Vocabulary

Certain terms used within the Shadowbane community are recognized across the entire MMO genre, but there are many that only exist in the context of this game:

Shadowbane-Only Terms

A

• AB is short for "Aeran Belendor" an endgame Elf-themed macrozone.
• Ambi or Ambidex is a shortening of "ambidextrous", a character that can wield weapons in both hands. All rogues are granted ambidexterity, but other characters may obtain it with a starting trait.
• ARAC is an acronym for all races, all classes. Term is usually used to refer to the opposite of a server using special loreplay rules.
• Aeld is short for Aeldreth, a safe hold city.
• ATR is an acronym for "attack rating", or a creature's success chance when attacking another.

B

• Baked-In are special properties found on pieces of armor regardless of other effects.
• Bash means to deal damage to buildings, mines or other static assets.
• Bird is often used to refer to the Aracoix race.
• BH is an acronym that can stand for one of two discipline runes, usually based on context. Blood Horn is a Minotaur-only rune or Bounty Hunter (most common reference) is a rune that grants the tracking ability.
• Big Bomb is used to refer to the Sentinel's Divine Word of Binding, a massive AoE attack that has a reputation of killing even its caster.
• Bind/Binding is the spot where you are sent upon Recall (see below). You are automatically bound to your guild's city. If a character dies or logs out of the game for 15 minutes, he or she will be sent to the bind point. Players with no guild are sent to Sea Dog's Rest. A player may also choose use an Innkeeper to remain at an Inn while logged out.
• BM is an acronym that can stand for one of three discipline runes, usually based on context. They are Battle Magus, a rune used by spell casters; Black Mask, a rune used by rogues; and Blade Master, a rune used by a specific type of meele weapon fighter.
• Bog is short for The Black Bog, a swamp-themed macrozone.
• Box or Multi-Box refers to using multiple Shadowbane clients to have multiple characters logged in at once.
• BS is an acronym for "backstab", a sneak attack employed by some rogues.
  • BS can also mean bloodstone a resource mine in Pandemonium, and the product of that mine.
• Burnt or burned means wasted. Usually used in reference to a failed summon or failed application of a potion.

C

• Candy is a term used to describe a character created for its flavor or aesthetic as opposed to combat viability.
• Chant is a type of spell that has a continuous effect and usually doesn't expire.
• Chaos Gate is an place in the center of Pandemonium. This is a popular leveling area.
• Chims is short for "chimeras", and refers to the Tainted Glade in the Tainted Swamp. This is a popular leveling and farming area.
• Chucker is a slang term for any character that uses throwing weapons.
• Commy is slang for Commander, a discipline rune.
• CN is an acronym for "Chinese nation" and refers to any of the many pacific rim/Asian guilds that play Shadowbane.
• Conc is short for "concoction potion", an item that can be purchased from an alchemist that provides many standard buffs.
• Cow is often used to refer to the Minotaur race.
• Cup is short for "nut cup". Used as a way to complain that one guild allied with another guild for the short term. People with excessive allies might be derogatively referred to as "nut cuppers".

D

• DA is an acronym for "damage absorber", a buff that increases a character's physical damage resistance, but wares off after preventing a set amount of that damage (e.g. the Wizard's Charm of Protection).
• Deep is a term used to assist friendly characters remove harmful effects by telling them how many debuffs are in front of the effect on the effects bar. This is usually used to deal with the Assassin's Shadow Mantle (e.g. "help, SM 4 deep" tells your Priest to cast their removal spell 4 times, thereby freeing you of the Shadow Mantle).
• Def- is a prefix given to characters that focus on their defense (e.g. Deflock for a defense-based Warlock, or Deflar for a defense-based Templar)
• DS is an acronym for "death shroud" - the temporary effect that is applied after player death.
• Dumpstered is a slang term for "defeated easily", similar to "owned".

E

• Errant is an adjective for a player that has no guild or nation, they are considered Errant, a potential enemy to anyone. The crest symbols will appear gray and the player may suffer 50% of normal experience gain from monsters and no experience gain from other players. Errant characters are not bound to a city and will spawn at Sea Dog's Rest any time they enter the world, recall, or die.
• Errant Guild is a guild that has not yet acquired a city or pledged fealty to a nation is know as an errant guild, their nation crest will appear gray, while their sub-crest will bear their coat of arms. This can also occur if the guild looses their city in a bane, or is kicked out of a nation without a city of there own.
• Ettins is short for "Ettin Village", a place in Tainted Swamp. This is a popular leveling area.
• Evac is short for "evacuate". A player usually says this when they are in danger and need a summons immediately to avoid dying.
• Eyes refers to a number of powers that allow their caster to see invisible creatures (e.g. the Scout's Detect Hidden).

