Terminology Guide - Terms And Acronyms - Guide for World of Warcraft
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World of Warcraft Terminology Guide
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PC Version
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| Table of Contents |
+-------------------+
I. - How to Contact Me
II. - Version History
III. - Copyright Info. and Legal Information
IV. - Purpose/What This Guide Will Cover
V. - The Terminology
VI. - Credits
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+--------------------------------+
| Section I. - How to Contact Me |
+--------------------------------+
Name - Josh Eaton
E-mail - [email protected]
===============================================================================
+-------------------------------+
| Section II. - Version History |
+-------------------------------+
Version 0.00 - (28 Nov 2005) - Started.
Version 1.00 - (30 Nov 2005) - Finished. Version 1 done.
Version 1.20 - (30 Nov 2005) - Added a bunch of recommended things from
GameFAQs users and gave them credit.
Version 1.30 - (01 Dec 2005) - Added Alterac Valley Graveyards, Feign Death,
Crit, Proc, and TB (2).
Version 1.50 - (02 Dec 2005) - Added PvP, PvE, adjusted Attack Power, fixed
Fairie Fire, and a lot of other things I've
forgotten things that I've forgotten now.
Version 1.51 - (02 Mar 2006) - Added a few terms.
Version 1.52 - (28 May 2006) - Few terms added.
Version 1.53 - (09 Jul 2006) - Few terms added.
Version 1.54 - (28 Dec 2006) - Few terms added.
Version 1.55 - (07 Jan 2006) - Few terms added.
Version 2.00 - (03 Apr 2007) - Added tons of new Burning Crusade terms.
Version 2.10 - (09 Apr 2007) - Added more Burning Crusade terms.
Version 2.20 - (22 Apr 2007) - Added more Burning Crusade terms and made
changes to some terms that were necessary.
Version 2.21 - (29 Apr 2007) - Added a few more Burning Crusade terms.
Version 2.22 - (02 May 2007) - Few terms added.
Version 2.23 - (16 Mar 2008) - Few terms added.
Version 2.25 - (13 Apr 2008) - Few terms added.
Version 2.30 - (14 Aug 2008) - Few terms added and adjusted Version History
layout.
Version 3.00 - (26 Mar 2009) - Added tons of Lich King expansion terms.
Version 3.05 - (30 Mar 2009) - Few terms added, some typos fixed.
Version 3.06 - (01 Apr 2009) - Typos fixed.
Version 4.00 - (25 May 2011) - Added tons of Cataclysm expansion terms.
Version 4.05 - (27 May 2011) - Few terms added, contact information changed.
Version 4.10 - (27 May 2011) - Went through entire guide and removed/changed
outdated information. Also future-proofed some
information.
Version 4.15 - (30 May 2011) - Few terms added, some typos fixed.
Version 4.20 - (29 Aug 2011) - Few terms added, typos fixed, info corrected.
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| Section III. - Copyright Info. and Legal Info. |
+------------------------------------------------+
Alright. Here's how it works. This guide will first be publicized on GameFAQs.
It is Copyright 2005 to me, Joshua J. Eaton. You, the reader, may only use it
for reading and your own personal use. You may NOT take it and place it on your
website, nor may you give it out to anyone in a physical form. At present, this
guide is only allowed to be posted on this website: www.gameFAQs.com . DO NOT
take or use this guide for anything without my personal consent. If you see
this guide on any other website other than GameFAQs, please contact me about
it. Furthermore, my consent to post my guide on another website other than the
said one will NOT be given, so please do not E-mail me to ask.
===============================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Section IV. - Purpose/What This Guide Will Cover |
+--------------------------------------------------+
This guide for the PC game World of Warcraft will basically go over some of the
most commonly seen terms related to this game. Many people just starting may
not know some of the terms that experienced players just throw around constant-
ly. This guide will serve to show you and explain to you exactly what those
terms, phrases, or abbreviations mean. Feel free to contact me at the E-mail
address above to add more. You will be given credit.
===============================================================================
+-------------------------------+
| Section V. - The Terminology |
+-------------------------------+
This section of the guide will merely list some of the most commonly seen and
heard terms, abbreviations, phrases, etc, that you will see in the game. A few
of them can be found in the back of your game's manual, but the vast majority
of them cannot, thus the purpose of this guide. I've conveniently put all the
terms in alphabetical order as well, so it should be fairly easy for you to
find whichever one you may be looking for. So... let's begin!
Term What It Means/Stands For
-------- ----------------------------
1337 A way of typing on the internet that involves using num-
bers and symbols to display the vast majority of letters.
This one says "leet", which is short for "elite", meaning
good, pro, etc. Many players consider "1337-speak" to be
childish and annoying, but it can be humorous in some
uses.
A52 Area 52. (Town)
AB Arathi Basin. This is one of the game's Battlegrounds.
AC Auchenai Crypts. (Instance)
Add This means that another enemy has aggro'd to your group's
current fight. "Add" is normally said by a member in your
group who noticed this.
AE Arcane Explosion. This is a Mage spell that's simply an
instant-cast AoE (see below), usually used to finish off
opponents with low health, as it has no cooldown.
AFK Away From Keyboard. This means the person is not at their
computer.
Aggro The game has it's own built-in "hate" system. Aggro can be
short for "aggressiveness" in a sense. For example, if you
get too close to an enemy, you can make it aggro to you
and it will attack you. Furthermore, if one player is
attacking an enemy and you out-damage them or heal them
significantly, the enemy will aggro to you.
