==============================================================================
Table of Contents:
==============================================================================
Guild Wars made it premiere launch starting on April 24, 2005 in the US. Guild
Wars started a new revolutionary take on how PvP would be played. Unlike
Diablo and its predecessors and successors, Guild Wars forces you to use
skill, which many games don't require. Sure, anyone in Diablo 2 can make a
Barbarian with a Botd Berserker Axe and make a Whirlwind PvP character to go
kill everyone. Guild Wars only allows you to use eight skill slots for battles
and you have to plan very carefully on what to take and what not to take.
After playing Guild Wars since the beta, I noticed that I have never created
some form of an FAQ for it. I've been so busy with Guild Wars that I haven't
created any FAQ for it, which is odd.
Anyways, this is my Terminology Guide, and probably not the first guide I
would be making for Guild Wars. I love the game itself, even though the people
in the atmosphere can be slightly irritating. This Terminology Guide will go
over basic terms, abbreviations or slang in the game that people used over
time.
==============================================================================
2. Updates Information [GWTG.02.01]
==============================================================================
Updates go from top to bottom, newer updates appear at the bottom.
10.12.05 - First version of this guide.
- Will be adding new terms to the guide gradually over time.
01.07.06 - Happy new year everyone!
- Look for my Warrior guide coming soon!
- Added terms: Bonder, FoW Chest Farming, FotM, IDS, LFG, LFR,
Orders, Oro Farming, Res, SB, SS Nec, SS/SV Nec,
Terror Shield, ToA.
==============================================================================
3. The Terms, An Introduction [GWTG.03.01]
==============================================================================
Face it, we were all new players to Guild Wars in some point of the game. I
always like to help out new people with build and such, but most of the time
they will ask on what a certain abbreviation means or what a certain slang
term in the game means. Even though you do answer it, there will always be
more people who will ask the same question, over and over and over...
As always, the people who ask these questions will more often get ridiculed by
more ignorant elite players. Usually the elite players will say "LOL, WOW U
N00B, HAHA STUPIDASS U DONT KNOW WAT THAT MEANS" and that. If the new player
gets agitated enough, a flame war will ensue, and pretty soon the whole
distrct will join in on the flame war, taking sides.
This is where this guide comes into hand. I will go in depth and explain what
each term and abbreviation means in the game. This guide will hopefully clear
up some confusion on terms and such, and turn new players into the elite
players that are still in the game.
==============================================================================
4. Terms and Common Abbreviations [GWTG.04.01]
==============================================================================
At first, not all terms will be listed, as there's too many for me to even
remember. I will do a small amount each day to prevent my mind from going into
overload and causing my brain to shut down on me.
These terms will all appear in alphabetical order. Lettered terms will appear
first, while numbered terms will appear at the bottom. If you do not see
anything that you needed to know, contact me and I'll be sure to have it in
there for the next version. There will be an example for every definition.
I will put the word in a sentence for you to make it a little easier to
understand.
Very, very late in the game, or in a few of the major cities, people will
sometimes talk about armor that costs quite a bit of money, or known as
15k Armor. 15k Armor is armor that costs 15 Platinum plus some pretty rare
materials to make. 15k Armor is only obtainable in Marhan's Grotto, Granite
Citadel, and the Fissure of Woe (See Fissure Armor). There are four sets of
15k Armor that can be obtained, two are in each town, for all classes.
The only difference that sets apart the 15k Armor and the armor that can be
obtainable at Droknar's Forge is just the looks. Other than looks, all 15k
Armor WILL have the same stats as the Droknar's Forge armor.
Do not be pressured into thinking that 15k Armor is mandatory. 15k Armor is
mainly for the people who have completed the game and need a Money Sink Hole
(See term below).
15k Armor can be also referred to as Ascension Armor, but this term is not
so commonly used.
EXAMPLE: I need a run to Marhan's Grotto for my 15k Armor.
AoE is an abbreviation that means Area of Effect. Area of Effect can be any
spell or ability that causes splash damage to a target, or that will damage
multiple targets at one time. For example, the Elementalist skill, Firestorm
has a large AoE that will damage many enemies in such a short period of time.
AoE players are usually Elementalists or they can also be Rangers with traps
or the Elite Skill, Barrage. Regardless, groups will always welcome any player
that has many AoE's to help dish out damage.
EXAMPLE: My Elementalist's spells have a very large AoE!
Ascension refers to a late part of the game in which you need to complete in
order to progress through the game and storyline (Unless you get ran).
There are four trials to Ascending. You need to complete three missions -
Dunes of Despair, Elona Reach, and Thirsty River. Once you have completed the
three missions, you will then need to kill your Doppleganger, in which more
info can be found in the term below. Once you have done this, you will be
completely ascended and can progress through the storyline normally. Ascension
is technically not easy, but with practice, it becomes easier to do and
understand.
