Original content created by community member: Slave_to_the_Wheek

Introduction

As a first time online player, who is way too old to be playing video games, I spent an huge amount of time deciphering what terms meant. I went to outside sources but many of the terms used in other games simply don't apply here or have different meaning here. I also found that the descriptions offered on other sites are still written in shorthand or game speak. I thought we could start a discussion for other new players since after all this is a new game, and we should expect to see many more new players than other MMO's due to the subject. I also expect that we will begin to have our OWN language to describe this game.

Race and Class

Your race is of course going to be man, dwarf, elf, or hobbit. Each race has different things built into it. Dwarves can take more of a beating than elves for example. Your class is not the same as your profession. It's the one you chose when you launched your character in the options screen. Hunter, Guardian, Burglar, Minstrel, Lore-master etc. For a complete list of the classes to refresh your memory go to the LOTRO Lorebook. It's a great source.

Races

Classes

Free People

Monster Play

Session Play

XP - Experience Points.

These are the ways that your hard work is measured. Most XP in this game is earned through questing. However, fighting creatures in middle-earth also gives you some degree of XP. If someone helps you while you are fighting said creature, your XP is somewhat reduced. If wish to assist another person who appears to need help, it's considered best to ask them to "jump if you need help" or ask if they would like to fellowship. "Drive by" helpers can be a frustration for some, and an incredible help for others. If you are a Good Samaritan type, be sure to ask or have them signal if they need help. Of course, if they are dying they are not going to have time to stop and answer. Most folks appreciate getting help if it appears they are "heading for the stone circles" as the cost of repairs to equipment is much worse than than the loss of some of their XP.

Tagged

If a creature is "tagged" that means someone has already claimed it. The bar will go from red to white which means no matter how much you hit on it you will personally get no credit. If you do strike as much as a single blow or heal the person while they are still fighting the creature, they will have a reduction in the XP received.

MOB or MOBS

Used to describe any animal or race or creature in the game who will attack you. Often used specifically to describe certain types of bad guys who will come at you in multiples.

Adds

These are pop-up mobs who appear after you have attacked your original mob

Elites

These are supreme bad guys not to be treated as any other mob. Elites will say elite when you select them. They are usually Purple I believe.

Signature

aka named mobs, these are mobs that have a unique name and sometimes drop important loot such as shards, click to start a quest items, or trophies. Sometimes a signature mob appears as part of a quest. They usually have higher morale than usual type of mob (they represent) and may hit harder, but aren't elite.

Fellowship or Group

Not to be confused with "kinship or guild". This is a small group of people joined together to take part in a specific quest.

PUF or PUG

"Pick Up Fellowship" or "Pick-up Group" stand term used to describe a fellowship who does not normally play together and have grouped together for just one or two group quests.

Kinship or Guild

A group of people who have gotten officially organized in an attempt to create a better playing experience. Some are very loose and some require a great deal of effort to be a member. Most players change kinships fairly often until they locate the group they feel comfortable with. It is not necessary to join one to play LOTRO however. It's simply another option. Some kinships are built around the crafting portion of the game. They grow crops, share the different elements that they pick up or gather etc. Some kinships are folks who know each other in real life. Some are based on other criteria such as Role Playing etc. These organizations of players are called guilds in some other MMO games.

RP or Role-Playing

The idea of using your character as if they were an actor in a play. There are varying degrees of role-playing and the game lends itself to it quite easily. There are entire websites about RP but the basic idea is that some folks totally immerse themselves as much as possible into their character much the same way that we play as a child. It can be quite fun even if done halfway. It's an interesting approach to gameplay and most do it on occasion rather than the entire time they are playing. We have no dedicated place for RP players in LOTRO so don't be surprised to see folks talking to you as if they are part of the game itself. Best suited for those with good typing skills and somewhat of a knowledge of Tolkien's books or movies.

Lore

This is what we use to describe the world we play in. The lore is what the world is made of. It's the history of the people we play and the personality of the races. It's the way we dress and the speech we use. It's the architecture and the wildlife. It's the history of our world inside the game. In general the Lore is the backdrop that the game is played on. While the engine is similar to other games, the lore for LOTRO is unique to J.R.R. Tolkien's books.

LOTRO

Lord of the Rings Online

AH Auction House

The congregating area where players can buy or sell items via auction from other players. It is considered good form to set both a bidding price and a buyout price.

PVP player vs player

here in LOTRO this is actually referred to PvMP, Player vs Monster Player

PVE Player vs Environment

this is MMO slang for you vs computer controlled mobs

Main

Main character you play.

