What’s up Gaming Heroes! Starting a new online game can be daunting especially one the size of World of Warcraft! When you combine this with not being able to understand the lingo veteran players are throwing around, it will maker it difficult for you to truly enjoy yourself. If you are shy or do not want to ask what the meanings are then you’ve found the right article!
Explanation
This guide will try to explain the World of Warcraft abbreviations and terminology. Meaning the short hand that is taken for granted by experienced players who will expect you to automatically understand.
This is a list of terms used by veteran players.
General Abbreviations
Abbreviations or terms you will find in the world used in Trade chat, General Chat or Guild Chat.
WoW – World of Warcraft.
MMO – Massive multiplayer online (game).
Blizz – Blizzard
Alt – Player characters that are not their mainly played one.
NPC – Non playable characters. The people giving quests or lore or enemies. Anything that is not controlled directly by a player.
RP – Role playing. When players play as their characters not themselves.
Toon – Playable characters.
FotM – Flavor of the Month. Usually a spec or class that is currently strong.
Spec – Specialization. Each class two – four specs. You can choose one. Each one affects the way the character is played.
GM – Guild master. Someone who leads a guild or Game Master. Someone who is a Blizzard Customer Service representative.
GL – Good Luck or Guild Leader.
Gratz – Congratulations.
Ding – Leveled up. People usually say when they have leveled their character up or if they have reached their desired reputation.
Lvl – The level of you character. It can also mean leveling your character up.
RiP – Rest in peace. Usually used when a guild member leaves the guild or a group member falls apart. A way of showing sorrow or empathy.
DC – disconnected. When a player is disconnected from the game. No longer logged in.
QQ – crying eyes emoji referring to people complaining.
HS – Hearth Stone. Teleport item with 20min CD.
Rep – Reputation with a NPC faction.
Respec – Swapping between class specializations
Inv – Invite. Invite someone to your group, party or guild.
Pug – Pick up Group. A group of players found randomly that is not premade or pre invited. Players not in your usual guild or friend circle. Usually found in the group finder.
LF – Looking For. A group or person looking for a specific class or role. Also used in trade chat for LF (specific profession or item)
WTB – Want to Buy
WTS – Want to Sell
Lore – History of WoW universe
Mats – Materials used for crafting professions.
DE – Disenchant. It is done by people who have the profession, Enchanting. It destroys the item but gives you materials to enchant your gear.
Enchant – Puts a permanent buff on a piece of gear giving it increased stats or unique abilities.
Prof – Profession.
Group Abbrivations
Abbrivations or terms you would generally find when in a group.
LFG – Looking For Group. Often used to describe Dungeon Finder or Premade groups.
LFR – Looking For Raid. Use the raid finder “I”. Lowest difficulty raid with fewer mechanics.
LFM – Looking for More. Looking for more players to join a party or raid.
123 – Please summon. Either with a warlock or a summoning stone if outside a dungeon.
Roll – rolling dice in game usually between 1-100. Done by typing /roll.
M+ – Mythic keystone dungeons. Dungeons on harder difficulty unlocked via a keystone.
Tank – Group role for player whose job it is to get Threat or Agro and have the enemies hitting or casting at them instead of the group.
Aggro/Threat – Enemy is attacking a player. Or being too close to a passive enemy that causes it to begin attacking.
TPS – Threat Per second. Enemies generally attack the player with the most Threat.
Adds – New enemies that join a fight in progress.
Face pull/ Body Pull – Running into an enemy to pull them instead of casting an ability to pull them away.
Mobs – Enemy NPC units.
LoS – Line of Sight. Blocking an enemies sight stopping their cast or abilities on you. Also often used in PVP.
Peel – stop an enemy attacking an ally.
Healer – Group role of player who is a healing class and spec that focuses on healing the group to keep them alive.
HoT – Heal over Time. It is a healing spell that heals the target over a specified duration.
HPS – Healing Per second. Amount of healing done per second.
CR/BR – Combat ress/Battle Res. This is just a resurrect ability that will bring a player back to life during combat.
DPS – Damage per second. Refers to the amount of damage done per second and players who are damaging classes or specs.