EXAMPLE: I still need to complete Thirsty River for Ascension.
In trading, B/O refers to Buyout, or how much currency players want for their
specific item they are trying to sell. Depending on the stats, the B/O can
either be very low, from 1,000g, or very high, such as 600,000g. You can
always talk the trader into trying to lower the price to make it easier for
you to buy.
EXAMPLE: Selling a Gold Unid Storm Bow (B/O - 100k).
A Bonder is a Protection Monk that specializes in Protection Prayers and
uses Life Bond and Life Barrier to reduce the damage done to party members
to practically nothing. Bonders are very useful in Oro Farming and even
in Tombs with Ranger Spike or Rainbow Spike groups.
C/O stand for Current Offer, or what other players have offered in currency
in exchange for the seller's item. C/O can be very easily increased depending
on how many people want the item. The C/O will usually be very high if the
item being sold is rare and elusive.
EXAMPLE: Selling a Gold Unid Chaos Axe (C/O - 15k)
Citadel is short for the Granite Citadel, which is one of three places in
which 15k Armor can be obtained. The armorer, known as Hagen, will sell two
sets of 15k Armor for each class. Depending on your class, the armor you are
looking for might be at Marhan's Grotto.
The Granite Citadel can be found in the Southern Shiverpeaks. If you go from
Copperhammer Mines and a little west then straight north, you will find the
Granite Citadel. Be prepared for a tough fight once you get near the outpost.
EXAMPLE: The 15k Platemail for Warriors at the Citadel is cool looking.
Dye refers to basically what it says, Dye. Dye can be used to customize your
appearance with different colors, making you look unique with your special
looking armor.
Initially, there are eight colors of Dye. They are:
Red
Blue
Orange
Yellow
Green
Purple
Silver
Black
However, these can be mixed together to form a whole different color. Up to
four different colors of Dye can be mixed to create a new color that you like.
There are thousands of different combinations of Dye you can make to have
that unique color. However, you need the Gold to be able to do this!
All Dye that drops has an exact percent of 12.5 to drop to be a certain color.
Black Dye is the rarest Dye of all and the best looking color. It goes for
around 7 Platinum, or 7,000g! Make sure you use Dye on the final armor you
are going to use, or else it will be a waste for the most part.
If you want to sell your Dye, go to a Dye trader that is located in every
major city. Look at the selling price and subtract 10% off the price. Sell
it for that price to make it sell faster.
A Nuker is defined as an E/Me that invests into Fire Magic and Energy Storage.
Nukers will use heavy-hitting spells, such as Firestorm, Meteor Shower, and
Rodgort's Invocation, and combine these spells with Mesmer skills such as
Arcane Echo and Echo to reuse these skills in rapid succession.
Following the 11.10.05 update, this update made Nukers less useful because of
the fact that monsters now detect and flee from AoE-related spells. Even with
this update, Elementalists are still learning to adapt to these changes.
Ecto refers to the shortened item called the Glob of Ectoplasm. Globs of
Ectoplasm are one of the key ingredients to making Fissure of Woe Armor, the
most expensive and elite armor in the game. Fissure of Woe armor takes a lot
of dedication in order to get, and will usually run you to more than 1.5
Million gold! Globs of Ectoplasm can only be found in the Underworld.
Globs of Ectoplasm can also be used for trading, and are generally used to
add on more gold since players can only hold a maximum of 100,000 gold on
their characters.
EXAMPLE: I need Ecto to complete the materials needed for Fissure armor!
Enchantments are anything that can provide a passive and offensive bonus to
a character(s). These can include: Increased damage, chance to block attacks,
damage reduction by a certain percent, a percentage to heal a target of more
Health, energy management, and a lot more. Unlike their other cousins, the
Stances, these can be stripped by an Enchant Removal of any kind. Once they
get stripped, the Enchantment ends and that ally no longer gets the bonus
from the Enchantment.
Enchantments can either just cost a little Energy to use, or can be maintained
forever until the Enchantment gets stripped by giving up an Energy
Regeneration Pip. The more Enchantments that are maintained from Energy
Pips, the harder it will be to get Energy.
EXAMPLE: Protective Spirit is a very useful Enchantment to reduce damage.
These are anything that will strip, or take away or end, an Enchantment. These
include, but are not limited to: Strip Enchantment, Shatter Enchantment, Rend
Enchantment, and a whole lot more.
EXAMPLE: Poor W/Mo won't know what hit him until I strip his Mending.
An Exploit is defined as a bug or programming error in the game code that
players take advantage of to improve their characters. Exploits can be many
different things. For example, the build that allowed people to solo the
Underworld was an exploit because it was not made to be soloable. Some
exploits can also be server-side, such as people taking advantage of NPC
monsters or traders. Regardless of any exploit, all exploits are frowned
upon by ANet, even though it is their fault.
