PvP Primer

A primer intended to be an easy resource for common terms and situations in PvP discussion.

Common Definitions and Abbreviations

Ablative: A spell/ability ablates, i.e. it will eventually disappear with enough repetition and need to re-cast/re-aplied. Examples: Psychic Shield, which will collapse after taking a percentage of willpower SvS, and Manifest Force, which will fall after enduring six physical attacks.

ACM: Advanced Combat Maneuver, such as Maneuver Impale, Maneuver Cleave, etc. More information can be found under Combat maneuvers.

Bombo: Short for "Barbarian combo," it means chaining multiple ACMs together in quick succession with weapon swaps. Per the name, most frequently done by Barbarians, but achievable by anyone.

Defensive Factor: A character's total defense resisting an attack, after all modifications. A select few abilities buff it (such as Paladin LEAD) or debuff it (such as the Cleric spell Malediction, set to Defense). Very rarely can further be broken into Defensive Factor modifications for the three types of defenses (Parry/Shield/Evasion), some Barbarians roars only target DF evasion or DF shield for example.

Electric Slide: A Warrior Mage combo, involving debilitating the opponent with Ice Patch followed by damaging with electric weapons or electric spells.

Hard CC: Effects which directly restrict or debilitate your character's ability. Effects include stun, sleep/unconscious, immobilize, and webbed.

MU: Short for "magic user." Anyone that uses magic/attunement/mana. Currently every guild but Barbarians and Thieves.

NMU: Short for "non-magic user." Guilds which do not use magic, currently only Barbarians and Thieves.

Non-Ablative: An effect which does not ablate. For example, the Paladin spell Courage will provide a level of protection against Fear and Spirit svs attacks, and will not need to be re-cast unless its duration ends.

Offensive Factor: A character's total offense for an attack, after all modifications. A select few abilities buff it (such as Paladin LEAD) or debuff it (such as the Cleric spell Malediction, set to Offense). Very rarely can further be broken into Offense Factor Accuracy or Offense Factor Damage, for example Rage of the Clans only buffs OF Accuracy.

Pulsing Anti-CC: Spells which remove hard debilitation effects, on a timer. Examples include Khri Cunning, Flashflood Berserk, Bear Strength, Truffenyi's Rally, Aesandry Darlaeth, Scream Defiance, and many more.

Reactor: A damage reactor, sometimes also just called a ward. See the section below for distinctions.

Soft CC: Debilitation effects which do not directly restrict characters. Examples include stat debuffs, rank debuffs, knock-down, balance reduction, etc.

SvS: Stat vs. stat, how the game calculates debuffs, or things such as stun duration. For more information see SvS.

Ward: A spell or ability which helps protects against certain effects, such as debilitation attempts. A broad term that applies to many types of spells.

Wombo: Short for "Warrior Mage combo." Like Electric Slide, though this one is more magic-oriented, typically involving DB, BG, and a targeted spell like LB, though it has no strict sequencing.

Anti-Magic Wards

They come in two categories.

Integrity Wards: These are all-or-nothing anti-magic wards. If they do not block a spell completely, they provide no protection. Examples include powerful non-ablative effects like Aether Cloak and Worm's Mist, as well as ablative ones such as Lay Ward, the Moon Mage spell Shear, Paladin spell Soldier's Prayer, and the Barbarian Swan Form.

Potency Wards: These are anti-magic wards which reduce the incoming potency of relevant effects, i.e. debil spells will be less debilitating, TM spells will be less accurate and do less damage, etc. These are very rare, mostly relegated to Barbarian abilities such as Badger Form (which reduces specific incoming SvS potency) and Turtle Form (which reduces all incoming magical potency, but relatively weak reduction). These can be considered comparable to interference flare weapons.

Damage Reactors

These are abilities which "react" to damage in some capacity, usually (but not always) by reducing the incoming damage.

Every fighter gets two "reactor slots" to fill for a fight. Using a reactor native to your own guild only takes a single slot, while using a reactor outside your native guild occupies both slots. For the purposes of slots, the Analogous Pattens spell Manifest Force is considered "native" to everyone and occupies only one slot for everyone, while the feral magic spell [[Temporal Eddy]] is considered non-native and occupies two slots for everyone.

SvS Wards

These abilities apply a defensive modifier to the defender's SvS defensive calculation when making the final calculation for an SvS attack. They generally do something like boost the defender's calculation by ~20%, so the exact statistical equivalent of how much protection they provide (and/or how quickly they ablate) will depend on the SvS calculation itself.

Examples include Psychic Shield, Tranquility, Landslide Berserk, Redeemer's Pride, Courage, and many others.