Debuffs (WoW)  

A debuff is the opposite of a buff. It refers to any temporary effect placed either on a character or an enemy.

Debuffs come in several varieties:

• Stat Decrease - This type of debuff will lower some or all of the stats of a player or enemy. An example of this would be the debuff placed on a mob by Vindication or by Curse of Weakness
• Damage - This type of debuff is also commonly referred to as a DoT. It will do periodic damage over a set amount of time. An example of this would be something like a Priest's spell:Shadow Word:Pain (Rank 1)]
• Buffs Enemy - This type of debuff makes attacks against the debuffed target more powerful. An example of this type would be Misery which increases the spell damage taken by the target (debuffed mob) by 1%.
• Slow - This type of debuff slows the movement speed of the debuffed enemy. Examples of this would be the Mage's Slow or Warrior's Hamstring. A Hunter's frost trap, while it slows the player, is not an example of a debuff is it's not applied to the player but an area which makes it an AoE, not a true debuff.
• Incapacitate - This debuff refers to an effect that incapacitates the enemy. A rogue's Gouge or Paladin's Hammer of Justice is an example of this. Some incapacitates break on damage done to the debuffed target (like the first example), some do not (like the second).
• Fear - This refers to an effect that causes the target to flee in terror, damage cause may or may not break the effect. Both priests and warlocks have a fear spell and some other classes have fears that only work on specific types of mobs (i.e. the Hunter's Scare Beast).
• Horror - This is similar to a fear effect but cannot be dispelled by items or spells that remove fear effects. Death Coil is an example of a horror debuff.

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