Agi Short for "Agility".
Agility A stat in the game that affects your critical hit percen-
tage, your dodge percentage, and in a rogue's case (also
a Druid while in Cat-Form), attack power. Agility also
adds Ranged Attack Power.
AH Auction House.
AI Arcane Intellect, a spell cast by a mage that buffs your
intellect.
Aldor This is a group of ancient Draenei priests that alligned
with the Naaru and are rivals of the Scryers (see below).
AN Azjol-Nerub. (Instance)
AoE/AOE Area of Effect. There are some spells in the game that can
be cast on whole areas to do damage to everything in that
area. This is useful if there are many weak enemies and
you don't want to kill them one by one.
AP Attack Power.
AQ Ahn'Qiraj. (Instance). If this is followed by a "20" or a
"40", it is referring to the two separate parts of AQ,
the 20man side and the 40man side.
Arc Short for "Arcatraz". (Instance)
Arch Short for Archeology, a secondary profession introduced in
Cataclysm, the third expansion.
Archavon Short for Vault of Archavon. (Instance)
Arm Short for "Armory". This is a commonly run part of the
instance Scarlet Monestary.
Armor A stat in the game that affects how much damage you take
from melee attacks. The higher your armor, the less damage
you take.
Armor-class Some classes can wear multiple "classes" of armor. The ar-
mor classes in order of weakest to strongest are: cloth,
leather, mail, plate. Some classes, such as Warlocks, can
only wear Cloth armor, whereas others, like Warriors, can
wear any kind they want.
Atk Short for "Attack".
Attack Power A stat in the game that affects how hard you hit in melee
or ranged combat.
AV Alterac Valley. This is one of the game's Battlegrounds.
Azjol Short for Azjol'Nerub. (Instance)
Baron See "UD (2)" below. Baron Rivendare is the final boss of
Stratholme and is found on the Undead side.
Battleground Battlegrounds are certain mini-instances in the game in
which the two factions fight each other and try to
accomplish something, whether it be to capture the flag,
kill the other team's General, or get the most Hills in a
game of King of the Hill in order to gather points faster
to win.
BB Booty Bay. (Town)
BC Burning Crusade. This is the name of the first expansion
for World of Warcraft.
BE Blood Elf, a race available to the Horde faction. Blood
Elves were made available to play in the Burning Crusade
expansion.
BF Blood Furnace. (Instance (see below))
BFD Blackfathom Deeps. (Instance (see below))
BG Battleground. See above.
BH Baradon Hold. (Instance (see below))
BiS Best in Slot. Many classes have certain pieces of gear
that are the absolute best possible piece of gear for a
gear-slot. For example, the best possible belt for your
belt slot currently in the game would be your BiS-belt.
BM Black Morass. (Instance (see below))
BoA Bind on Account. Some items in the game can be "Soulbound"
to your ACCOUNT, meaning any character on your account
can use them. The stats on these items typically change
depending on the level of the character holding them. See
"BoE" and "BoP" below for more types of Soulbinding.
BoE Bind on Equip. Some items in the game can be Soulbound to
your character, meaning no one else can use them or even
hold them. Until actually used and/or equipped, BoE items
are NOT Soulbound. See "BoA" above and "BoP" below for
more types of Soulbinding items.
BoK Blessing of Kings. This is a buff (see below) given by the
Paladin class.
BoM Blessing of Might. This is a buff (see below) given by the
Paladin class.
BoP Bind on Pickup. Some items in the game can be Soulbound to
your character, meaning no one else can use them or even
hold them. BoP items become Soulbound the second you pick
them up off a dead enemy. See "BoE" and "BoA" above for
more types of Soulbinding items.
Bot Short for "Botanica". (Instance)
BoT Bastion of Twilight. (Instance)
BRB Be Right Back. One player says this to another player to
let them know that they won't be around for the next few
moments.
BRD Blackrock Depths. (Instance (see below))
Bres/B-rez Battle Ressurection. Some classes can ressurect players
even while in combat, or, in battle. This type of res is
called a b-res.
BS Short for "Black Smith". It's one of the flags in the Ara-
thi Basin Battleground. It is also a Profession in-game
that players can use to craft metal armors and weapons.
BT Black Temple. (Instance)
BT (2) Borean Tundra. (Zone)
Buff A buff is a beneficial, long-lasting spell or potion your
character has gotten/drank. Some buffs will raise your
health, some raise your armor, etc. "Buff" can also mean
"to make tougher/better". If someone says "buff Mages!"
they mean to make the Mage class better somehow.
BWD Blackwing Decent. (Instance)
BWL Blackwing Lair. (Instance)
Camp The act of staying in one place for awhile in order to
either kill something, someone, or get something that has
to spawn.
Carebear This is a term most-often used by PvP-server players to
insult PvE-server players. It basically means something
along the lines of, "Oh, you're too chicken to play on PvP
you chicken, you carebear, you noob!"
Cata Short for "Cataclysm", the third WoW expansion.
Cath Short for "Cathedral". This is a commonly run part of the
instance Scarlet Monestary.
CC Crowd Control. In higher level instances and places, not
being able to control your enemies or the flow of battle
can, and most-likely will, result in your group dying.
