Glossary

Every term this site highlights, in one place. Colour tells you what kind of thing it is: a mechanic, a currency, an item, a place, a mode, a class or a system. Inside an article the first mention of each term is marked the same way.

Terms: 114

Mechanics23

adrenaline · also: burst skill: The warrior resource. It builds while you attack and is spent on a burst skill, which changes with the weapon. Read more →
Aegis: Blocks the next incoming hit outright. The guardian hands it out better than anyone. Read more →
Agony · also: Agony Resistance: Fractal-only damage that ignores armour, from scale 20 up. Only Agony Resistance from infusions reduces it. Read more →
Alacrity: Shortens skill recharges. Group content looks for whoever can supply this and Quickness together. Read more →
attunement: The elementalist swap between fire, water, air and earth. Each one replaces all five weapon skills. Read more →
boon: A positive effect above your health bar. Twelve exist; some stack in duration, Might and Stability in intensity. Read more →
condition: A negative effect. Damaging ones stack in intensity; control ones stack in duration and get in the way instead. Read more →
dodge · also: endurance: The roll that spends endurance and makes you untouchable for its duration. Survival here rests on it far more than on armour class. Read more →
downed state · also: downed: Dropping to your knees with four last-ditch skills instead of dying. Any passing stranger can pick you up. Read more →
fishing: End of Dragons minigame. A red hook means the water outranks your fishing power, which bait and lures fix for a few silver. Read more →
hero point · also: hero challenge: Currency for unlocking skills and traits. 398 fully opens a core class, 250 more per elite specialisation. Read more →
initiative: The thief resource that replaces weapon cooldowns entirely. One shared pool, spent per strike, refilled slowly. Read more →
jumping puzzle: A hidden climbing route with a chest at the top. Daily per account, mounts disabled inside, and the one place the game stops helping you. Read more →
life force · also: Death Shroud: The necromancer resource absorbed from nearby deaths. Inside Shroud it works as a second health bar. Read more →
mastery · also: Mastery Insight, mastery point: Account-wide progression that replaces levels after 80. Its points are locked to the region they came from. Read more →
Might: The damage boon. Stacks in intensity to 25, which is why groups chase it above every other buff. Read more →
phantasm · also: clone: A mesmer illusion that lands one special attack and then becomes a clone. Clones only auto-attack. Read more →
Quickness: Speeds up the actions themselves. Constantly confused with Alacrity, which shortens recharges instead. Read more →
shatter · also: Mind Wrack: Destroying your own illusions for an effect: damage, confusion, a stun or invulnerability. Read more →
Shroud: The necromancer form that spends life force instead of health and swaps in its own set of skills. Read more →
Stability: Blocks knockdowns, pulls, stuns and fear. Stacks in intensity, and each control effect eats one stack. Read more →
tool belt: The engineer mechanic: every utility skill you slot grants a second skill on the belt above your bar. Read more →
Virtues: The three guardian passives. Pressed, each hands its effect to the group and switches its own passive off for the cooldown. Read more →

Currencies9

Astral Acclaim: The Wizard’s Vault currency. Capped at 1,300, so it has to be spent rather than saved. Read more →
Badges of Honor · also: Skirmish Claim Tickets: WvW currencies. Badges drop in combat; tickets come from the passive reward track and feed legendary gear. Read more →
Fractal Relics: 5 to 19 per fractal run depending on scale. Spent in the Mistlock Observatory on infusions and gear. Read more →
gems: Premium currency, bought with money or exchanged for gold. Buys cosmetics and convenience, never power. Read more →
karma: Account-wide currency from events and hearts. Buys recipes and gear that gold cannot. Read more →
Legendary Insights: Raid currency. Without it there is no legendary PvE armour, which is the long reason people raid at all. Read more →
Spirit Shards: What surplus experience turns into once your masteries are done. Feeds the Mystic Forge and legendary vendors. Read more →
Trade Contracts: Crystal Desert currency from renown hearts. Pays for the Path of Fire mounts. Read more →
Unbound Magic · also: Volatile Magic: Living World map currencies. Spent with local vendors on material bags, and worthless anywhere else. Read more →