DD – Damage dealer. Group role of someone who focuses on damage.
CC – Crowd Control. This has several meanings. The main one would be keeping one or several enemy mobs out of combat. It can also mean stuning, fearing or interrupting an enemy.
AoE – Area of effect abilities that damage all enemies in the target area. Can be done by hostile mobs as well as players.
Interrupt – Stop a spell being cast by an enemy.
Kick – Interrupt. Stopping an enemy spell
Lust/Hero – This is an ability that increases everyone in the party of raids Haste by 30%. Only certain classes have this:
- Mage – Time Warp
- Hunter – Primal Rage (Only “Ferocity” pets have this but if in a group you will be expected to have a pet and ready to use it unless there is a mage or Shaman in the group)
- Shaman – Heroism (Alliance), Blood Lust (Horde)
Drums – Lesser version of Hero. Consumable item crafted by Leather working proffesion. 15% haste.
Item Abbrivations
Abbrivations that are linked to or concern items or gear.
BiS – Best in slot. The best item you can find for that slot of armor/weapon or accessories.
BoP – Bind on Pickup. Item that soulbound to your character when you pick it up or given it.
BoE – Bind on Equip. Items that soulbound to your character when you epip it.
Soulbound – Cannot send or give to another character, must sell to vendors or destroy when no longer needed.
BoA – Bind on Account. Can send between your own personal characters on your WoW account.
RNG – Random Number generator. Refers to anything that involves luck or chance.
ilvl – Item Level. Can be seen on your character screen.
Grey – Item Rarity – Trash
White – Item Rarity – Common
Green – Item Rarity – Uncommon
Blue – Item Rarity – Rare
Purple – Item Rarity – Epic
Orange – Item Rarity – Legendary
Trash – Something not very good or needed.
Character Abbrivations
Abbrivations linked with characters or classes.
CD – Cool down. Time it takes for an ability to be usable again.
Burst – Burst damage. Lots of damage in a short period of time. Using your cool down in a short window of time for higher damage output during that time.
GCD – Global Cooldown. Internal cooldown that is triggered after an ability is used.
Invis – Invisibility. Either with a class ability, group class ability or potion. Can also refer to Stealth ability.
MT – Main tank. Used for raids, tank who holds primary aggro of the boss.
OOM – Out of mana. Healers will use it if run out of mana and need to refill out of combat.
Port – Portal. Mage ability that allows them to create a portal for the party to a specified location.
Proc – Triggered effect or ability that can trigger under certain circumstances.
Sheep – Refers to mage ability Polymorph spell that turns an enemy into a sheep. Has also come to refer to any CC.
TP – Teleport
Transmog – Transmogrification. Changes the appearance of your character’s armor.
PVP Abbreviations
Abbreviations associated with PvP content.
PVP – Player vs Player.
BG – Battle ground. Player vs Player arena. Fighting other players on their characters rather than NPC’s.
Cap – Capture. Refers to PvP objects like capturing the Flag or Area.
Inc – Incoming. Enemies are incoming.
City Abbreviations
City names and faction.
Org – Orgimmar. Horde Major City.
SW – Stormwind. Alliance Major City.
IF – Iron forge. Dwarfs/Gnomes main city (Alliance)
Shat – Shattrath
Dal – Dalaran
Expansion Names
WoW has been going for a long time. During that period there have been many expansions. Each one except for Legion has an abbreviated term.
Wod – Warlords of Dreanor
WoTLK – Wrath of the Lich King
Cata – Cataclysm
Mop – Mists of Pandara
TBC/BC – The Burning Crusade
SL – Shadow Lands
Vanilla – The original game
Classic – The remake of the original game
BFA – Battle for Azeroth
Community
WoW is all about community. The community you do dungeons with, level with, raid with or anything. There are so many parts of WoW that are improved and made more enjoyable if done with a community. I hope that this guide can help you feel part of your WoW community by understanding the lingo they are using and helping you to fit in.
Enjoyed This PVE Guide?
We are looking forward to see what you find as you fight through this dungeon and discover new and improved ways of doing it.
Thank you for reading.