There are many methods of Crowd Control such as a Mage
turning the enemy into a sheep or a Hunter trapping an
enemy. The goal is to make it so that your entire group
focuses on one enemy at a time.
CC (2) Corpse Camp. See above for "Camp". This is the act of do-
ing just that, but over and over to the same person. This
is also called "griefing".
CD Cooldown. Some moves, when used, cannot be used again for
a certain amount of time. That time is called the move or
item's Cooldown.
CE Cenarion Expedition. This is a town in Zangarmarsh and a
group that you can gain reputation with.
Cho Short for Cho'gall, a boss in Bastion of Twilight (raid).
Clos Short for "Cloak of Shadows", a Rogue ability that clears
all magical debuffs and gives the Rogue an immunity to
spells for a few seconds.
CoT Caverns of Time. (Zone)
Crit Short for "critical hit". A critical hit is an attack that
basically did a lot more damage that normal attacks of
that same kind.
Curse A curse is a de-buff that does something bad to you. Some
curses can do damage-over-time, some can slow you down, or
a number of other things.
D Short for "defense". It's usually used in the Battleground
areas. If someone says, "you, you, and you play D at the
mine", it means to stay on defense there.
Dal Dalaran. (City)
Dala Dalaran. (City)
Darn Darnassus. (City)
DB Dragonblight. (Zone)
DE Disenchant. The skill "Disenchant" comes with the Enchant-
ing profession and basically, when you Disenchant an item,
the item is completely destroyed and you are left with
dust, an essence, or a shard, depending on the rarety of
the item you Dienchanted, it's level, and whether or not
it was armor or a weapon.
Debuff This is just like a buff, but it is NOT beneficial. It's
just the opposite. It can slow you, harm you, lower a stat
or even kill you.
Ding In the game EverQuest (I think), whenever you reached your
next level, a small dinging sound was audible. Therefore,
to show off, people would say, "ding!" and others would
congratulate them on their accomplishment. This carried
over to World of Warcraft, even though the sound made when
you level-up sounds nothing like a ding.
DK Dishonorable Kill. You used to receive these for killing
non-PvP and non-player characters of the opposite faction.
Dishonorable Kills no longer exist or have any impact on
your PvP standing.
DK (2) Death Knight. As of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion,
player accounts with a character level 55+ are able to
create the new class, Death Knights.
DKP DKP is rather complicated, but I'll try and simplify it.
In high-level guilds and instances, epics tend to drop of-
ten and logically thinking, it would be very unfair for a
new guild-member to be able to roll on an item that anoth-
er long-time guild member has been running an instance for
months trying to get. So DKP (Dungeon/Dragon Kill Points)
comes into effect. Basically, DKP is like guild money. If
you have enough, you can "buy" the item that dropped. DKP
is awarded for being present for certain major raid events
like a boss being killed, being on-time for the raid, etc.
DM Dire Maul or Deadmines. (Instances (see below))
DMG Short for "Damage".
DND Do Not Disturb. This means the person is busy or is not at
their computer.
DOT/Dot Damage Over Time. Some spells, instead of doing tons of
damage all at once, do much more damage over the period of
a certain amount of time. These spells are commonly called
"dots" and appear as Debuffs.
DPS Damage Per Second. A few classes have very high DPS, mean-
ing that basically, they deal great amounts of damage very
quickly.
Drop When you kill an enemy, 95% of the time, you will be able
to right-click their corpse and take the stuff they have,
whether it be a pair of boots or a weapon, or even a quest
item, it's still what the enemy "dropped".
DTK Drak'theron Keep. (Instance)
Ele Short for Elemental. This can refer to elemental enemies
in the game, or a type of Shaman.
Enh Short for Enhancement. This referrences a type of Shaman
talent tree or spec (see below).
EoE Eye of Eternity. (Instance)
EotS Eye of the Storm. This is one of the game's Battlegrounds.
Exp Short for "Experience".
Experience When an enemy that is within your level-range is killed,
you get a certain amount of experience for killing that
enemy. With enough experience, you will level-up. Typi-
cally, harder enemies (while still in your level range)
will yield more experience. Turning in completed quests
also yield very large amounts of experience (when compared
to the amount awarded from single enemy kills).
Farm See "grind". One difference though. "Farming" is where you
are after the items, perhaps even one in particular in or-
der to sell it to make large amounts of money.
FD Feign Death. This is a Hunter move where the Hunter fakes
his own death to clear his aggro build-up from the enemy
or to fool other players.
Fear A debuff that causes your character to run off in a random
direction away from your opponent for a certain amount of
time.
FF Fairie Fire. This is a move that the Druid class has.
FF (2) Focus Fire. You will hear people tell the group to FF on
some enemy in order to kill it the fastest. When everyone
"focuses fire" on the enemy, it goes down.
Fort Short for "Fortitude", a spell cast by Priests that buffs
your Stamina.
FP Flight Path. Around the World of Warcraft are many places
you can reach by flying to them, assuming you have the
Flight Path. In Cataclysm, WoW's 3rd expansion, players
are able to fly their own mounts wherever they want,
making Flight Paths obsolete to high-level players with
flying mounts.
FTL For The Loss. This is used to show one's aggrivation or
hatefulness towards something. For example... "Rogues Am-
bushing me while I have no mana FTL!"
FTW For The Win. This is used to show one's appreciation for
something in most cases. For example... "Stealth FTW!"
