World of Warcraft has a vocabulary of its own, and guides tend to use it without explanation. This short glossary covers the words that appear most often in this notebook, written the way I would explain them to a friend sitting next to me.
Groups and activities
Dungeon: a short instance for a group of five, usually one tank, one healer and three damage dealers.
Raid: a larger instance for bigger groups with several boss encounters, often played on a fixed weekly schedule.
Mythic+ (M+): a dungeon mode in which a keystone sets the difficulty level and a timer. Higher keys bring stronger enemies and better rewards.
Keystone: the item that opens a Mythic+ dungeon at a chosen level.
Group Finder: the in-game tool that matches you with other players for dungeons, raids and activities.
World quest: a short repeatable task in the open world that rewards gear, currency or reputation.
Gear and characters
Item level: the number that summarises how strong a piece of gear is. Higher is generally better.
Gear tracks: the upgrade ladder that groups gear into named ranks, from Explorer through Adventurer, Veteran, Champion and Hero up to Myth.
BiS (best in slot): the strongest item available for a given slot and role. Planning a BiS list is a good way to choose which dungeon bosses to visit.
Alt: any character other than your main. Many players keep alts for professions, collecting or trying a different role.
Transmog: a system that lets you change the appearance of armour and weapons without changing their stats.
Economy and collecting
Auction House: the player-driven market where items, materials and crafted goods are bought and sold.
Farming: repeating an activity on purpose to collect materials, reputation, gold or a particular drop.
Reputation: your standing with a faction, which unlocks vendors, recipes, mounts and cosmetics as it grows.
Crafting orders: a system that lets players request an item from a crafter and set the materials and reward.
Weekly reset: the moment each week when lockouts and weekly rewards refresh. On European realms it falls on Wednesday morning.
Missing a term you keep running into? Send it to contact@wow-hungary.com and it may well appear here next.