive buffs may run out soon.
LoS – “Line of sight”: when interaction required an un-obscured view such as with ranged abilities. (e.g. Bows or missiles; but also effects, such as the Conqueror’s in combat-rez).
Loot - Currency or items etc. that come from (‘dropped’) a mob’s loot container when it’s defeated. Some loot is random and others result when a questline is completed.
MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
Mini-Boss – A somewhat infrequent but robust enemy that may have a particular strategy. Mini-Bosses often provide challenge to new players, but are regarded as just a different flavour of mob by experienced ones. (See: Boss or Mob)
Mob - An AI controlled enemy: the main automated adversaries in player-versus-environment content.
Mod – “Modification”: any add-ons by third party programmers designed to supplement the games systems. In Age of Conan, mods are either modules in BeBot chat tool or custom UIs.
Main Tank / MT – 1) The character with high survivability who keeps the enemy’s attention away from weaker classes. Less often, 2) “mis-tell” to send a /tell message to the wrong other player.
Mule – An alternate character that exists mainly to provide extra inventory. (See: Bank / Bank-toon)
Necromancer – A Mage class that can employ groups of summoned undead or AoE spells to damage enemies.
Need/Greed/Pass Roll - an automated aspect of group or raid looting, through which players vie for desired loot once the raid's leader makes it available. Needing, in theory gives players an advantage, so as to generate more favourable rolls; it is implemented to account for classes who raid and who require specific items of loot. Greeding, in theory, is the fair play mechanic, for all rolling-players to get a chance at an item. Passing simply excludes a player from the competition. It is possible for a Greeding player to beat a Needing one. It is considered poor conduct to click need constantly on mundane loot that drops in a group or raid, and in some cases can result in ejection from the party.
Nerf - To reduce the power of an ability, item, player, or action. (See: OP)
Newbie - A new player to an MMORPG
Ninja / Ninja Looting / Ninja-ing – Is the taking loot without the permission of other players. Due to BoP mechanics, it can result in petitioning a GM to undo the offense. Often it is a very frustrating type of griefing, in which the ‘Ninja’ leaves the group without trying to undo the action.
Noob / Newb / Nab / Nub – The pejorative forms of newbie
NP – “No problem”
NPC – Non-player character (i.e. An automated character)
Nuke – A spell or ability that inflicts the highest damage.
Off-Tank / offtank / OT – A character assigned the task of assisting the main tank: a) by swapping aggro or b) by drawing adds away from the main tanks activities. In Age of Conan, the Conqueror was originally intended to be the off-tank class and was initially restricted to heavy armor; but later all soldiers classes were revamped, so main tanking is possible with several classes. (See: Tanking)
OMG – “Oh my god”
OMW – “On my way”
One-Shot – To kill an adversary with one attack. Skilled Rangers or assassins, who deliver a crit, have been known to one-shot very tough mobs.
OOC – “Out-of-character”; used in Role play.
OOM – “out of mana”
OP – “Over powered”: when an item, effect, ability, character, or enemy is not balanced with the typical expectations such that it defeats its enemies too easily. (See: Nerf)
PB – Point blank
PC – Player Character: the player is the real world individual who can have several characters that inhabit the Hyborian Age.
PKer – Player Killer: a player who kills other players; and PK – “Player killing”.
Port or Path – To teleport (v) or a port (n) or a path. An object, scroll, character, or ability, that moves a character to another location.
Power Level(-ling) – A play activity in which a higher level character tries to help a lower level player increase their levels faster. In Age of Conan, the most common form is for a high-level character to group with lower-level ones. Then the higher level player will single-handedly farm high-level enemies near by, while the group members passively acquire very high XP that can increase their levels. The window for this is somewhat restricted and off-line leveling and XP booster potions, are more effective in the long run. Power leveling can result in players who never master all aspects of their character class, and who miss out on enjoyable content.
Priest of Mitra – A Priest class that uses CCs and heals to defeat enemies. It is regarded as the most robust healer class, when appropriately spec’d.
Proc – “Programmed random occurrence”: small cumulative bonuses to damage or other buffs that occurs randomly when an item, spell, or ability is activated.
Protection - An Age of Conan stat that is used to determine the amount of damage that is mitigated from a magical attack: (a character may have differing amounts of protection from holy, unholy, cold, fire, or electrical magic damage).
PuG – "Pick up Group": a group assembled quickly, from the pool of any interested players (in a guild or just in game), to play group content of any size. PuGs are generally fun but can result in Ninja looting.
Pull – An action by which a player attracts a single or a group of enemies, so that the enemies can be fought within a safer area away from other similar enemies, enemy spawn points, bosses, allied players, or from the influence of other adversarial players.
PvE – Player vs. Environment activities. In other words, when game play means interacting with the in-game monsters (mobs) or NPC (as opposed to PvP).
PvP – Player vs. Player activities.
Pwnz – (Plural) Slang for repeated victories over an enemy; (derived words: Pwnage, pawning etc.)
Quest – Missions or tasks (sometimes in chains or trees of tasks) which characters must complete in RPG games. Questing result in XP, loot, or other benefits (e.g. admission to an area that was previously not accessible).
QQ – A text emoticon that represents a pair of eyes weeping: used as an insult towards a player who complains about a game feature or turn of events.
Race – Refers to the playable ethnic origins of a character: Stygian; Aquilonian; Cimmerian; or Khitan are the playable races within Age of Conan. (e.g. in an attempt to re-create the atmosphere of Howard’s source material, Stygians are restricted to the more nefarious magic oriented classes etc. This restriction has had mixed response from the player community.)