FW Frostwolf. This is one of the graveyards in the Alterac
Valley Battleground.
G2G Got "to" Go. This means the player cannot play any longer.
G2G (2) Good "to" Go. This means the player is ready to proceed.
It is sometimes very easily confused with "G2G" above, as
the two look identical, but have nearly opposite meanings.
Gad/Gadget Short for Gadgetzan. (Town)
Gank This term has many meanings, all of which are arguable,
but they all have one thing it common: killing another
player when he or she stands very little or absolutely no
chance of winning. For example... attacking them when they
are low on HP, attacking them while they are fighting an
enemy, or even gathering several friends to kill one guy.
GB Grim Batol. (Instance)
GG Good Game. Can be used seriously or sarcastically to con-
gratulate a player or group on an accomplishment.
GH Grizzly Hills. (Zone)
Gimp This term is similiar to "nerf" (see below) in that it re-
fers to making something worse or taking away a good qual-
ity. For example, you would "gimp" a mage by taking away
their ability to freeze you to a spot. Taking away that
ability would also be "nerfing" the mage, since it's bad.
GL Gruul's Lair. (Instance)
GL (2) Guild Leader.
GM Game Master.
GM (2) Guild Master.
GodBubble This is the term used to refer to the Paladin's ability
that shields him and makes him immune to absolutely any-
thing for several seconds.
Gnomer Gnomeregan. (Instance (see below))
Grief(ing) See "CC (2)" above for "Corpse Camping". Griefing someone
is camping them with the sole intent to annoy them by
killing them or the target(s) that they're after.
Grind Grinding is when you sit in an area and kill whatever is
in that area again and again and again to gain experience
or get drops. It's rather boring and a slow process in the
higher levels.
GTG Got To Go. This means the player cannot play any longer.
GTG (2) Good To Go. If a player says this, they are telling you
that they are ready to start or continue. It's quite the
opposite of the above GTG, which can cause some confusion.
Guild A guild is a friendly group of players who are kind of all
in one large group, but not really doing the same thing.
Think of a guild as a party. At a party, you know some
people and you don't know others, yet you're all in it
together and relatively friendly toward one-another.
GY Graveyard. Note that there is also a part of the instance
Scarlet Monestary that is a graveyard and many people run
it and refer to it as "SM GY".
Halls Short for "Halls of Origination". (Instance)
Hearth Every player in the game has a Hearthstone. If you use it,
it will teleport you to your Home Inn. Doing so is called
"hearthing". If you destroy your Hearthstone, you can
obtain a new one by setting an inn to your home location
by speaking to an innkeeper.
H-xxxxxx The "H" in this term is short for "Heroic".
Heroic "Heroic" is a dungeon/raid difficulty setting that can be
set by the group leader. For example, if an instance (see
below) is typically meant to be run at level 82-85,
setting the instance to Heroic makes it l evel 85 only, or
much harder. Some heroic instances and raids even have
different boss mechanics.
HF Hellfire. Hellfire Peninsula is the first zone of Outland,
part of the Burning Crusade expansion.
HF (2) Howling Fjord. (Zone)
HFP Hellfire Peninsula, the first zone of Outland that you are
in when you go through The Dark Portal.
HH Honor Hold. This is the main Alliance base in Hellfire
Peninsula.
HK Honorable Kill. You receive one of these whenever you kill
another player who is within your level range. Your HKs
are tracked in the Statistics tab of your Achievements
window.
Hodir Short for Sons of Hodir. (Reputation Faction)
HoL Halls of Lightning. (Instance)
Honor For PvP-centric accomplishments, you receive Honor Points,
which can be spent on PvP-centric gear and items.
HoS Halls of Stone. (Instance)
HP Hit Points. It's how much health you have.
IB Iceblood. This is one of the graveyards in the Alterac
Valley Battlegrounds.
IC Icecrown. (Zone)
ICC Icecrown Citadel. (Instance/Mini-zone)
IF Ironforge. (City)
IL (il) Item Level. See below.
Ilvl (ilvl) Item Level. See below.
Imp Short for "Improved". Many talents (see "Talent(s)" below)
can be improved. For example... "Improved Wrath" some peo-
ple would just call "Imp Wrath".
Imp (2) "Imp" is the exact name of one of the four Warlock pets.
Inc This stands for "Incoming", meaning an enemy or group of
enemies are about to come or already are coming toward
your group.
Instance In previous games, this was called a dungeon. When you and
your group step inside an instance, you are given your own
copy of that instance with all the enemies and bosses in
it just for you. This prevents your group from going to do
a hard dungeon and finding it already beaten by another
group.
Int Short for "intellect".
Intellect A stat in the game that affects a caster's mana and spell
power.
IoC Isle of Conquest. (Battleground)
IRL In Real Life.
Item Level This is the average item-level of your gear, both equipped
and in your bags. Your item-level is shown in the General
tab of your Character Pane. It is relative and used by
players for a quick reference to the amount of epic/good
gear you have.
JC Jewelcrafter. (Profession)
JP Justice Points. You earn these when you complete certain
PvE-related accomplishments, such as killing bosses.
Kara Karazhan. (Instance)
Keep Short for Utgarde Keep. (Instance)
Kings Short for Blessing of Kings, a Paladin buff.
Kite A strategy where one player takes the aggro of the enemy
and then gets far away from it while everyone else kills
it. While the enemy is chasing the kiter, it doesn't att-
ack the people slowly killing it unless one of them pulls
the aggro.
