Alt – secondary characters you play.

Artifact – In the Legion expansion of WoW, the concept of ‘artifact traits’ was introduced. Each player had an ‘artifact weapon’, and doing quests or killing enemies allowed players to level up their artifact. The higher the artifact level, the stronger the player is. As there was usually no maximum reachable level, this meant that players who spent more time gaining experience would become stronger, possibly overtaking players who were skilled, but had less time.

Consumables – Potions, flasks, feasts, runes, etc.: items in game that are used to enhance a person’s abilities, with each usage ‘consuming’ the item. It is advisable to buy a large amount of these items (with in-game gold) to optimize performance.

Cooldown – abilities that players use that can only be used after a specific ‘cooldown time’. You can have offensive ones (to help you do a larger amount of damage within a short time frame); or defensive ones (to minimize the damage you take within a short time frame); or healing ones (to do a large amount of healing within a short time frame).

Discord – a voice communication software that also incorporates chatrooms similar to what is available on facebook messenger, whatsapp, skype, etc. It is what most WoW gamers use for their communication.

Dps – 1) a role within a group where the job is to do damage. 2) the amount of damage done per second.

Farm Boss – A boss within a raid that has already been killed by the team. Since the bosses reset back to life every week, the farm boss can be killed on a weekly basis to get more loot (gear) for the raiders.

Gear – (n) the equipment you use. (v) the act of getting gear.

Geared – (adj) having a lot of good gear.

Guild – the official group that people’s characters can be affiliated with. Sort of the companies within the game, usually where guild members will share common goals within the game.

Guildie – guild member.

Heal – a role within a group where the job is to heal the other members.

ilvl – Gear within the game are assigned a number to show how strong it is. Higher ilvl gear can be gotten only from more difficult content, and the higher ilvl your overall gear is, the stronger your performance will be.

irl – In real life. A term used by gamers to refer to the world outside of gaming.

Main – the main character you play, usually the most geared and most capable at the time.

Mechanics – specific abilities that bosses do on a specific timeline, that normally require players to change how they do things.

Noob – a player who is clueless because they are new.

One Shot – 1) the act of killing an enemy with only one spell usage. 2) the act of killing a boss with no wipes.

Party – a group of 5 people playing together.

Progression – A phase in raiding when a particular boss (or bosses) have not yet been killed by the raid team. The time spent in raiding is focused on practicing the as yet unkilled-boss, often involving hours upon hours of practice.

PTR- Public Test Realms, a sort of ‘beta testing’ environment Blizzard creates for anyone to join. Raiding guilds use this opportunity to get a glimpse of upcoming raid bosses.

Pug – 1) a raid group consisting of random people who get together to raid for some time, then separate likely to never see each other again. 2) a raider in a Pug group.

PvE – player versus environment, where the player kills non-playing components (bosses, mobs, etc.).

PvP – player versus player, where players try to kill other players.

Raid – 1)a large group of ten to thirty coordinated players defeating bosses with specific mechanics. 2) all the bosses in a particular area that requires such a large group to defeat.

Raid Tier – Every few months or so, the company that makes WoW creates a new raid. Each raid is usually its own raid tier, and starting from its release until the next raid tier is the time for WoW guilds to race each other to see how quickly each guild can finish killing all the bosses.

Rotation – The order in which people use their spells in WoW. Doing one’s rotation well is key to performing well in the game.

Server/Realm – The millions of players on WoW cannot all be playing through one server. As such, there are a couple hundred servers (also called realms, each with their own name). Some content can be done cross-server, but joining guilds and raiding at the highest difficulty level cannot. One must transfer servers (there is a service fee to do this) to raid with a high end guild.

Tank – a role within a group where the job is to have strong defensives to stay alive, while keeping the boss focused on you.

Toon – a specific character that players have.

Wipe – when the entire group dies.