Ranger – (aka Rang): A Rogue class that specializes in ranged combat and tracking.
Raid – An instanced PvE encounter requiring about 24 participants in which groups are organized to coordinate to defeat very challenging enemies.
Regen – Short for regeneration of health, mana, etc.
Respec – The action of re-adjusting some characters’ feats, abilities, or base stats to change the style of play. Age of Conan allows characters to have multiple feat trees to permit quick shifts of specs.
Rez or Res – Means resurrection: at the rez pad after death, or in situ, as the result of other players’ (or a player's own) spells/ability; certain potions allow players to self-rez, with varying degrees of heath, mana, etc. restored.
ROFL – “rolling on floor laughing”
Roll – When players employ a simulated dice roll or random number generator system as a fair way to distribute loot.
Root – The result of abilities or spells that hold a target in place for a time.
Server – Due to technical reasons, each server can only support a limited amount of players. Each MMORPG typically has several servers. Players cannot interact with players on other servers though they can usually transfer for a fee.
Shard – Shard of the Exiled God: a very high level crafting resource used to craft the Ibis weapons required for third-tier raids. In other MMO games, the term can sometimes refer to a server (aka realm).
Sieges – A massive PvP option promoted at launch in 2008, as Age of Conan’s end-game content for guilds during the tenure of Gaute Godager, the game’s original Game Director. Sieges have had a mixed history as many players encounter lag making PvP very unsatisfying. Some players and Funcom assert that the use of cheat bots has also impacted siege play. As Age of Conan is moving to a more system’s based content in 2013, this system may be revamped.
Solo – The act of playing alone. Some MMOs cater to this other encourage group play: Age of Conan offers a few soloplay instances and crafting as central activities for solo players.
Spawn – When a character or NPC appears out of nowhere resulting from logging-in, resurrection, teleporting but most often used to describe where and when an NPC appears in a scripted location or pattern.
Spec – Short for specification such as the feat build/specifications of your character in terms of skills/abilities/magic/powers/etc.
Stun – A crowd control ability that immobilizes an enemy and prevents them from attacking. Age of Conan, as it includes character collision mechanics, also allows for momentum stuns.
Swapping Aggro – The tactic of switching a mob's attention back and forth between two tank characters. Each player endures higher damage when they have the aggro, while the other uses the reduction of DPS to re-charge health, mana, or stamina. By swapping aggro, two players can defeat or control an enemy that neither could deal with alone. (See: Tanking and Off Tank)
Tanking / Tank – As a noun, it means a character with high survivability that holds an enemy off the weaker characters: as a verb, it means the tactic of getting and holding aggro on enemies before other team members employ their abilities.
Tarantia - The capital of Aquilonia. In Age of Conan, three main zones and several instances are provided to depict the city: OT, "Old Tarantia"; TC, "Tarantia Commons"; and ND / TND, "Tarantia's Noble District".
TAS – Thoth Amon’s Stronghold : the palace of King Conan’s chief enemy, Thoth Amon, and his followers in Keshatta; it is the location of the third-tier of raid encounters.
Tempest of Set – A Priest class that uses elemental magic for DPS and AoE combat; has healing options but is often the least robust of the healers.
Toon or ‘toon – From ‘cartoon’: another name for a character but which connotes the actual in game avatar which is an controlled CGI ‘cartoon’ image.
Trash / Trash-mob – Automated enemies that must be defeated or avoided before an encounter’s main activity is undertaken (See: Mob)
Twink(ing) – Sending currency or powerful items to a lower level character, called a twink (usually a player's own alt). In Age of Conan, ‘twinked’ characters are often obvious by a preponderance of rare (blue) items or resources.
Unchained Mode – An entry option for encounter zones (group and solo) that offer more challenging play and better rewards. (See also: Hard Mode or Epic)
UO – Ultima Online. One of the first MMORPGs released back in the late 90’s.
UI – “User interface” the on-screen elements like icons or text, that help the player negotiate the in-game world.
Valeria - An affiliate of Conan's, who players meet and receive quests from on Tortage
Vistrix's Lair / the lair - An instance for a first-tier raid; it's located in Atzel's Approach.
WB / wb – “Welcome back”
Wipe – When all the characters in a group or raid to all die. The instance encounter will reset and dead individuals will need to be rezzed on the spot or travel from the nearest pad.
White Hit - Making a basic attack by means of the "1", "2", "3", "Q" or "E" keys only (i.e. not as part of a combo) intended to deliver your basic DPS stat to your opponent.
WOOT – “Yay”.
WTB – “Wishes to buy”
WTS – “Wishes to sell”
Xp – "Experience points"
xD – A text-emoticon that aims to represent eyes closed tightly and a big grin … expresses goofy irony
Xotli – An unsavoury being of immense power and danger from the outer dark whose return is being presumably touted by the Heralds of Xotli.
Yakhmar's Cave - An encounter zone located in the Eiglophian Mountains for first-tier raid loot; it is the most basic raid and a suitable one for new players.
YG – Yellow Gremlin a now defunct online database that helped players track other players, weapon stats, and plan feat trees.
Zerg – A tactic whereby a large group of characters storm a target. Generally lacking in finesse, many encounters are specifically designed to discourage it [The name comes from the classic real-time-strategy game, Starcraft; in which one faction a hive-mind alien horde, the Zerg, defeated enemies by sheer force of numbers].
Zone – An area (huge or small) of the game world that loads and provides a play environments for quests, mini-games, or raids.
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