Terms You Should Know

This glossary of Diablo 4 terms is meant to be a continuously updated reference for both players who are new to Diablo and dedicated players who are looking to stay up to date on the latest terminologies.

This list will be updated regularly so please let us know if you find anything that we missed and should be added in the comments down below!

We recommend using Ctrl + F to quickly find what term you are looking for.

Interested in the newest Diablo 4 class? Make sure to check our Spiritborn builds and guides to have easier time leveling and transitioning into the endgame.

This guide was written by Ruse_Cruize.

AFK

• Away from keyboard

Area of Effect (AoE)

• An ability or effect that can hit multiple targets at once.
• Used to refer to either the size of the effect or the amount of damage of the effect.

Balance

• The act of Blizzard trying to make the game feel fairer through buffs, nerfs, and other changes.

Buff

• An ability that empowers you or your ally, typically either giving increased damage or tankiness.
• A balance change that makes an ability or item stronger during a patch.

Burst

• To deal a large amount of damage in a short amount of time.

Cheese

• To use an unconventional and/or unpredictable strategy to win.
• Typically refers to exploiting the AI of monsters to prevent them from fighting back.

Cooldown (CD)

• Represents the downtime after the activation of an ability during which an ability cannot be cast.

Crowd control (CC)

• Effects that hinder a player or monster’s ability to move or act, such as stuns, slows, and knockdowns.

Damage over time (DoT)

• An ability, attack, or effect which deals damage over time.

Damage per second (DPS)

• Damage per second
• Often used interchangeably with “Damage Output”

Focus

• To prioritize damage onto a specific target.

Glass cannon

• A player or build that yields high damage output in exchange for being easy to kill.
• See squishy.

Kite

• To attack while gradually retreating, keeping an enemy out of harm’s reach by using either mobility or CC.

Meta

• The perceived “best” in relation to how the game is played and the state of game balance.
• Often refers to build choice, methods of farming, group composition or strategies for specific dungeons.

OOM

• Acronym for out of mana.
• Often used by classes that don’t use mana just to mean “out of resource”.

OP

• Overpowered.
• “Broken” is often used as a synonym.

Proc

• To trigger or activate a condition or effect. For example, hitting enemies has a chance to proc on hit effects.

Pull

• To get aggro on mobs in order to get them to move where you want them to.

Push

• Refers to trying to clear the highest level content you can do, and expand the upper bound of what you are currently clearing.

Single-target

• An ability or effect that only affects one target (as opposed to multiple like AoE).
• Often used when describing the damage profile of a build.

Squishy

• A player or enemy that is easy to kill due to a lack of total HP or defenses.
• Compare to a “tank”

Support

• A player in group content who typically bring massives buffs and the ability to group enemies so that they can be easily AOE’d down by allies.

Sustain

• The ability to regain lost health through self healing or shielding.

Sustain Damage

• Constant and consistent damage (as opposed to burst damage).

Synergy

• When two or multiple things compliment each other, often used in reference to passives, Legendary Aspects, and party compositions.

Tank (tanky)

• A tank is a player or enemy that is hard to kill due to their stats, ability kit, and/or gear.

Tier (T1)

• Shortened form of World Tier.
• T1 refers to World Tier 1, T2 refers to World Tier 2, etc.

ZDPS

• Stands for zero damage per second
• Refers to a support player who brings 0 damage but lots of utility and buffs for allies

Let us know if we missed any terms and we'll add them! For more guides and content, head to our Diablo 4 Guides section.