



This is what the words and phrases you see used in the game and on these forums really mean.



Please feel free to suggest your own entries in the comments below.



TL;DR: Just scan the list (over 100 entries now) for what catches your eye. It's one of the benefits of this format.





Start here if you've never read before:

The POE Dictionary, by Tao Jones

Act One Normal ("A1N"): [n.] The location where all trades are concluded, after they are inevitably initiated elsewhere.



Allocation: [n.] Permanent - A method used in the equitable distribution of wisdom scrolls; Short – A system designed to demonstrate the utility of movement speed boots; Free-For-All - The means whereby melee-based characters enjoy the benefits of stacking increased item quality mods without actually using them.



Alluring Abyss: [n.] Ultimate location of the ultimate battle, until such time that the ultimate battle location is ultimately relocated.



Alpha Team: [n.] That elite group of players responsible for testing and vetting a version of the game that will bear no relationship to the final release. See also "Beta Team".



Ambush League: [n.] A daughter league, distinguished by the presence of interactive landscape fixtures that allow player characters to more easily commit suicide.



Apex of Sacrifice: [n.] A strip club, accessible from the Eternal Laboratory, with an absurd cover charge and three-death minimum.



Arctic Armour [n.] A skill which leaves chilled ground behind the player character as they walk, with the bonus mechanic of deactivating the instant walking begins.



Armorer’s Scrap: [n.] Orb used to turn scrap to marginally-better scrap.



Atziri: [n.] Mythical tetromammalian monarch of ancient Wraeclast, brought to life in the Sacrifice of the Vaal expansion pack in order to more fully demonstrate that the vast majority of skills, passives and gear in the game are useless.



Aura: [n.] A buff with an area of effect, applied to one’s fellow party members and minions, each of whom is invariably located beyond its effective zone.



Balance: [n.] The hypothetical pinnacle of game design, whereby every build, skill and item are equally bad, but in a different way.



Best In Slot ("BiS"): [adj.] Of or pertaining to the most effective item in its class which you will never be able to afford.



Beta Team: [n.] That elite group of players responsible for rubber-stamping the imbalances and bugs previously approved by the Alpha Team.



Blacksmith’s Whetstone: [n.] Proof that most weapons as dropped are, at best, average.



Blessed Orb: [n.] Orb used to augment the single attribute an item has which is universally ignored.



Blood Magic: [n.] A support gem that allows player characters with an insufficient mana pool to also have an insufficient life pool.



Bringer of Rain, The: [n.] The primary choice of helmet by players who consider the ultimate fashion statement to be a gaping head wound.



Buff: [v.] 1) To apply a skill to a character, minion, or group in order to increment the player’s false sense of security. 2) A temporary increase in the utility of a skill, passive or item, intended by the developers to artificially lower the complaint level on Reddit.



Build: [n.] A particular combination of skills, passive nodes and gear that allows player characters to fail to advance in a unique way.



Burned Miscreation: [n.] The typical result of purchasing flame-based MTX.



Burning Ground: [n.] A ground hazard easily avoided by instead plowing headlong into a large group of monsters.



Cartographer’s Chisel: [n.] Orb used to improve the illusion that a map will drop a desirable item.



Chaos Damage: [n.] The hurt inflicted on one's sensibilities in the course of crafting an item.



Chaos Orb: [n.] Currency item whose name becomes accurate upon its use as a crafting item.



Character Class: [n.] A division of playable avatar types with a distinct appearance and attack animation but no other significant defining attributes.



Chilled Ground: [n.] Section of the GGG break-room set aside for relaxed camaraderie.



Chromatic Orb: [n.] Orb used to change the current color of a socket to a different color that you also do not want.



CoCS: [acr.] The method whereby melee player characters with insignificant mana pools are instantly transformed into powerful magic-users, easily capable of injuring or even one-shotting the most fearsome of graphics cards. Acronym for "Crash On Critical Strike".



Content: [n.] A part of the game that advances the story, and to which the player is expected to devote one percent of their time.



