Vocabulary

Certain terms used within the Shadowbane community are recognized across the entire MMO genre. For those that aren't, common Shadowbane-only vocabulary words are listed and defined in this article.

Shadowbane-Only Terms

• 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.
• Baked-In are special properties found on pieces of armor regardless of other effects.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Burnt or burned means wasted. Usually used in reference to a failed summon or failed application of a potion.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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".
• 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.
• 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.
• GM is an acronym for "grand master". This is used as a verb which means training a power to its maxiumum (40) points.
• 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"
• HZ is an acronym for "Hot Zone".
• ID is an acronym for "identify". Magic items found on mobile corpses require identification to know their magical properties. Identification can be achieved with a spell or a scroll.
• Khan is short for the city of Khan'Ov Srekel, a freehold city mostly used for arena-style PvP.
• NvN is an acronym for "nation versus nation"
• 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.
• 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.
• Recall is a type spell or usable item that sends you back to your bind point (see above).
• RC is an acronym most commonly used for the Rune Caster discipline, but it can also apply to Rat Catcher.
• RoC is an acronym that stands for "Rise of Chaos", usually to refer to the isle of Maelstrom.
• 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.
• Snare is a type of debuff that reduces a creature's movement speed.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Vorg is short for "Vorgrim" and usually refers to any of the Elite Armor rare item sets.
• 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.
• Zone usually refers to a Macrozone, one of the many icons found on the world map where adventure can be found.

MMO Terms

• Buff: an effect placed upon a creature that enhances it in some way. Usually indicated by a green icon on your effects bar.
• Con: Constitution, a type of player attribute that affects your maximum health and stamina.
• Debuff: an effect placed upon a creature that diminishes it in some way. Usually indicated by a purple icon on your effects bar.
• Dex: Dexterity, a type of player attribute that affects your defense and damage with bows and daggers.
• Farm: Farming is the act of killing mobs 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.
• Int: Intelligence, a type of player attribute that affects your spell damage.
• OOM or OOS: 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: A gimp/gimped character is one that has a flaw in its character 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: Acronyms which stand for guild leader or nation leader.
• Zerg: This is a reference to Starcraft RTS game. 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].