Raiding Terminology Glossary: Every Term You Need to Know

Raiding communities use specialized vocabulary that can confuse newcomers. This glossary covers the essential terms you will encounter in raid groups, guides, and community discussions across WoW, FFXIV, Destiny 2, Lost Ark, and other MMOs with group content.

Group and Role Terms

DPS refers to damage per second as a measurement or to damage-dealing players as a role. “We need more DPS” means the group needs higher damage output or more damage-dealing players depending on context.

Tank absorbs boss attacks, controls positioning, and maintains threat so the boss attacks them instead of squishier party members. Main Tank (MT) is the primary tank handling the boss. Off-Tank (OT) is the secondary tank handling adds, tank swaps, or stepping in when the MT dies.

Healer restores group health and manages party survivability. In FFXIV, healers are also expected to contribute meaningful DPS during downtime. Main Healer focuses on sustained throughput. Off-Healer or Utility Healer provides supplementary healing plus dispels, buffs, or crowd control.

Comp or Composition describes the group makeup of classes, specializations, and roles. A “meta comp” refers to the statistically optimal group composition for a given encounter. “Comp check” describes an encounter that is significantly easier or harder based on which classes you bring.

Raid Leader (RL) commands the group, making strategy calls and coordinating during encounters. Class Leader or Role Leader oversees performance and assignments for a specific class or role category.

Encounter and Mechanic Terms

Wipe means the entire group dies and the encounter resets. A “clean wipe” means the group executed properly but lacked the DPS, healing, or gear to succeed. A “dirty wipe” means someone made a mechanical error that caused the death.

Pull means starting a boss encounter. “Ready check” precedes the pull. “Countdown” or “pull timer” gives the group time to pre-cast abilities. In WoW, a typical pull timer is ten seconds; in FFXIV, fifteen seconds is standard.

Enrage is a mechanic that triggers after a set time, either killing the raid instantly (hard enrage) or dramatically increasing boss damage to unsustainable levels (soft enrage). Hitting enrage means your group’s DPS is insufficient.

Adds are additional enemies that spawn during a boss encounter. “Priority adds” must be killed quickly. “Adds wave” describes a timed spawn of multiple enemies.

Phase describes a distinct section of a multi-stage encounter, typically marked by boss health thresholds or timed transitions. Transition or intermission is the period between phases, often with its own mechanics like dodging environmental damage or destroying objects.

Mechanic refers to any specific encounter element players must handle: standing in designated positions (soaking), spreading apart, stacking together, interrupting casts, or dodging telegraphed attacks.

Telegraph is a visual indicator showing where damage will land. FFXIV uses orange ground markers extensively. GW2 shows red circles. WoW uses a mix of ground effects and boss animations.

Soak means standing in a designated area to absorb damage that would otherwise hit harder or trigger a negative effect if no one is present. Bait means deliberately standing in a position to cause a boss ability to target that location.

Performance and Analysis Terms

Parse refers to a combat log uploaded to analysis sites like Warcraft Logs or FFLogs, and to the percentile ranking derived from that log. “A ninety-five parse” means the player performed better than ninety-five percent of players of the same class on that encounter.

Uptime measures the percentage of an encounter spent actively dealing damage or healing. High uptime means minimal wasted global cooldowns. Movement mechanics and phase transitions reduce uptime.

Overheal describes healing applied to targets already at full health, wasting mana and GCDs. Some overheal is inevitable, but excessive overhealing indicates poor triage or ability timing.

APM (Actions Per Minute) measures how many abilities you activate per minute. Higher APM generally correlates with better performance, assuming the actions are useful rather than spammed.

GCD (Global Cooldown) is the shared timer between most abilities, typically 1.5 to 2.5 seconds depending on the game and class. Abilities that do not trigger the GCD are called oGCDs (off-global cooldown abilities).

Burst Window describes a period when a player uses all their major cooldowns for maximum damage output. Coordinating burst windows with raid buffs and boss vulnerability phases maximizes group DPS.

Loot and Progression Terms

PUG stands for Pick-Up Group, a group formed with strangers through group finders or chat channels. Static describes a fixed group that raids together regularly on a set schedule.

Prog or Progression means attempting content the group has not yet cleared. Farm means clearing content the group has already defeated, typically for loot. Reclear means killing previously defeated bosses at the start of a raid week to access later progression bosses.

BiS (Best in Slot) describes the optimal item for each equipment slot. Tier Set refers to class-specific armor sets that provide powerful bonuses when wearing multiple pieces.

Lockout restricts how often you can receive loot from a raid, typically resetting weekly. Extending a lockout means keeping your current raid progress into the next week rather than resetting, sacrificing early boss loot to spend more time on later progression bosses.

Bench refers to backup players ready to substitute into the raid. Being “benched” means sitting out for an encounter or raid night, either for performance or composition reasons.

For more raiding basics, see our beginner guide and raid roles overview.