EXAMPLE: I expolited the Rare Material Trader to get 50 free Obsidian Shards.
Fame is earned by competing and playing in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings.
Fame shows how skillful and experienced you are in PvP. Once you have earned
enough Fame, you will increase your Rank on your whole account. The amount
of Fame earned in Tombs depends on how many battles you are victorious in.
Assuming all your victories are consecuitive, this is how much Fame you will
earn after every consecuitive battle:
One Victory - 1 Fame
Two Victories - 2 Fame
Three Victories - 3 Fame
Four Victories - 4 Fame
Five Victories - 6 Fame
Six Victories - 8 Fame
Seven Victories - 12 Fame
Eight Victories - 16 Fame
Nine Victories - 20 Fame
Ten Victories - 24 Fame
Eleven Victories - 28 Fame
Twelve Victories - 32 Fame
Thirteen Victories - 36 Fame
Farm is the term used to going out into an area that contains high level
monstersand repeatedly killing those same monsters for Gold and item drops.
Farming is usually discouraged by Arena Net because of the fact that it
screws with the economy's prices by either inflating the prices of goods
or deflating the price of goods, depending on the rarity of the items.
EXAMPLE: I love to farm for all kinds of rare items.
Favor refers to your country having the liking of the gods of Tyria. Having
Favor benefits your area in a few ways. First, it allows you to enter places
such as the Underworld or Fissure of Woe. Second, whenever you see a God
statue, you can kneel before it, and an avatar will appear. You can choose
between two benefits that you can buy - Morale Boost and Health Regeneration.
EXAMPLE: We need to kill the Koreans to gain our Favor back!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FA Farming [GWTG.04.18]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FA Farming stands for Final Assault Farming. This type of farming works much
differently than normal farming, but is the same in a lot of ways.
FA Farming is quite simple. In the last quest of Sorrow's Furnace, which is
Final Assault, groups have to use Drarven Powder Kegs to blow open doors to
lead to the final area. While the person is holding the Keg, ALL monsters in
the area will just become concentrated on that one person, leaving the Monks
to just heal and protect that one person only, while the Echo Nukers kill all
the monsters from the back. The person with the Keg will be a Stance Tank to
minimize the damage done to him. The team will go around the whole area,
killing all the bosses for loot. Once the whole area is wiped out and all
the loot is collected, they will go back and repeat the process.
EXAMPLE: Forming group for FA Farming, need one Tank!
Fissure Armor is the most elite armor in the game. Most people who have it are
very rich and use it as a status symbol to tell everyone they have the rarest
armor in the game. Fissure Armor can be found in, you guessed it, the Fissure
of Woe.
Fissure Armor is said to be another kind of 15k Armor. This is true, but
Fissure Armor is quite different from other 15k Armors in its own respect.
Fissure Armor uses very rare materials called Globs of Ectoplasm and
Obsidian Shards. Getting these materials is very time consuming and costs
a huge amount of gold. By today's prices, it costs over 1.5 MILLION gold alone
in Ectoplasm and Shards to craft Fissure Armor.
All characters, except the Warrior, need 105 Globs of Ectoplasm and 105
Obsidian Shards to craft the armor, but the Warrior needs 120 of both if he or
she plans to get the helm. There are special cases, however, that Fissure
Armor does not require Obsidian Shards, and those are for the Necromancer
and Monk tattoos. This cuts the price down significantly, but the price is
still very high.
DO NOT PANIC! Fissure Armor is totally optional, and most players don't even
have it. If you have the time, patience, and money, feel free to get Fissure
Armor. Fissure Armor has the EXACT SAME STATS as the Droknar's Forge armor,
and only differs in looks. Fissure Armor looks "Evil".
EXAMPLE: My Fissure Armor is sexy :D
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forge Run [GWTG.04.20]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forge Run is shortened to mean a Droknar's Forge Run. Basically what this is,
is either one or two level twenty characters, which are usually W/Mo's, run
from Beacon's Perch, all the way through Lornar's Pass, Dreadnaught's Drift,
Snake Dance, and so forth to go to Droknar's Forge. Droknar's Forge is where
the best armor in the game can be found.
Most characters that get run to Droknar's Forge are usually between the levels
of 1-10.
Typical runners will charge only a few Platinum for the run, and may ask you
to pay half at Snake Dance, and the other half at Camp Rankor or Droknar's
Forge. Beware, however, that there are scammers that do tend to prey on the
weaker to steal their gold. Be sure the person who is running you is renown.
EXAMPLE: I need a Forge Run, offering four Platinum!
