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: 85

Mechanics21

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 →
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 →
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 →

Items16

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 →
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 modes7

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 →
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 →

Classes5

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 →
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 →
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 →

Systems15

ascended: The top stat tier, unchanged for over a decade. Needed for infusion slots in fractals and little else. 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 →
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 →
Legendary Armory: Makes one legendary item available to every character on the account at the same time, rather than passing it around. 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
waypoint · also: vista, point of interest: Map markers that count toward completion. Waypoints teleport, vistas are small climbing puzzles. 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 →