Corrupted Area: [n.] A special zone where players are allowed to trade the risk of dying for the opportunity to obtain a map fragment they cannot use.



Crafting: [n.] A system whereby players with a poor understanding of the Laws of Probability are relieved of their currency items.



Cruel Difficulty: [n.] A recreation of the exact same content as Normal Difficulty, with the addition of rendering previously-effective gear useless in order to promulgate the illusion of advancement.



Curse: [n.] 1) A skill applied to a group of monsters designed to slightly increase the number of seconds taken to slay the player character. 2) A real-life skill used by the player immediately following the aforementioned death.



Cutthroat: 1) [n.] A class of league designed so that players may freely donate their equipped gear to more powerful players. 2) [adj.] Involving competitive seal-clubbing. See also: "Trade".



Damage Per Second ("DPS"): [n.] The rate at which a player character can remove hit points from monsters in the course of dying to reflected damage.



Desync: [n.] The disturbingly-common event whereby client and server lose touch, grow apart, and no longer like each other's Facebook posts. Sometimes initiated by a network packet with the header "I think we should start pinging other computers."



Divine Orb: [n.] Orb designed to adjust the random values of any particular mod downward.



Domination League: [n.] A daughter league, noted for the existence of landscape features that confer on player characters a temporarily augmented ability to slay monsters in the immediate area more efficiently, as soon as access to the feature can be secured by slaying every monster in the area.



Dominus: [n.] The former game boss, deposed by the developers in favor of Atziri after demonstrating an imperfect record of killing player characters, and an insufficient number of breasts.



Drop Rate: [n.] The highly-secret algorithm by which the provision of useless items is calculated.



Duelist: [n.] A male character class based on the “darling rogue” archetype, with immediate access to a host of weapons passives that allow him to die faster. Primarily associated with the Strength and Dexterity attributes so that players can vicariously imagine themselves as different from the sedentary person living in their mother’s basement.



Energy shield: [n.] A pool of effective hit points used to mitigate damage, which automatically begins to regenerate no later than six seconds after it is actually needed.



Environmental Effect: [n.] An atmospheric attribute of a location, such as rain or fog, added by developers to increase the player’s appreciation for a zone, and which through loss of frame rate invariably decreases the player’s appreciation for a zone.



Eternal Orb: [n.] Orb used as a “do-over” measure. Startlingly congruent to real life in that, like most such measures, it is only available to the wealthy.



Exalted Orb: [n.] Orb used by wealthy players to complete transactions between themselves. No other known uses.



Farm: [v.] To repeat the exact same actions, over and over, while expecting a different outcome; synonymous with "insanity".



Fishing: [v.] To troll for outraged responses in the Forum.



Flask: [n.] A consumable source of life or mana that can only be refilled by either a) bravely slaying monsters or b) cravenly fleeing to town.



Forum: [n.] A message board generously provided on the GGG servers by the developers, so that bug reports, game suggestions and discussion of quality-of-play can be properly ignored.



Full Scale Armor: [n.] Armor that is built to the same size as the wearer, as opposed to half- or quarter-scale armor.



Gear Check: [n.] An arbitrary barrier to progress inserted to ensure players do not waste time slaying monsters or advancing through the plot.



Gemcutter’s Prism: [n.] Orb used to increase the likelihood of incorrect tooltip DPS.



Glassblower’s Bauble: [n.] Orb used to increase the effectiveness of keys pressed in the instant immediately following a character's death.



GL;HF ("Good Luck; Have Fun"): [acr.] Most often used between players at the conclusion of a trade, an alternate translation of "Ripped you off; never see you again."



Grind: [v.] To upgrade a skill, item or character through the application of a scarce and irreplaceable currency item called “time”.



Grinding Gear Games ("GGG"): [n.] A secret society of extremely effective trolls.



Guild: [n.] A band of player characters who can share items without the troubling necessity of sharing time zones or gaming experiences.



Hardcore League: [n.] A league in which players are permitted to die only once, in exchange for the ability to consider players in other leagues inferior.



