Glossary

XIV TLDR often uses abbreviations or simplified terminology to denote recurring attack patterns, marked by a flair. These are described on this page.

Acceleration Bomb: An attack which requires players to stop moving and attacking (including auto-attacks), often with a countdown or indicated by a debuff.
Add: Additional enemies, often summoned by a boss. Some boss fights have add phases, where all adds need to be killed before the fight resumes.
Akh Morn: AoE attack which hits multiple times and often requires the party to stack.
AoE: Area of Effect. Damage can either hit everyone in vicinity, or anyone standing in areas marked by AoE patterns.

Breath (Darkness): A damage type. Some buffs and debuffs can influence damage taken or given based on damage types. Only skills that can mitigate all damage can reduce Breath damage taken.
Buff: Status with positive effects applied to a player character.

Cardinal: The four main compass directions. N/E/S/W.
Charge (Dash): An attack that often has bosses charging through the arena, hitting everything in their path.
Chariot (Out): AoE pattern shaped like a circle, centered on the boss. Usually requires getting to the edge or out of melee range.
Conal (Cone): A fan- or wedge-shaped area of attack, often originating from adds or players hit with a marker.

Dash (Charge): An attack that often has bosses charging through the arena, hitting everything in their path.
Darkness (Breath): A damage type. Some buffs and debuffs can influence damage taken or given based on damage types. Only skills that can mitigate all damage can reduce Darkness damage taken.
Debuff: Status with negative effects applied to a player character. Debuffs with a blue, glowing bottom line can be removed by the healer skill Esuna.
Donut (Dynamo, In): AoE pattern shaped like a donut. The safe spot is usually directly in the boss hitbox, or far away.
Doom: Debuff which instantly kills at the end of its duration. Often removed when a player reaches full health points or with the healer skill Esuna.
Dorito (Kiss): A mechanic that requires players to stand close to each other. Often indicated by a red dorito-shaped marker above players’ heads. Usually standing close to a single other marked player is enough to resolve this mechanic.
Down for the Count: Debuff restricting all actions and interrupting any cast. Usually applied right before cutscenes or phase transitions.

Esuna: Healer skill which can remove cleansable debuffs.
Exaflare: Circles traveling in a direction indicated by arrows. Often explode one after another.

Gaze (Staring Contest): An attack that requires the player model to face away from the source of the gaze attack. Often indicated by a red eye above an enemy’s head.

In (Dynamo, Donut): AoE pattern shaped like a donut. The safe spot is usually directly in the boss hitbox, or far away.
Intercardinal: Four intermediate compass points located halfway between the main cardinal directions. NW/NE, SW/SE.
Invuln (Invulnerability): Tank skill which negates all damage.

Kiss (Dorito): A mechanic that requires players to stand close to each other. Often indicated by a red dorito-shaped marker above players’ heads. Usually standing close to a single other marked player is enough to resolve this mechanic.
Knockback: An effect that physically moves the player character backwards. Often negated by skills providing knockback immunity (Arm’s Length, Surecast)

Limit Break (LB): A strong special attack that builds over the course of a duty. LB3’s are fully charged limit breaks. Healers can revive entire parties to full health with it, while tanks sometimes require LB3 to block otherwise lethal damage.
Line Stack (Wild Charge): A line stack marker. The first player in the line of attack usually takes the most damage, often requiring a tank.

Magical: A damage type. Some buffs and debuffs can influence damage taken or given based on damage types.
Meteor: A hard-hitting attack which often requires breaking line-of-sight with the point of impact to survive.
Mitigation (Mit): Skills which reduce damage for either the player character or the whole party.

Out (Chariot): AoE pattern shaped like a circle, centered on the boss. Usually requires getting to the edge or out of melee range.

Physical: A damage type. Some buffs and debuffs can influence damage taken or given based on damage types. Only physical damage can be parried.
Plus: AoE pattern which shoots out straight line AoE’s in a plus shape.
Protean: AoE attack pattern targeting party members with cones, originating from the boss.
Proximity Marker: Attack which requires distance from the originating point to reduce the damage taken.
Pyretic: Debuff which deals damage when inflicted players move or use any action.

Repose: Healer skill which puts a target to sleep. Rarely used and enemies are often immune to it.
Rescue: Healer skill which pulls a targeted player towards the healer’s position. Rarely used to save a player from being hit by an AoE attack.
RW, Raidwide: Attack that hits the entire party, regardless of proximity to the source. Raidwide’s often require mitigation, and some can drop the HP of players to exactly 1.

Sequential: An attack pattern that covers the entire arena in multiple AoEs, which explode in the order they appeared. This is often solved by standing next to the first AoE and moving into it after it detonates.
Spread: A mechanic that requires players to spread out. Often AoE circles dropping on feet of players after the cast ends.
Stack (Stack Marker): An attack pattern that hits proportionally to the amount of players in its area of effect. Damage is shared. Stack markers can hit multiple times, and are sometimes role-specific.
Staring Contest (Gaze): An attack that requires the player model to face away from the source of the gaze attack. Often indicated by a red eye above an enemy’s head.

Tankbuster (TB): Hard-hitting attack targeting a tank, often indicated by a red circle.
Towers: A mechanic that requires a player to be present in a given area. Sometimes requires a specific amount of players or certain roles, indicated by visuals. If a tower is missed, the party usually suffers raid-wide damage.

Wild Charge (Line Stack): A line stack marker. The first player in the line of attack usually takes the most damage, often requiring a tank.