F

• FG is an acronym for "full group". In Shadowbane, a group can have up to 10 players.
• Fort is a shortening of the word "fortitude", a type of buff that limits incoming damage to a specific percentage of the caster's own health (e.g. the Vampire's Dark Fortitude).

G

• Glad is short for Gladiator, a discipline rune.
• GM is an acronym for "grand master". This is used as a verb which means training a power to its maxiumum (40) points.
• Godly is used to refer to the highest tier of stat runes which increases an ability score's maximum by 40 points (e.g. "godly dex")
• Gold or Golding, when used in the context of training, is the act of adding as many trains as possible into a focus skill or to take a stat to the current possible maximum. This is referred to as "golding" because when at maximum trains, the skill or stat amount will display in gold color in your skills or stats window.
• GS is an acronym for "great sword", a two-handed weapon.
• Guards, when used in the context of leveling, refers to the City of Virankhaar in the zone of Kharsoom. This area is a popular leveling spot that features max-level Irekei Guard mobiles. This area offers the fastest leveling for characters level 70 and up, and is thus hotspot for PvP.
• GvG is an acronym for "guild versus guild"

H

• HZ is an acronym for "Hot Zone".

I

• ID is an acronym for "identify". Magic items found on monster corpses require identification to know their magical properties. Identification can be achieved with a spell or a scroll.

J

• Junk is the process of breaking unwanted loot down into gold using an NPC in a player city.
  • Junk is also sometimes used to refer to the act of deleting inventory items to fee up inventory space.

K

• Khan is short for Khan'xhir, a type of Irekei-only fist weapon.
  • Khan can also mean the city of Khan'Ov Srekel, a freehold city mostly used for arena-style PvP.
• KoP is an acronym for King of Pain, an endgame Unarmed Combat weapon.
• KoS is an acronym for "kill on sight", and is used to refer to a building's settings. If a building has been made "KoS" to a player, a guild, or a nation, that building's NPCs will turn them away. If the building is a barracks, its guards will attack anything from the "KoS list".

L

• LFG is an acronym for "looking for guild" or "looking for group", depending on the context.

M

• Meatbane is a term used when someone feels like Shadowbane's balance is tilted towards melee characters (as opposed to spellcasters)
• MoT is an acronym for "Master of Throwing", an item that grants a player the Throwing focus skill.
• Mule a character created specifically to carry excess loot or heavy equipment.

N

• Noob lsle or newb isle refers to Uthgaard, the island-continent where new players begin.
• NSRFS is an acronym for "non-summoner ready for summon". When mobilizing for battle, it is most efficient to gather characters with the summon ability first, since they can in turn use their own summon to bring yet another to the battlefield. This acronym is used to communicate that you are not a summoner, but are none the less waiting on a summon. See also "SRFS".
• NvN is an acronym for "nation versus nation"

O

• Obs is short for "obsidian" usually used to refer to the resource mine in the Plain of Ashes.
• OT is an acronym for "on track", which means that players have been detected nearby. OT is the opposite of TC.

P

• PB is an acronym for "power block", a an ability that blocks a creature's use of powers for a short time.
• PP is an acronym for Phaedra's Prize, a jungle-themed macrozone.
• Prestun is a tactic employed by characters with the stun power, but most-often used by Priests in which they will stun themselves to take advantage of their own stun immunity. After the initial stun effect wares off, the immunity can be refreshed by attempting to stun oneself again and again. This prevents unwanted stuns from enemies.
• Proc stands for "programmed random occurrence", and is usually used in reference to weapon enchantments that endow the chance to randomly affect their target with one of any number of magic effects (e.g. the Assassin's Poison Blade).

R

• R1, R2, etc refers to rank. For example, players are R1 (rank one) when they are level 10 through 19. Rank is usually visible in the selection bar: A Rank 2 creature or object will have two white icons in the selection bar. Most things cap at R7 (rank seven), but rare creatures and buildings can go up to R8.
• RC is an acronym most commonly used for the Rune Caster discipline, but it can also apply to Rat Catcher.
• Recall is a type spell or usable item that sends you back to your bind point (see above).
• RFS is an acronym for "ready for summons".
• RG is an acronym for "Runegate", one of the many points across the map that travelers use to fast-travel.
• RoC is an acronym that stands for "Rise of Chaos", usually to refer to the isle of Maelstrom.
• Rock refers to a "bane circle", an item placed by an attacking force during a bane.