FotM is short for Flavor of the Month. This relates to whatever build majority
of the region is playing. For example, America's FotM is IWAY. FotM builds
can either be joke builds, or they can be extremely powerful class combos.
FoW stands for Fissure of Woe, a place that can be entered from the Temple of
Ages. The Fissure of Woe is for players that wish to seek easy experience
needed to get skill points, or to have fun in. Regardless, Fissure of Woe
requires that you have a good team before you enter. You can only enter the
Fissure of Woe provided that you are ascended. Nearly all groups will not take
you unless you are Level 20 and have some Elite Skills, because all monsters
in there are Level 24+ and do good amounts of damage.
To enter the Fissure of Woe, your country needs to have Favor. If you do, go
to the Temple of Ages and look for the Champion of Balthazar. Talk to him,
pay him 1,000g, and you will be warped to the Fissure of Woe.
Since there are two areas that can be entered from the Temple of Ages, each
area has its own items that can only be found in that specific place, but it
is a very, very rare occurence that a Underworld drop may actually drop from
a chest in the Fissure of Woe. The Fissure of Woe has these area-only drops:
Obsidian Shards
Chaos Axe
Shadow Shield
Shadow Staff
Shadow Sword (Was removed from earlier Beta testings)
Shadow Bow
Dark Remains
The Fissure of Woe is the only place where you can craft the Fissure armor.
For people looking for Fissure armor, they will go here to craft it.
EXAMPLE: Forming group to go craft Fissure armor in the Fissure of Woe!
A few type of farming that runners have come with. FoW Chest Farming is
the practice of forming a group in the Temple of Ages made up of Rangers
and Warriors who run in the Fissure of Woe in search of chests. Once they
find these chests, they hope for a chest that contains gold item drops.
EXAMPLE: Forming FoW Chest Farming group, Warriors and Rangers only!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Green Farming [GWTG.04.24]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Sorrow's Furnace and Grenth's Footprints update, new bosses that were
introduced in those areas drop new "unique" Green items with max stats. The
practice of repeatedly killing these bosses outside of Grenth's Footprints
and inside Sorrow's Furnace is called Green Farming.
Green Farming consists of a group of five to six players, ranging from two
Monks, three Echo Nukers, and one Stance Tank. The trick here is to have
the bare minimum amount of people to guarantee at least every person gets
a Green drop. These groups will then to kill the most popular bosses that
hold the most popular and wanted Green items. The group will then warp back
to the Deldrimor War Camp, party up again, and then repeat the process.
Griffon Farming is done in the desert, starting from Augury Rock. Basically,
either a W/Mo or a Mo/W goes from Augury Rock outside to the Prophet's Path,
and keeps going west to encounter the Desert Griffons. These characters will
then kill the Griffons, harvest their drops, then warp back to Augury Rock
and repeat the process. After obtaining enough items, the farmers will then
sell off their loot and earn money fast.
Augury Rock can be found in the Crystal Desert, which is a long ways into the
game.
Desert Griffons are said to have good drops, ranging from Gold to Purple to
anything else in-between. This is why Griffon Farming is so popular.
Grotto is short for Marhan's Grotto, which is one of three places in which
15k Armor can be obtained. The armorer, known as Karl, will sell two sets
of 15k Armor for each class. Depending on your class, the armor you are
looking for might be at the Granite Citadel.
Marhan's Grotto can be found in the Southern Shiverpeaks. Go south from
Thunderhead Keep and you will eventually reach your destination.
EXAMPLE: Paying one Platinum to run me to the Grotto!
The latest craze brought by ArenaNet in December 2005. IDS is short for Icy
Dragon Sword. An Icy Dragon Sword is like a Fiery Dragon Sword, the only
differences are that it has a blue flame, black hilt, and deals cold damage.
These elusive swords can be only found in one place in the game. They are
found off the Ice Imps in Lyssa's Cave in Mineral Springs. Lyssa's Cave is on
the east side of Mineral Springs, so if you follow the paths, you'll
eventually reach it. You will face heavy resistance of Avicara if you fight,
so come well-prepared.
EXAMPLE: IDS Farming group forming, invite yourself.
Interrupts are a variety of skills that can Interrupt a character's attack or
skill, and can disable it for a certain amount of seconds also. Interrupts
also go hand in hand with Shutdown skills to render a caster completely
useless. Some Interrupts include, but not limited to: Distracting Shot,
Concussion Shot, Disrupting Chop, Power Spike, and more.
IWAY stand for the Warrior skill, "I Will Avenge You". This is a build,
roughly formed around early September 2005, that everyone uses in the Tomb
of the Primeval Kings. This build is very popular because it virtually
requires no skill to make and use at all.