Alt

alternate character you play.

Mule

aka bank toon or bank alt, this character mainly stores stuff for main and alts.

Toon

Avatar, also char or PC player character. Coined from World of Warcraft, where the avatars are cartoon like.

Ninja

You don't want to be called this. A ninja is a player in a fellowship who rolls for need on everything, or rolls for need for an item or object their class can't use, usually a powerful purple. A player that loots before combat is finished for their fellowship. Also a player that waits for another player to fight a mob guarding a chest or resource node and during the fight rushes in and steals the goods.

WTS Want to Sell

Typically advertised in Trade chat. Players can link items they are selling for others to see in chat by Ctrl + Right Click on item.

WTB Want to Buy

Typically advertised in Trade chat.

Mats, Materials

Normally used for crafting, such as trade. "Can anyone make Forge Crafted Sword? I have mats."

L2P l2p learn to play

pretty self explanatory

Nerf

coined from the toy gun manufacturer, as nerf guns aren't as powerful as real guns, means something is powerful or useful is toned down or made useless.

OP Overpowered

self explanatory.

pupu pwnage ownage

ownage meaning you're excellent. PUPU means you did most excellent.

QQ crying

whining, crying, or general unnecessary complaint about something from how the letters look like eyes with tears coming from them.

uber

Roughly translated from German über (Nietzsche "Übermensch" a higher state to which man might aspire) as over, or super. Generally describes something powerful.

MT Mistell

when you accidentally mistell, usually in the case of kin chat getting something meant for fellow chat.

trash

also vendor, or VT, vendor trash, this is white labeled junk you loot from monsters. Also anything not worth keeping to the player. "I don't have a house so trophy's trash . . ."

OMW On my way

What you should be doing once you join a fellowship.

AANBN Age ain't nothing but a number

which is true.

Map

using your map to go home. Also a preferred choice for Freep Burgs to escape from creeps in PVMP.

Generic Class Terms

Tank

Term used to describe the Guardian or sometimes Champion in this game. It's also a generic term for the guy taking all the blows. These heavy armored characters have special traits which can allow them to enter into play and take far more blows than anyone else. They are the characters in a fellowship who are expected to draw attention of your mob members as needed so that everyone else can live. There are many ways of tanking and just like any class, it's an ART not a science and requires using knowledge and experience to take on the really hard quests.

Healer

Term used to describe a Minstrel in this game. Also a generic term for the character who has the healing skills in your fellowship. Many classes have varying degrees of healing. Captains can be very effective healers as well, and are generally the secondary healer of the group, keeping the Minstrel healed and helping to spot heal in tight situations. The Loremaster also has a heal but it is on a very long timer. However, the Loremaster can restore power to the Minstrel and other parties. Having a healer on a quest to keep an NPC alive makes it a breeze. They can heal the NPC while everyone else fights the bad guys for example.

DPS

"Damage Per Second" and relates to how hard certain characters hit or how much damage a weapon does per second. The higher the DPS a weapon is, the more damage it does. Certain classes are considered "DPS" classes such as Hunters and Champions. Usually DPS characters can do sustained damage over time.

Nuker

In this game the nuker would be the hunter and possibly other classes that I don't know of. The hunter can send in high volume hits from a mile away. Depening on his skill and talent a nuker is a key asset when playing in a grouping situation. They are slower in striking but take down tremendous ones when they hit. Also Rune Keepers fall in this category. A nuker typically has higher burst damage, meaning they can damage quickly as opposed to sustained damage over time, most DPS classes fall in sustained damage.

Crowd Control

Classes responsible for managing adds, extra mobs, or bad pulls. They usually can occupy or stun or mez multiple mobs at a time. Loremaster are the king of this. Assist CC'ers include burgs, hunters,

Hybrid

aka off or assist X (X=tank, healer, etc), or jack (of all trade) classes capable of doing other roles, but not as good as specific class for that role. Example is Captains can perform as off healers or champions as off tanks, but do not excel as well as specialized classes. Wardens fall into this due to their duality of dps or tanking via their gambit selections.

Combat Terminology

Aggro

The attention aka "aggression" of any other NPC character who wants to hurt you. Once you "draw aggro" you either have to fight them, run away, or have someone "pull aggro" aggro off of you and onto them. Also referred to as "hate". The character with the highest amount of hate will be the one the monster attacks. The level of aggro is dependent on how much damage a character is doing to the monster, how much healing a character is doing, and a variety of other factors. Guardians and Captains have special skills that will raise the aggro of a monster, causing the monster to attack him. This is very useful for pulling away monsters who are attacking your Minstrel.