S

• Sab is short for Saboteur, a discipline rune, and also to its Sabotage power.
• Sac is short for "sacrifice", a type of power that transfers the caster's health, mana, or stamina to their target (e.g. the Crusader's Sacrifice).
• SD is an acronym that can refer to Skydancer, an Aracoix-only discipline, or to Sun Dancer, an Irekei-only discipline.
• SM is an acronym for Shadow Mantle, a unique Assassin ability that blocks healing.
• Small Bomb is used to refer to the Sentinel's Righteous Word of Binding, an AoE attack used alongside of their Big Bomb.
• Snare is a type of debuff that reduces a creature's movement speed.
• SoS is an acronym for the Bard ability Song of Spring, a chant that increases fire, lightning, and cold resistance.
  • SoS can also refer to the Wizard ability Sign of Sorthoth, but this is less common.
• SRFS is an acronym for "summoner ready for summon". When mobilizing for battle, it is most efficient to gather characters with the summon ability first, since they can in turn use their own summon to bring yet another to the battlefield. This acronym is used to communicate "if you summon me, I can someone someone else there, too". See also "NSRFS".
• Stack is a combat strategy wherein a group of friendly players gather close together, even on top of one another. This makes targeting difficult for enemies.
• Stance dance is a strategy wherein a player switches between two or three their combat stances during the course of battle.

T

• Tagged, or Tag is a slang verb or noun which means to add someone to a guild or to describe someone's guild crest. E.G. "Please tag me to your guild", or "I like your tags".
• TaN is an acronym for "tough as nails" a starting trait.
• TC is an acronym for "track is clear", usually indicating that there are no enemy players around. TC is the opposite of OT.
• ToL is an acronym for "tree of life", the large tree in the center of most cities. It's also sometimes just called tree.
• ToO is an acronym for "Throne of Oblivion", usually used to refer to the endgame isle of Oblivion.
• TS is an acronym for Tainted Swamp a high-level adventuring zone.
• TTW is short for "Tend the Wounded", a powerful Priest healing power.
• Tunnel is a noun that refers to the loading screen that appears when teleporting or after death. It is called so because it used to display an actual tunnel when these things occurred.

U

• UA is an acronym for "unarmed" which refers to Unarmed Combat.
• UDI stands for "undead isle". This term refers to Vander's Doom, the island containing The Doomplain and Greensward Pyre.

V

• Void is short for Embrace the Void, a Necromancer spell that lowers the cost of all powers.
• Vorg is short for "Vorgrim" and usually refers to any of the Elite Armor rare item sets.
• VotP or VP is an acronym for the Doomsayer ability Vengeance of the Pit, a spell damage buff.

W

• Wark is short for "bulwark" a siege weapon used in banes.
• Wash refers to the Sanctifier ability Sanctifier#Sanctify the Fallen, an power that removes the death shroud effect.
  • Wash can sometimes also refer to the healer ability Succor, which can also remove a death shroud provided the player did not immediately click to respawn.
• Wings refers to the Templar's Wings of the Seraphim transformation power.
• WL, windies, or windlords are all terms for boots enchanted with the "of the Windlords" suffix, which provides a 5% movement speed increase.
• WoO stands for window of opportunity. This refers to the window in which banes or mines can be set to become vulnerable.

Z

• Zone usually refers to a Macrozone, one of the many icons found on the world map where adventure can be found.

MMO Terms

• AoE is an acronym for Area of Effect.
• Buff: an effect placed upon a creature that enhances it in some way. Usually indicated by a green icon on your effects bar.
• Con is short for "constitution", a type of player attribute that affects your maximum health and stamina.
• Debuff is an effect placed upon a creature that diminishes it in some way. Usually indicated by a purple icon on your effects bar.
• Dex is short for "dexterity", a type of player attribute that affects your defense and damage with bows and daggers.
• DoT is an acronym for "Damage Over Time".
• Farm or Farming is the act of killing monsters solely for increasing one's wealth.
• Mob is short for "mobile". This refers to the many monsters and creatures found in the world. For more about how mobs work, see Mob.
• Ninja or ninja'd means to take loot out from under someone against their wishes.
• Int is short for "intelligence", a type of player attribute that affects your spell damage.
• OOM or OOS is an acronym for "I am out of mana" or "I am out of stamina." When a player says this, they usually want you to know why they have suddenly stopped casting spells or running. If your healer is out of mana, then they won't be able to heal you and are asking you to back off or stop pulling mobs.
• Gimp or gimped is a character that has a flaw in its build that is impossible to fix in any way other than creating a new character or expensive refinement. This term is often used as an insult.
• GL or NL are acronyms which stand for guild leader or nation leader.
• Toon is another word for a player character.
• Wipe means that one side of a battle was completely defeated.
• WTB is an acronym for "I want to buy".
• WTS is an acronym for "I want to sell".
• WTT is an acronym for "I want to trade".
• Zerg is a reference to the Starcraft RTS franchise. The Zerg are a race of high-quantity, low-quality troops used to defeat the enemy by swarming. In Shadowbane, bringing multiple guilds, or even what the other side considers too many people is called zerging.

External Links

• For a broader MMO vocabulary reference check out MMO Glossary [1].