Noob trying to understand some MMO terms

Caroloces · October 2014

ESO is my first real MMO, though I've dabbled a bit when Everquest first came out, and most recently, GW2. Loving the experience in this game, because 99% of interactions with other players are friendly, cordial, and collaborative.
I'm really intrigued by the fine tuning one can do to create a strong character, and I admire and respect the extensive knowledge many players demonstrate on these forums (and elsewhere!) on how to create strong builds.
The terminology has been a little bit of a challenge, though I think I'm getting most of it (crit=critical strike, which may occur on a certain percentage of your strikes depending on what armor, weapon, jewelry buffs, you've got going. I'm not quite sure if there is a "default" crit level for abilities or weapons that are not buffed??).

Anyway, two terms remain a bit elusive for me: "proc" which I'm guessing means to activate an ability?? And the other one I see frequently is "scale off of" like such and such ability(?) scales off of some other ability(?).

If anyone can point me to a good online reference, or perhaps give an overview to these things, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

AlexDougherty · October 2014

unofficial-eso-slang-and-abbreviation-dictionary

Scales off, means the values for that ability are based on some stat, so increasing that stat increases the damage done (or healed).

Not entirely sure about Proc, different people seem to use it slightly differently.

Edit~Just googled Proc, it appears to refer to an ability or effect activating as a side-effect of you doing something else, like a critical attack. But as I said people seem to sue it differently.

Rosveen · October 2014

Status Effects and you

This one might be helpful too.

As for your questions:

To proc means to be triggered by or inflicted by. For example the burned status proccing from fire damage, or Crystal Fragments (which normally has cast time, but has a chance to be an instant cast after using another spell) proccing from other skills costing magicka - or in other words, having the instant cast activated after using such a skill.

scale off of X - X is used to calculate the result. For example, some skills' magnitude is influenced by your maximum magicka, others by stamina. If an ability scales off of magicka, it's more powerful the more magicka you have. If it scales off of weapon crit, then obviously it takes your weapon critical chance into account, not spell crit (both are shown in your character window).

You need to pay attention to weapon/spell damage and crit. It can be quite tricky, many melee class skills cost magicka and use spell power, but weapon crit.

Voodoo · October 2014

Proc would mean when a passive or some other spell happens due to a trigger.

Some spells have a finisher on then like an explosion at the end of the timed spell or some armor set bonuses have an ability that happens X amount of times.

example:

5 piece Ashen Grip set bonus: 10% chance to breath fire for 100 fire dmg on melee hits. ....When that goes off it is a proc.

Resueht · October 2014

I believe proc is short for procedural random occurrence. Sometimes used as a verb as well. It's an occurrence based on a random number generator (RNG).

I can go into further explanation of percentages and RNGs if you would like; what I provided was a tl;dr definition.

Nestor · October 2014

Here are some other terms to look at for your enjoyment.

http://www.forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/135045/can-anyone-explain-these-common-terms

wafcatb14_ESO · November 2014

As others have said Proc is used to explain an ablity that can trigger, like some weapons in other games here as well have effects on them, haste, attack damage buffs,, Aera of effect and direct damage nukes , chance to heal etc .

that will random fire of and activate durning combat . some games like old Ever quest , dexterity would effect the weapons chance to trigger the proc .