A term referring to the event in which a player causes the final amount of damage to something which finally causes the monster to die. For example, if a monster has 5000 total health, player A does 1000 damage, player B then does 3999 damage, and player C follows with 5 damage, player C would have gotten the "killing blow" on this monster.
- Certain abilities and effects are only activated if a player gets the killing blow on a monster. Such abilities are only activated if the player in question gets the killing blow, it does not matter if they did the majority of the damage to the monster or if somebody in the player's party or raid got the killing blow.
- Some monsters and players have abilities they can use that also damage themselves. If the monster or player kills itself with this ability, they would have in effect scored the killing blow on themselves, thus it is possible for a player to not get the killing blow on a monster or player, even if he or she was the only one attacking them.