Attacks are skills that directly damage enemies, usually using your equipped Martial Weapon. Spells are not Attacks.
The base damage, attack speed and critical hit chance of an attack are determined using your Martial Weapon's stats unless the skill says otherwise.
Attacks do not necessarily deal Physical damage — they can deal any damage type.
Spells
Spells are skills that use raw magic to destroy your enemies. Attacks are not Spells.
Spells have their own base damage, cast speed and Critical Hit chance determined by the skill. They do not benefit from a weapon's inherent damage, attack speed or Critical Hit chance.
Projectile
A Projectile is a moving Attack or Spell that usually impacts with targets when it hits them.
When a group of multiple Projectiles is fired from the same source at the same time, only one Projectile in the group can hit each target unless otherwise specified.
Area of Effect Skills
This Skill has an effect that applies to every target in its area, rather than picking specific targets.
Areas of Effect that originate from a target hit by a Skill will add that target's size to their radius.
Melee
Melee Attacks are those that directly hit with a melee Strike or a Slam, dealing Melee damage. Melee attacks usually scale from Weapon or Unarmed damage.
Any Projectiles these attacks create do not count as Melee damage.
Channelling
Channelling Skills can be held down to gain power or continue using the Skill for a longer period of time.
Minions
Minions are summoned Allies which will accompany and fight alongside you. Persistent Minions will reserve a portion of Spirit while active.
Totems
Totems are allied constructs which use skills for you. Totems are not Minions and their skills benefit from your stats, though they have their own defensive stats and can be damaged or killed.
Totem Limit is shared between different types of Totem by default.
Traps
Traps are Two-Handed ranged weapons that require Dexterity and Intelligence to equip. Traps cannot be used to Attack directly.
Throwing a Trap places it on the ground, where it can either be detonated manually or triggered by Close by enemies depending on the Trap type.
Triggered Skills
Many effects can cause a Skill to Trigger. A Triggered Skill occurs immediately, without an attack or cast time, and usually targets the cause of the trigger. Triggering a Skill does not count as using it.
If multiple methods of Triggering a Skill attempt to apply to the same skill, that skill will be disabled. Channelled Skills cannot be Triggered.
Curses
Curses significantly Debuff affected targets. By default a target can have one Curse on them at a time.
Higher Rarity enemies are less affected by Curses:
15% less Curse effect on Magic monsters
30% less Curse effect on Rare monsters
50% less Curse effect on Unique monsters
Auras
Auras apply Buffs to Allies within a radius, or Debuffs to enemies within a radius of the source of the Aura.
Herald Skills
Herald Skills are a type of PersistentBuff that grant powerful effects on killing enemies.
Warcries
Warcries are skills which count enemy Power within their area and Empower your subsequent Melee Attacks, sometimes depending on the total Power of enemies counted.
Mark
Marks are a family of Debuffs that apply powerful effects to a single enemy, usually for a limited duration. You can have multiple Marked enemies at once, but each individual enemy can only have a single Mark applied to them at once.
Marks can be Activated when specific conditions occur, which will case some extra effect and then Consume the Mark.
Persistent Skills
Persistent Skills are toggled in the Skills Panel instead of being used normally and often need to ReserveSpirit in order to be activated.