Instance: [n.] The zone you inhabit, and which your party members and any desirable items do not.



Invasion League: [n.] A daughter league, distinguished by the occurrence of additional entirely-optional and bypassable boss encounters which are typically triggered before the player knows they have begun.



Jewelers Orb: [n.] Orb with the appearance of a stone doughnut and approximately the same utility.



Kaom's Heart: [n.] An item with no sockets and only two mods, which is nevertheless worth more than your entire stash.



Keystone: [n.] A skill on the Passive Tree located as far as possible from its supporting ones.



Kuduku: [n.] An enormous, electrically-powered phallus, usually encountered in a narrow passageway.



Ladder: [n.] A published list of the most accomplished traders.



Legacy: [adj.] Of or pertaining to any class of item with useful mods, as distinguished from the class of actually-obtainable items.



Marauder: [n.] A male character class based on the “barbarian raider” character archetype, with amazing strength and constitution which allow him to wear any armor or wield any weapon – just like every other character class. Primarily associated with the Strength attribute, no skill gem is too heavy for him to lift. In rebuke of his stereotypical low brow and hulking demeanor, he is able to fluently understand every written and spoken language of Wraeclast, including centuries-old graffiti.



Map: 1) [n.] An item used in the Eternal Laboratory to evoke a zone instance in which a player character hopes to find additional maps, which in turn are used to evoke a zone instance in which a player character hopes to find additional maps. 2) [v.] To empty one’s account of currency in the hope of securing additional currency sinks.



Merciless Difficulty: [n.] The point at which a player character must stash their Facebreakers and resort to the utilization of an actual weapon.



Microtransaction (“MTX”): [n.] A cosmetic effect, purchased with real-world currency, and applied to a character in order to express the player’s proud lack of fashion sense.



Mirror of Kalandra: [n.] Orb used for the sanctioned duplication of items too expensive to purchase anyway.



Nemesis League: [n.] A daughter league, distinguished for its inhabitance by creatures with additional random attributes with negligible effect on the outcome of any battle, unless the player is about to achieve a new level, in which case the attribute will invariably be deadly.



Nerf: [v.] To eliminate the effectiveness of any skill or item known to be actually effective.



Off-Topic: [n.] Any forum thread which you have initiated or participated in.



OOS: [acr.] When preceded by a slash and typed into the chat box, transmits a command to the server to wait thirty seconds before accepting any input from the client. Acronym for "Obvious Outcome's Suicide".



Orb: [n.] One of a class of items intended as useful crafting material, which is instead useful only as currency.



Orb of Alchemy: [n.] Orb with the proven reliability of its namesake.



Orb of Alteration: [n.] Orb used to turn an unwanted item into an unwanted item with different text.



Orb of Augmentation: [n.] Orb used to add a useless modification to an existing set of them.



Orb of Chance: [n.] Orb of Understatement.



Orb of Fusing: [n.] Orb used to remove links from sockets. Also known as an Orb of Refusing.



Orb of Regret: [n.] Orb with the name all orbs should have been given. Used by a player to allow the previous placement of a passive point to be regained and placed in a newly-mistaken way.



Orb of Scouring: [n.] Orb used to remove a set of unwanted mods from an item, in order that the player may spend additional currency giving the item an entirely different set of unwanted mods.



Orb of Transmutation: [n.] Orb used to turn a useless white item into a useless blue one.



Overpowered (“OP”): [adj.] 1) Pejorative term used to describe any skill or item that serves to improve player efficiency. Synonymous with “useful”. 2) Any monster or boss encounter that is working as intended.



Party: 1) [v.] To enter the same instance with other players in order to recruit witnesses as to the manner of one’s death. 2) [n.] A tightly-knit team of characters dedicated to the coordinated destruction of monsters, but with no knowledge of each other’s abilities, skills, strategies, tactics or playing style.



Passive Tree: [n.] Map of abilities and attributes, any one of which is theoretically available to any build with 120 unallocated skill points.



