PBAoE - Point Blank Area of Effect. This is an effect (often damage, but it could be a buffor debuff) that originates wherever the caster is standing and radiates outward from that spot.
Pulling - The act of attracking or aggroing a specific mob and causing it to leave its current location and run to a more convenient or practical location. The main reason for pulling a mob away from its location is to avoid "aggroing" additional mobs you do not want to fight yet.
Raid - A shorter term for a raid dungeon, or sometimes a term for the raid group itself.
Raid Boss - A major boss mob that is located within a raid dungeon.
Raid Dungeon / Raid Instance - An instanced dungeon or zone that is designed for the purpose of raiding.
Raid Group - The players who make up the multiple parties/groups that together are taking on a raid dungeon.
Raiding - A type of game content that requires multiple parties or groups of players. Raiding generally requires 10, 25, 40, 50, or 100 players (sometimes a few less if the players are highly skilled or extremely well geared). The cynical definition would be that raiding is a process that generally involves entering a raid dungeon, spending 10-20 minutes buffing, clearing an hour of trash, killing a boss, and then arguing over loot for 30 minutes. This process is repeated until the dungeon is completed, people are too tired to continue for the night, or the guild is disbanded from excessive drama, loot debates, and other arguments. The less cynical definition is that raiding involves enormous amounts of planning, coordination, and teamwork to accomplish shared goals against end game content.
Resistance - Resistance generally refers to the ability to reduce the amount of incoming damage of a certain type. MMOs typically make use of resistances on a percentage based scale. For example, if you have 10% fire resistance and you are hit with a 100 damage fire spell, you would take 90 damage.
Respawn - This word was originally an FPS term but it has made its way into MMOs. Permanent death systems are exceptionally rare in MMOs. Usually when you die you are given the option to re-appear at some location - either a nearby graveyard, a bind point, or some other spawn point. Dying and respawning usually carries some kind of penalty - lost experience, lost levels, damage to gear, etc.
Resurrect - Resurrection is the ability of some players to bring a fallen player back to life. This is generally done so they do not have to respawn to some location far away. Sometimes resurrection carries a lighter penalty than if you respawn.
Taunt - This generally refers to an ability (usually possessed by tanks) that allows one player to immediately can aggro or the attention of an opponent mob/npc/boss. Most taunt abilities are "snap aggro" which means you can use them to immediately get the focus or attention of an opponent.
XP - SEE: Experience points
The MMO Gaming Dictionary is a work in constant progress. We invite all of our readers to visit the blog post connected to this project and suggest other terms that should be included. Please visit the MMO Gaming Dictionary blog post.
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