Figuring out the lingo in any game can be difficult especially when you’re not a regular in either the MMO gaming world or in the game itself, like Guild Wars 2. That’s alright though, even the biggest pros in the world don’t know every single term and it’s not always spelled out to you in big bold letters. When someone starts talking about a build or Rurik we can often find ourselves getting lost unless we’re knee deep in the lore and the game. So that’s why it’s helpful to have a handy guide available to shed some light on things you’ve might have been curious about.

• HoM (Hall of Monuments): The HoM is a big thing in the Guild Wars universe because your past legacy from GW1 will grant you rewards in GW2. It’s an instanced area in the Guild Wars: Eye of the North campaign where you can attach various achievements (such as titles, mini pets, etc.) to display and show to others. These achievements grant you points which determine what kind of rewards you get in GW2.
• Build: The GW universe uses a skill bar that restricts your available skills to the number available on your skill bar. In GW1 you can only switch skills out in town and you only have eight available skills out of hundreds. In GW2 you can switch skills when you’re out of combat and have ten available skill slots, but five are determined by your weapons while the last five are determined by player choice.
• Asura Gates: These are gates made by the Asura that connect two locations magically and allow instantaneous travel. The gates are currently controlled by the Asura who only allow peaceful travelers with no contraband (anything exposed to Orr or the Dragonbrand) to use their gates. There is one currently connected to Ebonhawke from Divinity’s Reach to resupply the Human base.
• Conditions: Conditions are negative affects placed onto you by the environment or certain skills. Each condition has a different effect usually either draining you of your life, crippling you, or affecting your combat ability. There are several different types of conditions:
• Bleed: Causes you to lose life over time.
• Blind: Makes hitting enemies with melee weapons difficult.
• Burning: A short lasting DoT that deals considerable damage.
• Crippled: Snares you.
• Fear: Causes you to flee battle.
• Frozen: Makes you unable to use abilities or move.
• Immobilized: Makes you unable to move.
• Poison: A long lasting damage over time ability.
• Vulnerability: Makes you more vulnerable to damage.
• Weakness: Causes you to deal less damage.
• Elder Dragons: There are a total of five known Elder Dragons which serve as the main antagonist of Guild Wars 2. The dragons are responsible for large swaths of damage in addition to the current strife in the world. If you want to learn more view our Elder Dragon guide.
• Waypoint: A location on a map that allows for resurrection and fast travel on the map. Each zone has about 10 to 20 waypoints and you can choose to travel to any discovered waypoint instantly for a fee (that is determined by distance).
• Feat: Daily tasks that require you to kill a certain amount of enemies, kill a certain enemy type, etc. When a feat is completed the enemy that you killed will drop additional loot. Feats grow in difficulty with the more you complete, up until they reset the next day.
• Dynamic Events: Certain areas have “dynamic events” that change depending on player interaction. For instance, if you save a city then that city will become a quest hub for another area while if you let the city fall then the quest hub will be the townspeople attempting to retake their city. You can read more about Dynamic Events here.
• Instance: The world of Guild Wars 2 is persistent, meaning that all players on the same server are within the same world that is constantly running. There are some areas of the world that give you or your group a private area to yourself, sort of like a private copy of the world where you can adventure and your actions can only be seen by you or your group. These are instances and mostly apply to dungeons so that players can have their own copy and not have to fight over other groups for rare enemies.
• Downed: New to Guild Wars 2 is the “downed” state. Whenever you lose all of your life points you immediately go into a “downed” state where you can use special “downed” abilities to try and kill an enemy and rally back to life. If you are unsuccessful then you’ll die for good and need to be resurrected or respawn at a waypoint.
• Personal Story: Your personal story is the story that your character develops starting at character creation and continues until you finish the main plotline. Each story is different (with over 1,000 variations) and changes depending on choices (such as who you help and who you forget).

Well those are the main terms you need to know about in GW2. Are we missing some or have a question? Then join us on the Ten Ton Hammer community forums and share your thoughts.