IWAY build are simple. They are formed with six W/R characters and two Necros
using two spells, Tainted Flesh and Order of the Vampire. IWAY builds use
pets and send them in with bows so the other team attacks them and the pets
die. The W/R's will then rush in, use "I Will Avenge You" to gain tons of
increased attack rate and health regeneration. They then utilize Axe spiking
moves, such as Eviscerate and Executioner's Strike, to do the most damage
as possible in little time to kill off the other team. IWAY builds are not
very known to win the HoH, but rather a "Once every few battles" win group.
EXAMPLE: We need IWAY players to complete our group.
The short way of saying Looking For Group. People will always say this in
an outpost, town, or city when they are looking to join a group that is
doing the same quest as the person spamming LFG is. If you are spamming LFG,
try spamming with the profession that you are currently using.
The short way of saying Looking For Run. When people say this, they are
searching for a runner who can run them to the destination of their choice.
The harder and longer the run, the more expensive it usually is. It is
strongly recommended that if you're just starting the game, that you not
get any runs until you beat the game with at least one character.
EXAMPLE: LFR to Droknar's Forge, paying three platinum.
Minionmancers are Necromancer who specialize in Death Magic to summon the
undead - Bone Horrors, Bone Minons, and Bone Fiends. When summoned, these
will usually be around Level 18-19, and will be the staple damage for the
Necromancer or for the team. Combined with Curses, Necromancers have a big
reputation to kill as fast as an Echo Nuker could. While not so useful in PvP,
they are very much wanted in PvE. Minionmancers are also the bread and butter
for Oro Farming.
Nerf is the term used to describe on the actions taken to a certain area from
people farming it so much, certain skills that are extremely overpowered,
or anything else in-between. Most people in the game, namely farmers and PvP
people get pissed when Arena Net starts to take the Nerf Bat to things in the
game.
Nerf got its original name from the toys, the Nerf toys. It's like comparing
a Nerf Bat to a metallic bat, which one will hit softer? This is the same
thing as nerfing farming. When they nerf farming, they try to make less of
an impact on the rate of Gold Items and Runes drop.
EXAMPLE: It pisses me off that they haven't nerfed IWAY builds yet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order [GWTG.04.35]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Order is short for Order of the Vampire, a Necromancer elite that is widely
used in Tombs battles by IWAY groups and Ranger Spike groups. Order of the
Vampire steals a good deal of health away from a target who was hit by
physical damage. This damage is unreduceable, and is the one source of healing
for IWAY groups.
EXAMPLE: IWAY groups LF Orders.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oro Farming [GWTG.04.36]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oro Farming is the new type of Green Farming that is happening in the old
Deldrimor War Camp. Using this method with the help of a quest NPC called
Orozar Highstone (Hence the name), a team of five players can go out and
kill many different bosses in Sorrow's Furnace in hopes that Green items
will drop. Oro Farming groups are usually composed of a Minionmancer, Prot
Monk, Stance Tank, Healer, and a SS Necro.
Perfect is a term used to describe items that have maxed out stats, upgrades,
or even the requirement. For example, a Sword Pommel of Fortitude has a
Perfect HP value of +30. This can also be used to describe the inherent damage
mod that a Rare item will usually get. For example, a Rare Fellblade may have
a Perfect inherent damage value of +15% Damage While Health is Over 50%.
This value is the maximum damage mod that can exist on a weapon. Others can
include +20% Damage While Health is Below 50%, +15% Damage While Enchanted,
and more.
Plat refers to Platinum, which is equivalent to 1,000g in the world of Guild
Wars. Once you have earned 1,000g, it is automatically converted into one
Platinum. Platinum is the staple currency of Guild Wars to exchange for
goods and services.
Prot is shortened for Protection, so a Prot Monk is logically a Monk that
utilizes and specializes in Protection Prayers. Most Prot Monks will usually
bring the basic essential skills, such as Aegis, Guardian, Shielding Hands,
Protective Spirit, and other low-cost, spammable skills.
For those that don't know, Protection Prayers reduce the damage done to target
allies and even helps in deflecting and blocking some of these attacks.
Protection Monks are highly looked upon because of their ability to prevent
damage and block attacks with their skills. Protection Monks are also very
useful in places like the Underworld where monsters deal way too much damage
for it to be manageable.
EXAMPLE: Looking for a Prot Monk with Aegis for Tombs!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUG [GWTG.04.40]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUG stands for Pick-Up Group. A PUG is basically a group of random people who
most likely never met each other before, and they go off to go quest in the
UW, FoW, or even compete in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings, or they can simply
go questing in PvE in the missions or outposts. PUGs are generally not as
good as Guild groups, but often they get the job done if formed right.