KoS Kill on Sight. This means that no matter what, you will
kill whatever you have deemed KoS the second you see them.
KT Kel'thuzad, the final boss of Naxxramas.
KT (2) Kirin Tor. (Reputation Faction). Also, the Kirin Tor lead
and protect Dalaran.
KZ Short for Karazhan. (Instance)
LBRS Lower-Blackrock Spire. (Instance)
Leet See "1337" above.
LFG Looking For Group. This is usually followed by the name of
a quest requiring more than one person or an instance.
LF#M Looking For # More. This means that a group is almost done
forming for the instance/quest and they only need # more
people.
LFM Looking For More. Same as LF#M, but number needed is not
specified.
Lib Short for "Library". This is a commonly run part of the
instance Scarlet Monestary. Note that there is also an
area in Dire Maul (instance) that is a library.
LK Lich King, can also be combined with WotLK (see below).
LM Short for "Lumber Mill". It's one of the flags in the Ara-
thi Basin Battleground.
Lock Short for "Warlock".
Lol/LOL Laughing Out Loud. This means that the person found some-
thing that happened amusing or funny.
Log When you sign on or off. For example, "I'm going to log,
good night guys!" or "Let me log my Druid."
Loot The act of taking drops is called "looting". "Loot" would
be whatever the enemy dropped, be it money or an item.
LoS Line of Sight. In order for an enemy to attack you or for
you to attack it, you have to be able to see it. If any
object is blocking your vision, then you do not have a
direct line of sight to your enemy and therefore cannot
attack it. Many people use the line of sight game mechanic
in order to pull enemies, usually casters, closer to them.
They will attack the enemy, then run behind a wall or
something, and the enemy will have to come to them behind
the wall in order to see them and start attacking.
Lowbie A low level character. It can sometimes be used as an in-
sult.
Lvl The incredibly lazy person's way of saying "level".
MA Main Assist. In major raids, there is almost always a raid
leader or someone who should always be assisted so that
everyone attacks the same target and doesn't screw up the
Crowd Control.
Mag Short for "Magtheridon", a boss/instance in Hellfire Pen-
insula.
MagT Short for "Magisters' Terrace". (Instance)
Magth Same as "Mag", above.
Maly Malygos, the one and only boss in The Eye of Eternity.
Lore-wise, Malygos is probably the strongest boss in the
game as of Patch 3.1, as it takes an entire dragonflight
rescuing your raid to survive him and kill him.
Mana Mana is just your Magic Points. You need certain amounts
of it to cast certain spells.
Mara Short for "Maraudon". (Instance)
Mark Short for "Mark of the Wild", a druid-given buff.
Mark (2) Enemies in the game can be marked with certain symbols
above their head to differentiate them from each other
easily. If someone says to mark enemies, they mean to
place symbols on them, usually to determine which ones to
crowd-control (see "CC" above) or kill first.
Mats Short for "Materials". Many things in the game, especially
ones dealing with professions and crafting, require mater-
ials to create.
Mech Short for "Mechanar". (Instance)
MC Molten Core. (Instance)
MC (2) Mind Control, a Priest's skill that allows the Priest to
take control of the other player for a short period of
time.
MGT Magisters' Terrace. (Instance)
MH Mainhand. This refers to weapons that players can place in
their right hand either by choice or by item restrictions.
Might Short for Blessing of Might. This is a buff given by the
Paladin class.
Mob Mob means "enemy".
MotW Mark of the Wild, a buff cast by the Druid class.
MP Mana Points. Also see "Mana".
MS Mortal Strike. This is a Warrior's move and the term MS is
usually used to reference several abilities in the game
that provide a healing debuff to the target.
MT Mistell. This means that the previous message in the chat
from that person was not intended for that specific chat.
MT (2) Main Tank. In higher level guilds and instances, there is
normally more than 1 tank (see "Tank" below) present. The
Main Tank is the one tank who will be doing the tanking.
The others usually just recover his mistakes or do damage.
MT (3) Mana Tombs. (Instance)
Naxx Short for Naxxramas. (Instance)
Nef Short for "Nefarion", the last boss of the Blackwing Lair
and Blackwing Decent raid instances. At level 60, he was
one of the hardest bosses in the game before Naxxramas
came out.
Nerf This term means to make something or someone worse by
removing or changing an aspect about it/them. For example,
if you were to remove the Stealth ability from Rogues,
you would be "nerfing" the class as a whole. If Blizzard
were to make an instance easier by giving bosses in it
less health, they have "nerfed" the instance.
Newb A person who is merely new to the game or an aspect in the
game.
NE Night Elf, one of the 8 races in the game.
Ninja A ninja is a person who takes the loot without permission
or when he/she cannot use it and someone else would have.
The ninja does this merely to sell the item for a few gold
or for revenge even. But beware, ninja'ing an item from
a player on your server could give you a bad name when
they tell the rest of the world.
n00b An arrogant, ignorant, obnoxious newb (see above).
noob See above.
NOOB See above.
NPC Non-Player Character. This is anything in the game "alive"
that is not an actual player.
NS Netherstorm. (Zone)
Nub See "n00b" above.
O Short for "Offense". It's usually used in the Battleground
areas to ask who is on the Offense (the charging team) or
how the Offense is doing.
OH Offhand. Refers to some weapons/items that players can
place in their left hand either by choice or item
restrictions.