Patch: 1) [n.] The unavoidable introduction of a fresh set of imbalances and bugs into the game. 2) [v.] To render previously-effective and ridiculous builds unviable, in order to clear the way for the introduction of even-more ridiculous ones.



Pants: [n.] An undocumented character attribute that provides for the partial mitigation of damage incurred by ground effects. Unavailable to character classes with knobby knees.



Pet: [n.] A minion that accompanies a player character for the express purpose of remaining behind to mourn the player's death.



Piety: [n.] A former prostitute who has learned to wield the pimp-hand.



Player-Kill: [v.] To conclude a Bandit encounter in the fashion the developers intended.



Portal Gem: [n.] A rare and highly-desirable item allowing players to permanently free up one sixtieth of their cargo slots, at the expense of at least one thirtieth of their skill slots.



Quality: [n.] An attribute of an item indicating a marginal degree of utility, all of which is typically consumed upon an attempt to confer actual utility.



Race: 1) [n.] A scheduled contest introduced at regular intervals in order to maximize server latency. 2) [v.] To compete with other players in order to determine who can make the fewest suboptimal decisions in a finite period of time.



Ragequit: [v.] The natural and inevitable event immediately after the average Path of Exile gaming experience.



Random Number Generator (RNG): [n.] System by which the game routinely substitutes desirable outcomes with vastly inferior ones.



Ranger: [n.] A female character class with a predilection for ranged weaponry and no particular aptitude for them. Based on a character archetype capable of living off the land and with no allegiance to anyone, but in reality subject to the same in-game choices as all other classes. Notable for the ability to shoot arrows that never need replenishing in a game that micromanages almost every other resource.



Rare: [n.] 1) A yellow item with three or more mods that can render it useful, with links and sockets that render it useless. See also: “vendor”. 2) A yellow monster with a set of mods randomly selected to completely nullify your build’s strengths.



Reflected damage: [n.] An ability demonstrated by a class of monster designed to punish players for taking the highly-unusual strategy of bypassing game design and attempting to kill monsters themselves.



Regal Orb: [n.] Orb used to transform a useless item with blue text into an identical item with yellow text.



RIP: [v.] The forced creation of a new character that occurs following a gameplay mechanic that is working as intended.



Risk Versus Reward: [n.] A fundamental gaming concept the developers firmly believe they once heard of.



RMT: [acr.] Said of any player character to whom you have lost a duel and/or possesses better equipment than yours. Acronym for "Rekt My Toon".



RNGeezus: [n.] Mythical figure at whose behest the functions of RNG are made manifest, usually to the detriment of the player. Often appealed to by players attempting to craft an item; more often cursed by those same players.



Rogue Exile: [n.] A non-player character (NPC), whose skills, passives and equipment function in an efficient manner unavailable to player characters.



Scion: [n.] A female character class situated in the center of the passives tree, so that all nodes become equally unreachable. Based on the “displaced aristocracy” character archetype, she would probably trade the ability to turn heads for the ability to turn them 360 degrees. More “Bimbo” than “Rambo”.



Shadow: [n.] A male character class based on the “hidden assassin” archetype who inexplicably walks about openly displaying his abilities. Primarily associated with the Intelligence and Dexterity attributes, most likely acquired through theft. Typically refers to his list of challenges and accomplishments as a “rap sheet”.



Shavronne's Wrappings: [n.] An item noted for its ability to absorb infinite Orbs of Fusing without improvement.



Shocking Ground: [n.] The fabled locus on which a player will stand when his expectations of the game are at last met.



Shop Indexer: [n.] A third-party auction house, designed for and utilized by players who despise auction houses.



Six-Link: [n.] An item that allows players to mistakenly attempt augmenting melee skills with magic supports, magic skills with projectile supports, and projectile skills with melee supports. See also "troll".



Skill Gem: [n.] One of a class of items designed to inform players of their character’s insufficient mana pool.



Softcore League: [n.] League in which players are secure in the knowledge that their completely imaginary characters, expressed as transient charges across an electric potential, on a server they don’t control which is located halfway across the planet, are somehow safe from misfortune.