PvE is a widely used term to mean Player versus Environment. PvE is any kind
of player that plays through the storyline missions, killing monsters and
such. You can either have the option once you log in to create a PvE
character, or you can do the advanced option and do PvP. Everyone recommends
that new players play through PvE once with any character to get a feel of
the game itself.
EXAMPLE: What kind of character should I make for PvE?
PvP stands for the advanced option, Player versus Player. You can choose to
make a PvP if you feel the need to compete with other people around the world.
PvP is not recommended for people who have just started Guild Wars.
You can choose on whatever Profession and second Profession you want in the
game. You can make your own character or you can choose one of the templates
Guild Wars has to offer. Once you make your character, Guild Wars gives you
three choices on where to PvP:
Arena
Tournament
Guild
Arena pits you into the Competition Arena in Lion's Arch and is the most basic
of PvP places. Tournament is recommended only for experienced players and
will allow you to win your country's Favor. Guild will allow you to compete in
GvG, or Guild versus Guild Battles.
EXAMPLE: What's the best character to kill people in PvP with?
Ranger Spike is a build that was recently formed in late 2005 that involved
the use of Rangers using Ignite Arrow, Quick Shot, Savage Shot, Dual Shot,
and other quick-firing moves to quickly gain massive damage on one single
target at a time, killing him in only a few seconds, thus getting the "spike"
from the many damage values piled up on the target. Ranger Spike builds
commonly win the Hall of Heroes in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings.
There are very few methods to defend against a Ranger Spike, but come useful
skills are "Shields Up!" from the Warrior skill branch and an Aegis Spam from
the Monk skill branch.
EXAMPLE: Ranger Spikes are very hard builds to counter.
Rank is a number used to determine on how widely known you are in PvP. The
only way to get Rank is to gain Fame, which can be gained from winning battles
in the Tomb of the Primeval Kings. For every certain number of Fame you earn,
you get a Rank. Once you hit Rank 3, you will get a special Emote which makes
you stand out among everyone else. To activate this special Emote, type
/rank or /fame in the dialog box in Guild Wars. You receive a new and better
Emote when you increase every 3 Ranks.
There are more Ranks available to players by getting more Fame, but the
values to get Rank 10+ are unknown.
EXAMPLE: And Hell Followed is now Rank 6!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Res [GWTG.04.45]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Res, along with other forms such as Rez, Rezz, Ress, etc., means Resurrect
for short. When people call this out that are dead, they are asking for
someone in the party to Resurrect them.
SB is the shortened name for Spell Breaker. This is an Elite Skill part
of the Divine Favor category for the Monk. Spell Breaker is an enchantment
that renders all spell casters useless. Whenever you have Spell Breaker and
a monster or player tries to cast a spell on you, that spell will fail and
will not be casted. Spell Breaker is one of the skills that is popular for
dealing with Dying Nightmares in the UW, who will try to strip all the
Enchantments on a 55 Monk by using Rend Enchantments.
EXAMPLE: LF Monk with SB for 2-man UW Farming!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SF [GWTG.04.47]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SF is shortened for the term, Sorrow's Furnace. Sorrow's Furnace was a new
aream added in part of the September 7, 2005. Sorrow's Furnace featured
a lot of new elements to the new area's gameplay, including:
Seventeen new quests, most of them fully repeatable and offering high XP
rewards.
Four new cinematics.
A variety of new monsters, including new Stone Summit Dwarves that are the
strongest in the Shiverpeak Mountains, and entirely new types of creatures
that are being introduced to the game for the first time.
Boss monsters named after the contest winning entries.
Boss monsters in the new Sorrow's Furnace regions drop newly-introduced green
"unique" weapons that are named after the boss.
To reach Sorrow's Furnace, it is highly recommended you go to the Deldrimor
War Camp first. To get to the War Camp, go north from Camp Rankor to about
half way, and you'll see an enterance for Grenth's Footprints. Enter that
and just follow the signs leading to the War Camp.
To get to Sorrow's Furnace from the War Camp, just go dead straight from when
you exit the War Camp and go down the mountain. The enternace will be right
there. Be prepared to encounter resistance!
Shards refer to the shortened term, Obsidian Shards, which is the second key
ingredient in making the Fissure of Woe armor. Although Shards are not as
expensive as Globs of Ectoplasm, they are still in-demand by many Fissure of
Woe armor seekers. Obsidian Shards only drop in the Fissure of Woe, the place
where everyone goes to make the Fissure of Woe armor.
EXAMPLE: I only need 15 Obsidian Shards to complete the Fissure armor set.
Shutdown is a term that describes using a certain amount of skills to render
a caster's skill setup useless to make for an easy kill. For example, the
Mesmer skills Backfire and Migraine can be a caster's worst nightmare and
can shut them down because of the fact that it will take longer to cast
skills, and even if they do get a cast out, they will take heavy damage for
them.
