TACS Glossary

Why a Glossary?
The Legacy system was so primitive that there were not many words to learn about it because it did not do very much. Everyone already knows what "attack" and "miss" mean. However, with the development of TACS there are now many more situations and events and processes in the new combat system that can be described. Don't think you need to learn all these, but if you hear someone say them and you're curious what they mean but don't want to interrupt the battle to ask, check here.

Basic Concepts

 * Aggro: What you get when you carpet-bomb five Autobots. The process by which opponents decide who to attack. Drawing attention to yourself in such a way that it gets the other side to come after you can be said to be "drawing aggro." Used a bit ironically as usually aggro refers to an automatic process in MMOs, and not to other players. Sometimes used excessively ironically, as in when someone iRL is approaching and about to drag you out of a scene or event. Nosecone infamously was lost permanently to us due to drawing an excess of "wife aggro".
 * Defense, defend: What defense level you are using. Defense levels modify your ACC/AGL to favor one over the other, to a maximum of +30/-30.
 * Movement abilities: The abilities like Swim and Flight and FTL which let you pass through movement-locked exits like those found in the ocean or outer space. They also determine what percentage of your VEL, if any, you get as a vel-dodge bonus.
 * Stance: Defense level.
 * Vel-dodging, vel-evasion: The bonus granted to your AGL by being transformed. It is normally equal to one tenth of your VEL in that mode, but it can be more or less depending on the environment you're in. Having movement abilities affects this. Vel-dodging is normally only applied to dodging melee attacks.

Hit and Miss

 * Direct damage: As opposed to normal damage of the sort that you take when Ramjet headbutts you, direct damage has far fewer computational variables. It isn't affected by relative size and usually not by any of your stats or the origins' stats, it ignores armor, and it never misses. People who have Recoiling guns will be very familiar with it. The most common source of direct damage is the bonus granted by !analyze, or the injuries you take when using the Ram global.
 * Stat damage: Damage taken to any stat other than energon, armor, or endurance. Stat damage is different from debuffs in that a debuff is normally a combat flag that disappears after a turn or two, while stat damage stays with you for the duration of the battle, and longer. There are three sources of stat damage. Once your endurance drops below half, every hit you take, no matter where it came from, deals equal damage to one of your other stats. Secondly, the Corrupting weapons of characters like Shockwave will burn away your stats regardless of your current endurance. And finally, Dirge and Scorponok can damage your Courage via their ability to inflict Fear. Courage cannot be damaged by any other means than the restricted Fear effect.
 * Stat damage: Damage taken to any stat other than energon, armor, or endurance. Stat damage is different from debuffs in that a debuff is normally a combat flag that disappears after a turn or two, while stat damage stays with you for the duration of the battle, and longer. There are three sources of stat damage. Once your endurance drops below half, every hit you take, no matter where it came from, deals equal damage to one of your other stats. Secondly, the Corrupting weapons of characters like Shockwave will burn away your stats regardless of your current endurance. And finally, Dirge and Scorponok can damage your Courage via their ability to inflict Fear. Courage cannot be damaged by any other means than the restricted Fear effect.

Effects

 * Armor breakers: Effects that target armor, specifically Shatter and Disintegrate.
 * Buffs: Effects or abilities that improve someone or something, like Scout and Inspire. Also a verb, as in "wow, Vendetta's missile really hurt after Artifice buffed him." Not used to refer to health, however. Buffs are a good way to be a passive support unit, like Bumblebee.
 * Debuffs: The opposite of buffs. Penalties you can apply to harm someone or something in a means other than just damaging them. Unlike stat damage, debuffs typically go away after a little while. Blind and Cripple are common debuffs. Someone equipped mainly with debuffs is sometimes called a debuffer. Debuffs are an effective way to be an aggressive support unit, like Soundwave, as in "We're all in the medbay because Soundwave debuffed everyone so that Devastator could hit us with a bridge."
 * Proc: Short for process. When a effect with a chance to take effect does take effect, one can say that it has procced. As in "oops, Backfire just procced and I hit myself," or "Wild has a one-fifth proc chance (to hit Scorponok)."
 * Wild, wilding: This refers both to the Wild effect and what happens when that effect processes. As in, a Decepticon might be heard to say, "whoops, I just hit Scorponok again because this attack has Wild on it," or "I wish that area attack hadn't just wilded three times and hit Scorponok for triple damage."