Items18

Copper Ore · also: Mithril Ore, Orichalcum Ore: Basic mining output. Worth more on the trading post than at a vendor, because everyone who crafts needs it. Read more →; Copper Ore32 Mithril Ore44 Orichalcum Ore162
Elder Wood Log · also: Green Wood Log: Logging output, in constant demand from every crafting discipline that touches wood. Read more →; Elder Wood Log29 Green Wood Log17
Gift of Exploration: Two per world completion, per character. A first-generation legendary needs exactly two, and they cannot be traded. Read more →
Glob of Ectoplasm · also: Ectoplasm, ecto: Salvaged from level 68+ rares. The second unofficial currency, and the reason to think before salvaging a yellow. Read more →; Glob of Ectoplasm3185
infusion: Slots into ascended gear and carries Agony Resistance. The whole reason fractals push you toward ascended. Read more →
legendary armour: Four routes, four calendars: open world, raids, PvP or WvW. Identical stats to ascended; what it buys is never thinking about gear again. Read more →
legendary trinket: Nine of them, each tied to a game mode. Ascended stats plus free stat swapping and a slot in the Armory, and cheaper in time than a weapon. Read more →
Mystic Clover · also: Obsidian Shard: Required by every legendary, made in the forge at roughly a 31% success rate, and never sold on the trading post. Read more →
Mystic Coin: Daily-reward item that behaves as the currency of the upper market. Legendaries eat them by the stack. Read more →; Mystic Coin20997
precursor: The weapon a legendary is built from. Usually the largest single line in the budget. Read more →
relic: Its own equipment slot since 2023, holding effects that used to sit in the sixth rune bonus. Read more →
rune: Armour upgrade. Six identical ones give six tiers of bonus; one stray rune costs you a whole tier. Read more →
salvage kit · also: Copper-Fed, Black Lion Salvage Kit: Breaks items into materials. Two numbers matter: rarer materials, and the chance of recovering the upgrade. Read more →
sigil: Weapon upgrade, two active at a time. Identical sigils share cooldowns across both weapon sets. Read more →
Silk Scrap · also: Jute Scrap: Cloth from salvaging armour. The reason a cheap green is worth breaking rather than vendoring. Read more →; Silk Scrap12 Jute Scrap18
T6 materials · also: Vial of Powerful Blood, Ancient Bone, Elaborate Totem, Powerful Venom Sac, Armored Scale, Pile of Crystalline Dust: The six top-tier trophy materials. Legendaries eat them by the stack, and their prices move together. Read more →; Vial of Powerful Blood2554 Ancient Bone2797 Elaborate Totem2257 Powerful Venom Sac2389 Armored Scale2511 Pile of Crystalline Dust1813
Thick Leather Section · also: Rawhide Leather Section: Leather from salvage. Historically the tightest of the basic materials, which keeps its price interesting. Read more →; Thick Leather Section70 Rawhide Leather Section10
Tome of Knowledge: One instant level. Worth far more after 80, where it becomes mastery progress instead. Read more →

Mounts7

glider · also: gliding: The Heart of Thorns mastery that turns every ledge into a route. Works across the whole world, not only the jungle. Read more →
griffon: 250 gold and no time gate. Not flight but controlled falling: dive, gain speed, trade it back for height. Read more →
raptor · also: springer, skimmer, jackal: The four Path of Fire mounts. The raptor arrives free with the story; the rest cost Trade Contracts and a little gold. Read more →
roller beetle: The fastest thing in the game on flat ground, and it costs no gold at all. Three collections and an evening or two. Read more →
siege turtle · also: Turtle Egg: Two seats and cannons. The hard part is the egg: the Dragon’s End meta, or 200 Writs to skip it. Read more →
skyscale: Hovers and climbs sheer walls. 15 gold and an evening through Secrets of the Obscure, or a three-day time gate the old way. Read more →
warclaw: Free now: one World Ability Point in WvW, or the Janthir Wilds story for the PvE version. Old guides still say 8 gold. Read more →