OH (2) Old Hillsbrad. (Instance)
OK Old Kingdom. (Instance)
OMW On My Way. This is just used to tell another player that
you are headed to wherever you guys are going to meet, be
it an instance or at the bank to trade, whatever.
Occ Short for Oculus. (Instance) I don't know where the extra
"C" comes from, people are stupid.
OK Old Kingdom. (Instance)
OOC Out Of Combat. When fighting an enemy in the game, you are
in combat. When this state ends, you are... out of combat.
OOM Out Of Mana. This means the person has no more mana and
thus cannot cast anymore spells. It's bad if your healer
says this.
Org Orgrimmar. (City)
OS Off-Spec. See "spec" below. Players can have 2 specs. The
one that is not your main spec is your off-spec.
OS (2) Obsidian Sanctum. (Instance)
OT Off-Tank. See "MT" above. The OT is the next "rank". He
covers up what the MT doesn't do right OR the Off-Tank can
Main Tank another enemy while the real Main Tank does the
original.
OTW On The Way. This is just used to tell another player that
you are headed to wherever you guys are going to meet, be
it an instance or at the bank to trade, whatever.
Pat Short for "Patrol". In most instances, there is an enemy
who walks around (or multiple) enemies. They patrol a cer-
tain area. When someone says "pat", it means that one is
coming.
Paw The Druid class buff, "Mark of the Wild", has a buff-icon
that resembles an animal's paw. If someone asks for "the
paw buff" or says, "give me the paw", they want MotW.
Pew-pew "Pew" is the sound a laser-gun makes in high-tech video
games and is now referred to in WoW as doing damage.
Poly Short for "polymorph", a spell cast by a Mage that turns
the target into an animal for a short amount of time, but
also regenerates the target's health at a very fast rate.
Port Short for "portal", which is... well... an instant tele-
portation to another area of the game.
Pot Short for "potion". There are many potions in the game,
all of which have different uses. Some boost stats, some
instantly restore health, etc.
Princess Run This is a type of Maraudon run that is relatively short
because you get teleported past about 75% of the instance
and are much closer to the final boss, the Princess.
Proc When a weapon/item "procs", it means that by random chance
it got used or went off. For example, the Fiery Weapon en-
chant has a 25-30% chance to hit the enemy for Fire
Damage. When that 25-30% chance kicks it, then your Fiery
Enchant "proc'd".
PST Please Send Tell. This means that the person wants you to
talk to them in private via /tell or /whisper. PST can
also be seen as the sound one makes when quietly getting
another's attention. "Hey you... pst!" It implies a whis-
per.
PTR Public Test Realm. Before every major patch, Blizzard (the
game creators) create a mock server and load the new patch
to it. That server is open to the public to play on and
test the patch for balancing issues and bugs, before it
"goes live" on the real servers.
Pull To Kite (see above) an enemy or small group of enemies to
your group without getting too close to where you aggro
too many. Pulling can also simply mean to initiate the
fight. "Pull the boss" would mean to start the fight.
PUG Pick Up Group. This is just a regular group of random peo-
ple who wanted to do an instance or particular quest. High
level and end-game, PUGs are frowned upon because typi-
cally, it's a lot better to run instances and such with a
good guild.
PvE Player versus Environment. This stands for a type of ser-
ver you can play on where in Contested Zones of the game
(basically, any zone above level 20 or so), you will have
to manually flag yourself for PvP by typing /pvp before
you can fight another player of the opposing faction. How-
ever, the other player must also flag themselves or be
flagged. PvE also refers to a game-type mentality focused
on raiding and progression.
PvP Player versus Player. This stands for a type of server you
can play on where in Contested Zones of the game (basic-
ally, any zone above level 20 or so), any player can att-
ack any other player of the opposing faction, regardless
of level, situation, anything. PvP can also simply stand
for "the action of fighting another player". For example,
"he was flagged for PvP all the time on a PvE server!").
PvP also refers to a game-type mentality focused on player
combat instead of raiding.
QQ This resembles a pair of eyes that are crying. It is syn-
onymous with crying, whining, complaining, etc. If someone
says "QQ more" or "Stop your QQing", they mean to cry more
and stop your whining respectively.
R Short for "Ready", which is short for, "I'm ready to ___",
likely initiate the upcoming fight.
RAF Recruit A Friend. In August of 2008, Blizzard allowed
players to recruit their friends into the game. The ori-
ginal account and the recruit account would then be
"linked" for 90 days. For the duration of the link,
players below the level of 60 in a party with each other
and physically nearby one another would receive 300% ex-
perience from all sources to include quests, among other
abilities such as free summons every hour and potentially,
a free Zhevra (zebra) mount for the original account.
Rag Short for "Ragnaros", the last boss of the level 60 raid
instance "Molten Core", and the last boss of the level 85
raid instance "Firelands".
Ramps Ramparts. (Instance)
RAP Ranged Attack Power. See "Attack Power".
RBG Rated Battleground.
Regen Short for "Regenerate".
Res Short for "ressurection", where instead of releasing your
spirit and running back to your body, another player can
raise your body on the spot via a spell only available to
some classes.
Release When you die, you have the option to release your spirit.
When you do so, your spirit will be at the closest grave-
yard to your body and you will have to run back.
Rez See "res".