Soulless Watchers: [n.] Players who eschew leveling for trading.



Soultaker: [n.] A powerful weapon, so named for its base cost.



Spectral Throw: [n.] A skill that allows the player’s thrown weapon to pass completely unobstructed through a monster, while inexplicably striking it multiple times.



Stash: [n.] The location in town provided to store worthless items, in the vain hope they will become less worthless in the future.



Strongbox: [n.] The primary source of wisdom scrolls.



Summoner: [n.] A class of character that mitigates desync by instead inflicting it on everyone else. See also: "NecrOOSmancer".



Supporter: [n.] A player who contributed a large sum of real-world currency in order that their future suggestions and comments would be ignored. Typically regarded by others as a kindly but addled elder.



Templar: [n.] A male character class based on the “fighting monk” archetype, but without those pesky compunctions about taking life. Primarily associated with the Strength and Intelligence attributes, presumably augmented by lifting heavy books. In spite of his preference for parading around without trousers, the Templar is often seen carrying a long upright staff or scepter, and summoning tall blunt totems, possibly as a form of overcompensation.



Theorycraft: [v.] To apply careful thought and planning to the utilization of passive nodes, skills and gear for a proposed player character, requiring 200 exalts worth of gear and a level-cap of 120 to defeat Cruel Dominus.



Totem: [n.] A marker placed by a player to indicate the general location of their immanent death.



Trade: [n.] The first major release from developer Grinding Gear Games, in which a mini-game called “Path of Exile” plays a colorful but insignificant part.



Trap: [n.] The belief that expending currency on maps or gear will yield corresponding returns.



Uber Atziri: [n.] A more powerful and inaccessible incarnation of Atziri. As is typical among the ruling class, audiences can only be secured by those with astronomical wealth.



Undying Cultist: [n.] A fanboy on the forums that refuses to let a topic naturally expire.



Unfair: [adj.] Working as intended.



Unique: [n.] An item exactly like ten thousand others and duplicated in hundreds of shop indexer listings.



Upgrade: 1) [v.] To exchange one equipped item for a slightly-less useless one. 2) [n.] The mythical object a player hopes to gain from an encounter instead of the white item they actually gain.



Vaal Skill: [n.] A skill used to kill monsters that, before it may be used, requires the player to kill monsters.



Vaal Orb: [n.] Orb used by wealthy players to ruin otherwise-acceptable unique items, in the same fashion that rock stars routinely wreck expensive automobiles.



Vendor: [n.] Any of a set of NPCs with a shop where players may a) browse for and purchase items with little utility; and b) sell such items in exchange for currency with even less utility.



Vendor Recipe: [n.] A social experiment created by the developers to reveal how many players are willing to mindlessly place combinations of items into and out of arbitrary boxes for hours on end, in exchange for being the first to discover an ephemeral transformation carried out on imaginary items.



Viable: [adj.] Immune to all forms of damage and able to clear Level 78 maps with a single click.



Waypoint: [n.] A shortcut to certain zones, provided by the developers so that players may more quickly and conveniently advance to the location of their next death.



Witch: [n.] A female character class based on the “forbidden adept” archetype, who substitutes ineffective physical damage with ineffective magic damage. Primarily associated with the Intelligence attribute, but no smarter than her counterparts when left AFK. Noted for the incredible movement skill that allows her to float and pirouette in midair, which is promptly and permanently forgotten the instant actual gameplay begins.



YOLO: [acr.] "You Oughtta Log Out".





Start here if you've recently read all other entries:

Newest Entries

This section is provided so that previous readers do not have to parse the entire Dictionary to read only the newest entries.



Balance: [n.] The hypothetical pinnacle of game design, whereby every build, skill and item are equally bad, but in a different way.



Bringer of Rain, The: [n.] The primary choice of helmet by players who consider the ultimate fashion statement to be a gaping head wound.



Burned Miscreation: [n.] The typical result of purchasing flame-based MTX.



Burning Ground: [n.] A ground hazard easily avoided by instead plowing headlong into a large group of monsters.