Places5

Destiny’s Edge · also: Claw Island: The famous group of heroes that fell apart before the game begins. Story mode dungeons are about putting them back together. Read more →
guild hall: A guild’s own claimable space, with workshops, vendors and portals inside. Read more →
home instance: Your private area in your race’s capital. Nodes placed there belong to the account and pay out once a day. Read more →
Lion’s Arch: The neutral hub city. Holds the best-known Mystic Forge, the fractal gate and every crafting station.
Mystic Forge: Takes four items of one rarity and returns one. A gold sink with a 20% upgrade chance, and the only road to a legendary. Read more →

Game modes8

fractal · also: Fractals of the Mists: Short five-player dungeons across 100 difficulty scales. The reason ascended gear exists for most players. Read more →
Living World: Story seasons between expansions. Episodes unlocked free only while they were current, which is why players own different amounts of story. Read more →
meta event · also: meta: A long multi-stage event on one map, on its own timer. Bigger than a world boss and failable. Read more →
PvP · also: structured pvp: Five against five, first to 500 points. Gear is normalised, so nothing you own follows you in and a loss is entirely yours. Read more →
raid · also: wing: Ten players across wings of several bosses. Rewards reset weekly, and Quickplay now opens them without an expansion. Read more →
strike mission · also: strike: One boss, ten players, no scheduling. The intended door into group content, and some of them outclass raids. Read more →
world boss: An open-world boss on a global two-hour rotation. Group content that needs no group at all. Read more →
WvW · also: World versus World: Three teams fighting over territory on five maps, around the clock. Your level is raised to 80; your gear stats are not. Read more →

Classes10

elementalist: Four elements on one weapon and the smallest health pool in the game. Leaving an attunement puts it on ten seconds, which is why the class never stands still. Read more →
elite specialisation · also: elite spec: An expansion upgrade that adds a weapon and skills and usually rewrites the class mechanic. 250 hero points each. Read more →
engineer: Six buttons where everyone else has three. Every utility skill grants a second one on the tool belt, and the two recharge separately. Read more →
guardian · also: Firebrand, Dragonhunter, Willbender: Heavy armour, thin health, three Virtues. The most wanted support in group content. Read more →
mesmer · also: Chronomancer, Mirage, Virtuoso: Illusions, shatters and portals. The least obvious class in the game and the only one that can move a group through a wall. Read more →
necromancer · also: Reaper, Scourge, Harbinger: Light armour with the highest scholar health and a second bar in Shroud. The most forgiving class for a newcomer. Read more →
ranger: Medium armour with a pet that fights beside you. Four pet slots, one active, swapped mid-fight. The most comfortable class to play alone. Read more →
revenant · also: Herald, legend, upkeep: Heavy armour, channelled legends instead of chosen skills, and energy with upkeep. The one class a free account cannot roll. Read more →
thief: No cooldowns at all. Weapon skills cost initiative, twelve of it, refilling one a second, and running dry is entirely your own doing. Read more →
warrior: Heavy armour, the largest health pool in the game and adrenaline spent on one heavy button. The clearest mechanic of the nine. Read more →