Shutdown characters are usually Me/R or a R/Me. However, shutdown characters
don't just have to use Hexes; they can use Interrupts to shut a caster down
because of the fact that Hexes can be easily removed and shattered.
EXAMPLE: Monks are so useless when you shut them down with Backfire.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SS Nec [GWTG.04.50]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since the AoE nerf that took place on November 10, 2005, people had to cope
and find new ways to replace and deal damage equal to Smiters and Echo
Nukers. People have found a new way: A SS Necro.
SS stands for Spiteful Spirit, an elite Curse for the Necromancer branch. SS
deals damage to any monster and all adjacent monsters if that monster that
was cursed casts a spell, stance, skill, or even attacking. This kills off
many groups of monster quickly and efficiently. SS Necs are very popular
in Oro Farming and 2-man UW farming.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SS/SV Nec [GWTG.04.51]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SS/SV Necromancers are the most popular choice for 2-man Underworld farming.
SS, as said above, stands for Spiteful Spirit, and SV stands for the Mesmer
spell, Sympathetic Visage, which is used for when the 2-man UW party goes
Smite farming.
The purpose of this build is quite simple. The 55 Monk will tank the monsters
in the UW while the Necromancer works his magic with Spiteful Spirit, killing
anything that is stupid enough to attack with the curse on it.
EXAMPLE: Looking for experienced SS/SV Necro for 2-man UW Farming!
Stances are any instant-activation skill that provide a passive bonus for
your character, such as the chance to block attacks, increased attack speed,
increased running speed, increased recharge rate for Adrenaline, and much
more. Some damage mods, such as +15% Damage While in a Stance, -2 Damage While
in a Stance, +45 Health While in a Stance, and more of these make Stances
even better. Stances are also the staple skills for a W/Mo Tank. Unlike
Enchantments, Stances are very hard to remove, and there is only one skill
to remove a Stance that is a Warrior-Only skill: Wild Blow.
EXAMPLE: A Tank that doesn't use Stances is indeed a crappy Tank.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tank [GWTG.04.53]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanks are usually W/Mo's that are there to soak up the damage and take monster
aggro by using a combination of Stances, such as Defensive Stance, Shield
Stance, Gladiator's Defense, etc., and use Enchantments given from Monks such
as Protective Spirit, Vital Blessing, Guardian, Aegis, etc. Tanks are not
there to give out damage, but rather letting monsters hit them instead of
the softer targets, such as Elementalists, Monks, and Mesmers. Tanks will
usually have a very high Hit Point count, usually around 800+, and can even
go past the 1,000 mark.
EXAMPLE: Tank LFG for UW.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terror Shield [GWTG.04.54]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A very well-thought out and executed fable of a shield that can only drop off
Terrorweb Dryders in the Spawning Pools in the UW.
The Terror Shield rumor started from a person who is known on the Guild Wars
Guru forums named Kunt0r from the guild Treacherous Empires. He made a video
and several screenshots about the Terror Shield, and his fellow guild members
helped with the rumor by saying they found it as well. The Terror Shield
rumor was finally shot down by Gaile Gray a week later.
Thunderhead Keep deems its own term in this Terminology Guide. It is, hands
down, the most frequently talked about mission and the mission that most
people complain about. Thunderhead Keep is so hard to people, that it has
been deemed the "Noob Filter" of the game to keep people from progessing
to the Ring of Fire Island Chains. You will find Thunderhead Keep as the last
mission in the Southern Shiverpeaks areas.
EXAMPLE: Thunderhead Keep is so hard that it can blow me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ToA [GWTG.04.56]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ToA is short for Temple of the Ages, the small outpost in which ascended
level twenty characters form parties to adventure in either the Fissure of
Woe or the Underworld. It is recommended that you come here with your final
armor and some of the best skills in the game, for these are not easy
places. This place is also where lower level players form parties for the
quest, "Villainy of Galrath". The Temple of the Ages is located in Kyrta,
more specifically in the Black Curtain zone. The Temple of the Ages contains
all of the statues of the gods of Tyria: Balthazar, Grenth, Melandru, Lyssa,
and Dwayna.
Tombs, which is short for Tomb of the Primeval Kings, is an advanced to
expert PvP arena where Guilds, or PUGs, can go to compete with other countries
around the globs to gain Favor. Tombs is not recommended for people who are
not experienced for PvP, or have no knowledge of multiple builds to play.
To get to the Tombs on a PvP character that you have made, simply choose
Tournament when the screen comes up to choose the PvP destination where you
want to go.
To get to the Tombs on a PvE character, simply go to the Dragon's Lair mission
and look for a sign and pathway that will lead to the Tomb of the Primeval
Kings.
EXAMPLE: Let's all go win back the Favor from the Tombs.