Chilled Ground: [n.] Section of the GGG break-room set aside for relaxed camaraderie.



CoCS: [acr.] The method whereby melee player characters with insignificant mana pools are instantly transformed into powerful magic-users, easily capable of injuring or even one-shotting the most fearsome of graphics cards. Acronym for "Crash On Critical Strike".



Desync: [n.] The disturbingly-common event whereby client and server lose touch, grow apart, and no longer like each other's Facebook posts. Sometimes initiated by a network packet with the header "I think we should start pinging other computers."



Dual Wield: [v.] To run two clients simultaneously.



Flask: [n.] A consumable source of life or mana that can only be refilled by either a) bravely slaying monsters or b) cravenly fleeing to town.



Full Scale Armor: [n.] Armor that is built to the same size as the wearer, as opposed to half- or quarter-scale armor.



Kuduku: [n.] An enormous, electrically-powered phallus, usually encountered in a narrow passageway.



OOS: [acr.] When preceded by a slash and typed into the chat box, transmits a command to the server to wait thirty seconds before accepting any input from the client. Acronym for "Obvious Outcome's Suicide".



RMT: [acr.] Said of any player character to whom you have lost a duel and/or possesses better equipment than yours. Acronym for "Rekt My Toon".



Shocking Ground: [n.] The fabled locus on which a player will stand when his expectations of the game are at last met.



Soulless Watchers: [n.] Players who eschew leveling for trading.



Summoner: [n.] A class of character that mitigates desync by instead inflicting it on everyone else. See also: "NecrOOSmancer".



Undying Cultist: [n.] A fanboy on the forums that refuses to let a subject naturally expire.









A list of contributors:

Fellow Lexicographers

The POE Dictionary is a community effort. These fine folks have contributed suggestions for included entries and definitions. If you've enjoyed the Dictionary, props to them as much as your humble author. Some definitions had more than one contributor, hence any multiple credits for a particular entry.



ScrotieMcB Entries for Arctic Armor, Cutthroat, Energy Shield, Reflected Damage, Shop Indexer, Trap, and refinements to multiple existing entries.



Hodari Entries for Blood Magic, YOLO, Curse, Supporter.



Pes_Planus Entries for Fishing, Grinding Gear Games, Kaom's Heart, Patch, Pants, Pet, Player-Kill, RIP, Shavronne's Wrappings, Six-Link, Soultaker.



Boem Entry for Off-Topic.



justinloase Entries for Act One Normal, GL;HF.



Ezhiel Entry for Viable.



iamsamsara Entry for RMT.



therealshotzz Entries for RMT, Kuduku.



maffa50 Entries for Kuduku, CoCS.



themousemaster Entry for CoCS, Summoner.



Nemmerle Entries for Burning Ground, Chilled Ground, Flask, Shocking Ground.



NeroNoah Entry for Balance.









What's different from last edit:

Changelog

Changes 29-06-14: Added entries for Act One Normal, Alpha Team, Best In Slot, Beta Team, Blood Magic, Chaos Damage, Fishing, GL;HF, Grinding Gear Games, Kaom's Heart, Patch, Pants, Pet, Player-Kill, RIP, Ragequit, Shavronne's Wrappings, Six-Link, Soultaker, Supporter, Viable, YOLO.



Changes 30-06-14: Added entries for Balance, Bringer of Rain, Burned Miscreation, Burning Ground, Chilled Ground, CoCS, Desync, Dual Wield, Flask, Full Scale Armor, Kuduku, OOS, RMT, Shocking Ground, Soulless Watchers, Summoner, Undying Cultist. Fellow Players:This is what the words and phrases you see used in the game and on these forums really mean.Please feel free to suggest your own entries in the comments below.Just scan the list (over 100 entries now) for what catches your eye. It's one of the benefits of this format.Start here if you've never read before:Start here if you've recently read all other entries:A list of contributors:What's different from last edit: Last edited by Tao_Jones on Jul 1, 2014, 9:58:53 AM Last bumped on Apr 21, 2015, 8:45:37 PM