RFC Ragefire Chasm. (Instance)
RFD Razorfen Downs. (Instance)
RFK Razorfen Kraul. (Instance)
RH Razor Hill. (Town)
RoB Ring of Blood. The actual Ring of Blood is a multi-quest
chain in the Outland zone of Nagrand. It involves fighting
single boss-like monsters inside of a ring one after the
other until the final "champion" is fought. It is a very
well-known quest since it awards a huge amount of Experi-
ence, gold, and a good rare-quality item all at once. The
expansions since Burning Crusade have each had a Ring of
Blood-like area and questline that many players still
refer to as RoB despite a different name.
RTFM/Q This is short for "Read The F***ing Manual/Quest". Many
players will say this to people who ask simple questions
that the answers to which can be found in the game's man-
ual or by reading the quest that their question pertains
to.
Sap Sap is a Rogue skill that can only be used on a few types
of mobs when the rogue is stealthed. It disorients the
target for a certain amount of time. This is a common
form of Crowd Control.
Sapph Short for "Sapphiron", the second-to-last boss in
Naxxramas. A giant frozen skeleton of an undead dragon.
Sarth Short for "Sartharion", the main boss inside Obsidium
Sanctum (Instance).
Sarth + #D The Sartharion encounter can be made more difficult by not
killing the drakes that surround him. D = Drake. The
more drakes left alive, the better gear Sarth will drop.
Sarth + 2D for example, means you would kill one of the
drakes and leave 2 alive to fight while you fight Sarth.
Scarlet This refers to the Scarlet Monestary-looking side of the
high-end instance, Stratholme. Normally, groups only ever
do one of the two sides. Scarlet, or SM as you may also
see it called, is one of the two.
Scholo Short for "Scholomance". (Instance)
Scryers This a group of Blood Elves who basically gave the middle
finger to Kael'thas and joined the Naaru. They are the
enemies of the Aldor (see above), but do not partake in
open war or fights.
SF Snowfall. This is one of the graveyards in the Alterac
Valley Battleground.
SFK Shadowfang Keep. (Instance)
SH Sentinel Hill. (Town)
SH (2) Stonehearth. This is one of the graveyards in the Alterac
Valley Battleground.
SH (3) Shattered Halls. (Instance)
SH (4) Sethekk Halls. (Instance)
Shatt Short for "Shattrath", the main city in Outland for both
Alliance and Horde.
Sheep To sheep an enemy means for a Mage to cast Polymorph on it
in order to achieve some Crowd Control.
SL Shadow Labyrinth. (Instance)
SM Scarlet Monestary. (Instance)
SMV Shadowmoon Valley. (Zone)
SP Stormpike. This is one of the graveyards in the Alterac
Valley Battleground.
SP (2) Slave Pens. (Instance)
SP (3) Storm Peaks. (Zone)
Spec Every class has three "trees" they can put their Talent
Points in to improve skills or gain new ones. Usually,
players put the majority of their Talent Points into one
"tree" and some in the other trees. Their "main tree" is
called their "spec". For example, if a Druid puts most of
his Talent Points into his Restoration tree, he is
referred to as a "restoration" spec'd Druid, because it's
what he is going to be best at.
Spir Short for "Spirit".
Spr Short for "Spirit".
Spirit A stat in the game that affects how fast your HP and Mana
regenerate.
SS Screen-shot. You can take screenshots in-game by merely
pressing the Prnt Scrn button on your keyboard, usually
located to the right of F12. The screenshot is then saved
to a folder inside your World of Warcraft program file in-
side your computer, most-likely on your C: drive.
SS (2) Soulstone. Warlocks have the ability to Soulstone a player
which allows that player to ressurect after death should
they choose to accept the prompt.
SS (3) Southshore. (Town)
SSC Serpentshrine Cavern. (Instance)
SSO Shattered Sun Offensive. This is one of the game's fac-
tions that you can gain reputation with. Their home "base"
is the Isle of Quel'Danas.
ST Sunken Temple. (Instance)
ST (2) Short for "Stables". It's one of the flags in the Arathi
Basin Battleground.
Sta Short for "Stamina".
Stam Short for "Stamina".
Stamina A stat in the game that affects your health. For every 1
point of Stamina, you get 10 HP.
Stocks Short for "Stockades" (Instance). This instance is located
inside Stormwind City and is generally used by higher
level players as a reference point for directing other
players to key locations nearby, such as the Inscription
and Enchanting vendors, the gear Reforger, and the Cooking
daily quest, as of the Cataclysm expansion.
Str Short for "Strength".
Strat Short for "Stratholme". (Instance)
Strength A stat in the game that affects how hard you hit by con-
tributing to your Attack Power. See also "Attack Power".
SV Steam Vaults. (Instance)
SW Stormwind. (City)
SWP Sunwell Plateau. (Instance)
T# (e.g. "t11") Short for "Tier #", referring to a tier of loot that is
class specific. Certain sets of gear in the game are
meant to be worn by specific classes. For exmaple, the
Bloodfang set is the Rogue class's Tier 2 of gear. You
could call this t2, or tier2. Tier-loot is purchased with
Valor Points (earned by raiding mostly) or obtained as
drops from raid bosses. There are several tier sets per
expansion. Original-WoW had t1-t3, for example.
Talent(s) See "Spec" above.
Tank The person who grabs and holds the aggro of the enemy in
melee combat while other players do damage to the enemy
while the enemy concentrates on the tank. Tanks are almost
always Warriors and in some very rare cases, Druids.