This abbreviation stands for the Underworld, a place where elite player of the
world may enter. Monsters here will be Level 24+, and some monsters will even
do upwards of 200 damage! Nearly all groups will not take you unless you are
Level 20 and have some Elite Skills. Like the Fissure of Woe, you need to be
ascended before you can enter the Underworld. Underworld is a lot harder
than the Fissure of Woe, mainly because of the monsters and their damages.
To get to the Underworld, go to the Temple of Ages. Talk to the Voice of
Grenth that is in there. Talk to him, pay him 1,000g, and you will be warped
to the Underworld. You can also enter it from Grenth's Temple in the southern-
most part of Lornar's Pass and be warped to a different area in the Underworld
but it requires more work and isn't worth it.
Like the Fissure of Woe, you can obtain area-specific drops in here. Most of
these items can get expensive with the right Mods. Here is a list of all the
Underworld-only drops you can get:
There is a rumor of there being Underworld armor, but the quest leading to
the crafter either doesn't exist, wasn't implemented, or is bugged in some
way.
--------------
Added 01.08.05
--------------
The UW is also the place for the rumor started for the Terror Shield. This
rumor has been shot down and the shield does not exist.
EXAMPLE: Forming a party to quest in the Underworld.
I hope this guide has some very useful information here, new players and
veterans alike. Please know that new terms come out each and every day,
so give me a day or two to update this guide as appropriate.
If you need to know a term, E-Mail me the term and I shall have it in the
next update guaranteed.
==============================================================================
6. Legal Information [GWTG.06.01]
==============================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Webmasters! Do NOT:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post this FAQ on your site directly. The only sites that this rule DOES
NOT apply to is:
http://www.gamefaqs.com
No if's, and's, or but's about it. Ask me first if you would like to make
this FAQ available on your site. If I find it on your site and you never
asked me for permission, I will take legal action against you.
If you are a webmaster of a site that wants to post this FAQ, what do
you do? As you read above, you can not post it directly. Instead, link
to the page at www.gamefaqs.com that lists all the FAQs for this game.
Why GameFAQs? Because I said so. To clear up some confusion, you can not
link to the URL if it ends in ".txt" or ".doc", you just can't use that.
If it ends in anything else, such as the page where it lists all the
FAQs for a game, you can link to THAT, but not to the actual FAQ. I'm
only repeating myself, but I had to because some people have to be told
something twice. If you have any questions on linking, notify me. To
answer the most common question I'll get, you can not link to any
GameFAQs URL that ends in ".txt" or ".doc" because it's in GameFAQs'
legal section. So there.
This FAQ cannot be used in magazines, guides, books, etc. or in any
other form of printed or electronic media involved in a commercial
business, in part or in whole, in any way, shape, or form, PERIOD. It
may not be given away freely, as a "bonus" or "prize", or given away
with the game itself, etc. This FAQ cannot be used for either profitable
or promotional purposes, regardless of the situation. Breaking any of
these rules is in direction violation of U.S. law.
I wrote 100% of the FAQ myself, mainly because I've been playing Guild Wars
for since the beta versions. Here are a few people I'd like to thank:
Grawl here at GameFAQS. I used his Table of Contents outline.
CJayC here at GameFAQS. You made a really nice site, I love it. Always keep
up the hard work.
Marshmallow here at GameFAQS. He's known for making FAQs from Goldeneye 007
and Perfect Dark for the N64, among other names. Thank you very much for the
legal information section.
The readers who read this.
That's really about it. If I haven't mentioned anyone, let me know and you'll
be added. People who send in user tips will surely be added here as well :)
They say people have an inquisitive nature. If you have a question or need
to contact me in any way, do so below.
1. AIM me @ DV Morpheus. This is probably the best way, even though I do have
my away message on most of the time, but I will get your message.
2. My IGN's for this game are: Perfect Hatred, And Hell Followed, and
Hell Beneath.
3. E-Mail me. The second way, but I usually only check my E-Mail once a day,
so don't pray for a quick response. My E-Mail address is as follows, except
replace -AT- with @ and -DOT- with . :
nick -DOT- novak -AT- comcast -DOT- net
This is to prevent the numerous god damn spam bots that are E-Mailing me
24/7.
=============================
= Rules About IM or E-Mail: =
=============================
* No spam. Heaven help you if I find spam...
* Don't come E-Mailing me saying "Hey, I noticed a typo in section...". It's
fine if you send me an E-Mail or IM saying I got a couple errors, but don't
go rampant finding errors. I don't have Microsoft Word so spellcheck is out
of the question.
* If you have a question that is not already answered in this FAQ, please, go
ahead and ask.
* If you want to set up a server in which you want to learn how to play, I'll
be glad to help you. See Contacts above for more information.