Buff

Anything that enhances your character's abilities (monsters can and do have buffs too). These are usually short term, but may also be long term such as the Hunter's Stance that continues until stopped by you or you are incapacitated or log out. Short term buff might be a Battle Lore scroll for example (As a side note - although it isn't generally used in this way, technically any piece of armor, jewelry, or weapon that has a stat or ability increasing characteristic is a Buff!)

De-Buff

The opposite of a Buff, this is anything that hinders the combat ability of a character or monster. Monsters can de-buff you and you can de-buff monsters. A de-buff on a monster is not necessarily one that will reduce his ability to harm you, it may also increase your ability to harm him such as an armor de-buff (again, this works both ways).

Ranged Damage

Damage to you or from you from arrows, knives or spells from a distance. In the case of some NPC's it would be poop.

Melee Damage

Damage to you or from you done within arms reach with swords, axes, fists, etc.

Mez or Stun or Flash or Riddle

The ability certain classes have to place a character into a "mezmerized" or "Stunned" state. Hunters can also trap which is sort of a mez because they cannot attack while trapped. These terms are used as part of:

FF Focus Fire

Every attacker in your fellow or raid targets one specific creature or player until it dies.

CC or Crowd Control

This is the act of trying to keep the mobs from attacking you all at once. Used to describe both a class type and an ability. Sometimes you'll see people looking to fill out a fellowship and specifically ask for CC. A good fellowship will ALL work together to use their various parts of crowd control to allow everyone to apply their energies on as few of the mobs as possible. The Loremaster is the 'key' CC class in LOTRO, but all classes have some degree of ability to control the crowd.

AOE or AoE - Area of Effect.

This is a certain type of skill that has an "area" in which damage is done, rather than directly onto the target. Using these when others are using crowd control methods can create havoc in fellowships. If done at the right time and the right place though, they can save a fellowship. Each class has its own AoE skills. It's important to know them and use them appropriately when grouping.

DoT or DOT - Damage over Time.

This is a certain type of skill or spell that will cause the damage to be spread out over time such as to make it bleed profusely or other healthy draining activity over a designated period of time. These skills are of course best used in the beginning of an attack to allow for their full potential.

HoT or HOT - Heal over time.

This is a healing ability that provides an initial small heal as well as small heals every few seconds for a set duration.

InstaCast

Any skill that has no induction timer to use. Once you press the button if it's ready to go, it fires off immediately.

CD Cool Down

Cool down, any active skill or item once activated has a timer after before it can be used again. Like your Map has a CD of an hour, Horn of Dwarrowdelf CD is 15 minutes.

Pulling

The act of getting the attention of some creature and bringing him back to the waiting group for a beat down.

Body Pulls - Getting into the aggro range of a creature without using some type of attack. Usually involves getting close and backing up quickly until the mobs notice you.

Ranged Pulls - Using any type of ranged attack. Shouts, bows and Lore master spells.

Mezz or Stun Pulls - Using a skill that induces a Mezz/Stun/Flash on one target in a group so it's completely out of the start of a fight, letting his friends come to play. Nice in that it usually eliminates the AOE problems with waking up mezzed mobs.

Bad Pulls - where puller pulls too many mobs, pulls before everyone is ready, unexpected pull via inattentive player / pet / herald, or pulls the wrong set of mobs. The consequencees of this can be simple as the healer working harder and casting additional heals to the group wiping.

Wipe

when the fellow or raid gets into a fight they cannot win, and eventually the mob kills everyone in the fellow / raid.

Leroy

aka Leroy Jenkins, coined from World of Warcraft video of the same name. It is the act of where one or more player(s) deviates from the careful planning to cause the fellowship or raid to fail objectives, come under undue stress, or wipe in the spirit of mischief.

Zerg

coined from Blizzard's Starcraft RTS (real time strategy) game, this is where the fellow or raid blindly sends all available force to rush in and attack. Also means to win via strength of numbers alone, or rush incoming / outgoing opposing forces with no set plan in mind.

Specific to LOTRO:

Freeps

Free Peoples. All player classes are considered Freeps, we're the ones fighting against Saurons forces.

Creeps

Monster Players. Player controlled enemies in the Entemoors. All players once they reach level 10 can start a Monster character.

Peeps

1. Chicken Players. Player controlled chickens in session play.

2. Short-hand for "people".