Systems34

achievement points · also: AP: A chest at 100, then every 500, and a title every 5,000. The one number on your account that only ever goes up. Read more →
ascended: The top stat tier, unchanged for over a decade. Needed for infusion slots in fractals and little else. Read more →
build template: Three free tabs per character for traits and skills, two more for gear. Switching is out of combat, and the game remembers one per game mode. Read more →
buy order · also: sell listing: A standing offer to buy at your price. Costs nothing extra and is refunded in full if you cancel it. Read more →
commander: The coloured tag on your map. 300 gold and 250 Badges of Honor, a squad of fifty, and no reward whatsoever for the person leading it. Read more →
crafting discipline · also: crafting: Nine of them, two active at once. Jeweler and Scribe stop at 400, the rest at 500, and returning to a maxed one costs fifty silver. Read more →
Dragon Bash: June in Hoelbrak. Holograms, piñatas and a moa you bet on rather than ride. The lowest barrier of the six festivals. Read more →
dynamic event: The orange circles. They start on their own, chain into each other when failed, and pay everyone who contributed. Read more →
exotic: The orange rarity tier. Around 5% below ascended and enough for the open world, story, strikes and WvW. Read more →
festival: Six of them across the year, covering roughly half of it. Rewards carry over between years, so nothing you miss is lost for good. Read more →
Festival of the Four Winds: Late summer. Labyrinthine Cliffs, the Queen’s Gauntlet and Boss Blitz. The one festival built entirely around movement. Read more →
Icebrood Saga: The fifth season, and the one that introduced strike missions as the step between open world and raids. Read more →
jade bot: Cantha companion with three module slots. Tier 6 core unlocks the third, and Rescue Protocol picks you up when you go down. Read more →
Legendary Armory: Makes one legendary item available to every character on the account at the same time, rather than passing it around. Read more →
Living World Season 1 · also: Season 1, Scarlet’s War: The season that ran live in 2013 and then did not exist for eight years. Rebuilt as instances in 2022 and free for everybody. Read more →
Living World Season 2 · also: Season 2: Eight episodes, two maps, and the reveal about the sylvari that makes the whole of Heart of Thorns make sense. Read more →
Living World Season 3 · also: Season 3: Six episodes, six maps, six separate currencies. The bridge from Heart of Thorns to Path of Fire, and the season that aged best. Read more →
Living World Season 4 · also: Season 4: Six maps on one currency, and the home of two mounts: the roller beetle in episode three and the skyscale at the end. Read more →
Lunar New Year: The Crown Pavilion in late winter. Dragon Ball, firecrackers, and Lucky Envelopes bought against a daily limit rather than farmed. Read more →
material storage · also: Deposit All Materials: A free 250-per-type warehouse, fillable from anywhere. Crafting draws from it last, after your bags and bank. Read more →
order · also: Durmand Priory, Order of Whispers, Vigil: One of the three factions you join for good at level 30. It carries the whole middle act of the story. Read more →
personal story: Your own quest line, opening every ten levels from 10 to 80. Easy to miss: it never nags, it just sits in the journal. Read more →
prefix · also: Berserker, Viper, Celestial, Marauder: The attribute set on a piece of gear. One major attribute in large numbers plus one to three minor ones. Read more →
race: Five of them, each with a capital and a starting zone. Racial skills are weak and banned in PvP, so the choice costs you nothing. Read more →
renown heart · also: heart: A map area with an NPC problem. Anything useful you do inside fills it, and no quest is taken or handed in. Read more →
Shadow of the Mad King · also: halloween: Three weeks of October. The Labyrinth, Ascent to Madness, and a clock tower that refuses to scale down for anybody. Read more →
soulbound · also: account bound: Bound to one character, or to the account. Soulbound items go into the bank and only their owner takes them out. Read more →
Super Adventure Box · also: SAB: An 8-bit platformer inside the MMO, born as an April Fools joke in 2013 and kept ever since. April only. Read more →
trading post · also: Black Lion Trading Company: The player market. Takes 5% when you list and 10% when you sell, so break-even is +17.6%, not +15%. Read more →
Transmutation Charge · also: transmutation: Spent to put one item’s look onto another. Legendary gear changes appearance without them. Read more →
wardrobe: Skins unlock once and stay unlocked for the whole account. The expensive end of this economy is cosmetic, and the order book proves it. Read more →
waypoint · also: vista, point of interest: Map markers that count toward completion. Waypoints teleport, vistas are small climbing puzzles. Read more →
Wintersday: Divinity’s Reach in December. Bell Choir, Toypocalypse, snowball fights, and the only festival that needs other people in the room. Read more →
Wizard’s Vault: Daily and weekly objectives paying Astral Acclaim. Six of eight weeklies is the whole target; the other two are optional. Read more →