While I try to make my videos as easily understandable by the common player, there exists some terminology that I use in my videos (as well as throughout this document) that may be easily misinterpreted or need clarification over my personal definition over such words. As such, here are explanations to some common terminology I use that may come across as ambiguous.


Outclass - A term that's used to refer to a unit being completely out performed by another unit, typically a non uber unit or any other accessible unit. Outclass is a harsh term that is associated with a unit having little, if any value at all due to near objectively better non uber units existing at completing the specified role or task.


(Niche) Overlap - This is essentially outclass, but to a much lesser degree. Outclass and overlap are NOT the same thing. When a unit as a niche overlap, it means that the alternative in question is about equal in viability or better/ worse in specific situations. Typically a unit that has a niche overlap is generally less valuable, but isn't a straight path to unviability. In fact, almost every uber in the game can be percieved of having a niche overlap in some way, shape, or form (which more so shows how broken non uber units actually are).


Value - I use 2 different definitions of value depending on the context. Below are both definitions in both contexts.


Value (As a unit) - Value as a unit is essentially the core variable that every tier list and ranking to ever exist (even ones outside of this document) are trying to measure. Value can be best described as simply how good a unit is, and there are different ways to measure that value, thus giving birth to the concept of methodology. When a unit has more value (or is more valuable), it simply ranks higher.


Value (In battle) - Value in battle is a measurement of a unit's mobility to their performance. It is essentially their payoff; a unit that is cheap and can offer an insanely powerful kit (Balrog is the best example for this) is capable of earning the player high amounts of value. Typically units that are cost effective are ones that can earn high amounts of value. If a unit can earn tons of value, then it usually correlates to their overall performance.


Performance - Performance is how good a unit does at its job, which can also be referred to as its niche. Performance is a more general term that allows us to bind and compare the viability of units that may have differing roles, as the "level of good" that a unit has can be compared to the "level of good" another unit has on top of other variables such as the relevancy of their functions, uniqueness, etc.


Burst - Refers to the amount damage a unit can do in a limited time frame, usually in a few seconds or in one hit. Burst also accounts for mobility. High burst usually means large damage per hit on a unit that may also have high mobility while low bursting units typically have low damage per hit and/ or slower kit. Burst is a major component alongside DPS to a unit's viability in offensive gameplay.


Mobility - Refers to a unit's overall speed. This most notably includes movement speed, cost, and cooldown, but can also include KB count, animations, and attack rate. High mobility means having high overall speed and great flexibility.


Survivability/ Sustainability - Refers to a unit's capability to be alive on the field for longer periods of time. Units with high survivability typically have higher standing range and more KB count to reposition, but it can also include HP stats too.


CC - Short for crowd control. This does not refer to a unit's capability to damage swarms, it refers to debuffs themselves such as slow, freeze, weaken, etc. A unit having a good CC can mean having a good target, good debuff itself, good debuff frequency, good debuff duration/ uptime, or wide area effect.


KB - Short for Knockback. This either refers to the unit's actual knockback count or the knockback ability depending on the context, usually the former is specified as "KB count".


LD - Short for the long-distance ability.


Foreswing - The part of the attack animation leading up to the damage. A unit with longer foreswing is more likely to miss their attack (unless they have LD which makes the attack pierce and correct itself). A unit like Cat Machine has a long foreswing and thus misses very often. A unit like Hanzo has a very short foreswing so he almost always lands his attack.


Backswing - The part of the attack animation that plays after the unit landed damage. This is not relevant to getting a unit to land their attack which is why foreswing is more important, however backswing is the time that a unit stands still/ idles after landing an attack. Some units are built to have very long backswings and begin their next attack after the backswing is finished. But when they are KB'd during their backswing, their next attack cycle immediately initiates. This is how units like Bahamut and Yukimura work, and we call these rebound units. Rebound units are not all rushers, units like Miko Mitama and even Dark Kasli are rebound units with their backswings offering greater survivability.


Attack Cycle (TBA) - The time between a unit landing their attack to their next attack. This is also known as TBA which stands for Time Between Attacks.


Bulk - This is total HP divided by total KB count. It's the same as the amount of damage a unit must take at a minimum in order to be knocked back. Units with high bulk are better against enemy backliners, since the enemy backliner is unable to juggle or reposition the unit.


Bait/ Baiting - A common tech that means luring enemies into the range of your cats to land big damage. This is prevelant on nukers or units with long foreswings. An uber whose usage relies on baiting is usually much harder to use than an average uber.


Mizli Syndrome - The tendency for a knockback based unit to push frontline enemies back into the backliner enemy, allowing your units to move into the backliner range and die, causing said knockback unit to basically throw. This is most typically seen on knockback units with poor trait targeting, usually traits that have a larger abundance of backliner threats. Mizli Syndrome can be avoided easily by creating a proper environment for synergy (such as using a sniper) or avoid using said knockback unit on backliner stages entirely. Regardless, it can still persist as a limiting factor that needs to be accounted for in a knockback unit's usage. The term originates from Siluman and was labeled as such due to Mizli herself being the biggest offender to this phenomenon (Note: Mizli Syndrome no longer applies to Mizli as of 14.7 due to her mini-surge ultra form).


Trait Composition - This term refers to the synergy that a unit's target traits have. More simply it evaluates how often a certain pair of traits appear together. A specialist who has multiple target traits with those target traits appearing often together is considered to have good trait composition. A specialist who has multiple target traits that rarely appear together has poor trait composition. An example of bad trait composition would be Pegasa where Zombies and Floatings rarely appear together, so her niche can't be utilized fully. Luna is an example of excellent trait composition since Alien, Zombie, and Relic appear incredibly often together.

Below is a list of some of the most notable trait pairings (not ordered nor is it a complete list, these are examples).