Dictionary For Beginners: Terms You Need To Know by Zaffre

Welcome to the Dictionary for Beginners!

This guide is created for beginners who are either completely new to the MOBA genre or who are just starting out in Vain Glory. You can find all the terms here that you will usually encounter in-game and knowing what they mean will be very helpful in so many ways.

Please note that this Dictionary is not organized in an alphabetical manner, rather it is organized by relevance in topic so you will understand related terms without having to scroll down so much. Every chapter also includes relevant MOBA terms and shortcuts which you will also encounter in the community.

After reading this Dictionary, expect the following:

- You will understand game mechanics better.
- You will know what each item does because you know the basic terms now.
- Better understanding of skills.
- Better understanding of guides and strategies.

If you have any suggestions in mind on how I can improve this Dictionary or if you want to clarify something, please comment below. Don't forget to rate this up as well so beginners can see this!

-Zaffre

Lock-in - This happens when you tap the "Lock-in" button in hero selection. This means that you cannot change your hero anymore after locking in.

Build - This refers to how you level up your character's skills and what items your character should have. Each build leads to different effects and play styles. A character can have different possible builds, depending on how you want to play it. You can check out the guides here in VGF for hero builds.

Backdoor - A strategy used in MOBAs wherein players destroy the enemy towers while ignoring everything else. This means that you don't wait for your minions to arrive at the tower, instead you tank all the damage and destroy the tower. Sometimes, as a desperate move, players would charge right into the enemy base and just attack the towers while ignoring enemy heroes even.

Carry - A carry is the hero who is the key to bringing the team to victory. A carry does not necessarily have to be an Assassin role, although it is usually associated to such heroes because they can wipe out heroes easily thus allowing teammates to push freely in the lane.

Support - A support is a role focused on providing vision in the map and buying defensive items to make teammates more durable or effective in battle.

Tank - A hero who is very durable and can take a considerable amount of damage for his teammates. In Vain Glory, tanks usually also play a support role. Catherine is a good example.

Hunt - To find enemy heroes in the map for the purpose of killing them.

Farm - The act of gathering gold by killing minions and creeps.

Gank - To ambush an enemy hero and kill him with the help of your teammates. This is usually done by the Support who roams the map. (See "Roam" for definition)

Jungle - The place in the map with neutral minions. This is the forest in the bottom part of the map.

Jungler - Someone who is assigned to level up in the jungle and make gold there. Their role is to avoid team fights early game so that when late game comes they can contribute properly to the team.

Kite - A hit-and-run technique usually for ranged heroes. Hit from afar, move away or towards the enemy, then hit again. Repeat. This is used to bypass the animation delay after attacking by moving. This is also a very helpful technique in chasing enemies when using ranged heroes.

Push - To pressure the lane and destroy towers.

Defend - To defend the lane and prevent your tower from being destroyed.

Roam - The act of moving around the map like visiting the lane then visiting the enemy jungle to exploit the enemy's vulnerability.

Active Skill - Each hero has 3 skills which you can tap in order to activate. These skills are called "Active" skills because they need to be activated before they can take effect.

Overdrive - Overdrive is the last upgrade to a hero's abilities (except the ult), which will either further buff the effect of the skill much more than other level ups can give (For example, Petal's Overdrive on her munions grants two more lvld instead of one), and some gives interesting abilities (For example, Taka's Overdrive on Kaiten negates the skill's Energy requirement). However, keep in mind that overdrives can cause further increased energy cost as well (For example, Koshka's PF will cost way more energy when overdriven, compared to the cost of lv4 PF. Credit to iCarus for the definition)

Passive Skill - Every hero has a skill which you automatically have and which cannot be leveled up. This is the 4th "hidden" skill as you do not see it in the skills which can be activated in your screen. Since they cannot be "activated" by tapping on them, they are called "Passive" skills because they are ALWAYS in effect. You can read the hero descriptions in game for their passive skills.

Ultimate - The skill of a hero which can be unlocked at level 6. These skills usually deal more damage than your other skills but also has a longer cooldown.

Ulti - Shortcut for Ultimate.

AD - Shortcut for "Attack Damage." Items like Sorrowblade increases AD.

AP - Shortcut for "Ability Power." Items like Shatterglass increases AP.

AS - Shortcut for "Attack Speed." Items like Tornado Trigger increases AS.

Critical Strike - Simply put, it's a basic attack which deals more damage (150% of your basic attack damage). However, some items can increase Critical Strike damage like Lucky Strike and Tyrant's Monocle

Critical Chance - This refers to how often you do "critical strikes" in a basic attack. For some heroes, there's a small chance of doing a "critical strike" when they do a basic attack. Levelling up skills for some heroes and equipping items will raise critical chance.
(See Glaive's skills, Taka's Passive, and Ringo's passive for examples.)

Weapon damage - Basic attacks. Items that increase weapon damage increases your damage output from basic attacks.

Crystal damage - Skills. Increasing crystal damage with weapons adds on to the damage of your skill. So let's say your skill says it will deal 320 damage. If you equip and item which increases Crystal Damage, it will MORE than 320.

However, there are some skills which are treated as basic attacks although they are abilities (example: Catherine's Merciless Pursuit)

True Damage - Type of damage which ignores armor and shield. Some skills deal true damage such as Ringo's Hellfire Brew.

Armor - Decreases the damage you take from basic attacks and weapon damage.

Shield - Decreases the damage you take from skills and crystal damage.

Life Steal - This is the same as weapon steal. If you equip weapons which grant life steal, then your basic attacks will heal you as you hit enemies. How much you heal per basic attack depends on the life steal rate indicated in the weapon.

DPS - Damage per second. It refers to how much and how quickly you can dish out damage overall.

1.) To further improve your general gameplay I highly suggest this guide by Yuhinz. Don't forget to vote it up!
http://www.vaingloryfire.com/vainglory/guide/learn-solo-queue-and-basics-by-yuhinz-simply-amazing-274

2.) How to plant land mines properly
http://www.vaingloryfire.com/vainglory/guide/its-a-trap-a-guide-to-scout-traps-and-where-to-place-them-53

More to be added.

I check comments regularly so please suggest what else you want to know.

If you want to contribute, please send me a message or comment here what you want to contribute.

Don't forget to vote up! :)

-Zaffre