TB Thunder Bluff. (City)
TB (2) Thorium Brotherhood. (Faction)
TB (3) Tol Barad. (Battleground)
Throne Short for "Throne of the Tides" or "Throne of the Four
Winds". (Instances)
TK Tempest Keep. (Zone/Instance)
TM Tarren Mill. (Town)
TP Thorium Point. (Town)
TP (2) Twin Peaks. (Battleground)
Train See "Kite" above. It's the same thing. You have "trained"
the enemy to do what you want (follow you).
Tribute This is a type of Dire Maul North run where no Guards are
killed and Cho'Rush the Observer is left alive. The reward
for accomplishing this is a large chest with several drops
(see above, "Drop") in it. The Tribute is significantly
worse if a guard or Cho'Rush is killed.
Trinketing This means that someone used a Trinket in order to accom-
plish something, whether it is becoming more powerful, or
getting out of some form of Crowd Control.
TUF The Unstoppable Force. It's a two-handed mace that you can
purchase once reaching the Exalted reputation status with
your respective faction from Alterac Valley.
TwiHi Twilight Highlands. (Zone)
Twink This is a term for a low-level character controlled by a
person with knowledge of the game. They typically deck the
character out in the best gear for that level despite any
costs and such. Twinks are then taken into Battlegrounds
to completely destroy other, normal players.
TY/ty Thank You. This shouldn't require an explaination....
Tyduss Me, the best and most uber-sweet-awesomeness Rogue on the
US Frostmane server. =)
UB Under Bog. (Instance)
UBRS Upper-Backrock Spire. (Instance)
UC Undercity. (City)
UD Undead.
UD (2) While this also stands for Undead, it may mean the Undead
side of the mid-level instance, Stratholme. There are two
sides, "Scarlet" (see "Scarlet" above) and the "Undead" or
"Baron" side.
UK Utgarde Keep. (Instance)
Uld Short for "Ulduar". (Instance)
Ulda Short for "Uldaman". (Instance)
V&T Valiona and Theralion, a 2-boss fight in Bastion of Twi-
light, a raid instance.
Vanilla When someone refers to "vanilla", they mean World of War-
craft before any expansions. This is likely because it is
the original, like vanilla flavoring, nothing added.
Vault Short for "Vault of Archavon". (Instance)
VC VanCleef. (Boss in Deadmines)
Vent Short for "Ventrilo", a third-party external program that
players often use to vocally communicate with others who
have joined their vent server. Being able to communicate
instantly via voice versus typing something out and hoping
players pay attention to chat is a vital part of high-end
raiding.
VH Violet Hold. (Instance)
VoA Vault of Archavon. (Instance)
VP Valor Points. You earn these for completing certain PvE-
related accomplishments, such as killing raid bosses. You
can spend Valor Points on raid-equivalent epic gear.
WC Wailing Caverns. (Instance)
WF Westfall. (Zone)
WG Wintergrasp. (Zone)
WHS Wildhammer Stronghold. (Town)
WoTF Will of The Forsaken, a racial ability of Undead players.
WotLK Wrath of the Lich King. (Expansion)
WoW World of Warcraft.
WSG Warsong Gulch. This is one of the game's Battlegrounds.
WTB Want To Buy. This is followed by the name of an item, wea-
pon, etc, that the person who said it wants to purchase
from another player. For example... "WTB Copper Bars!"
WTF What The F***. This is a question, exactly like, "what
the hell?!", but with the F-word instead.
WTS Want To Sell. This is followed by the name of an item,
weapon, etc, that the person who said it wants to sell to
another player. It is also sometimes followed by a price
at which the person wants to sell the item at. For exam-
ple... "WTS Copper Bars, 15 silver!"
WTT Want To Trade. This is the same as WTB and WTS, except a
person wants to trade one item for another, or even in
some cases, accounts.
XD If you look at this sideways, it resembles a smiling face
with squinted eyes, indicating that a player found some-
thing amusing or funny.
XP See "Experience" above.
ZA Zul'Aman. (Instance)
Zangar Short for "Zangarmarsh", one of the zones in Outland.
ZD Zul'Drak. (Instance)
Zerg This is a term drawn from the game, Starcraft, where a
enemy was the "Zergling". The strategy they had or used or
whatever was to get a ton of them and rush a single place
all at the same time and take it with sheer size and num-
bers. When a player in WoW says to zerg something, they
mean for everyone to rush it and take it or kill it.
ZF Zul'Farrak. (Instance)
ZG Zul'Gurub. (Instance)
===============================================================================
+-----------------------+
| Section VI. - Credits |
+-----------------------+
I'd like to thank a few sources who inevitably helped me write this guide. They
are as follows:
1. GameFAQs for posting (hopefully) this guide on their site.
2. The GameFAQs user, "Moonknlght" for reminding me about Flight Path and sev-
eral popular spells such as Fort and MotW, as well as Gadgetzan and OMW.
3. The GameFAQs user, "Saph777" for reminding me about Sentinel Hill.
4. The GameFAQs user, "game freakozoid" for reminding me about UD/Baron, LBRS,
UBRS, Nef, and Mats.
5. The GameFAQs user, "Takizawa_Kun" for reminding me about FTW and FTL.
6. The GameFAQs user, "NsM Comatosis" for reminding me about Farm, Lowbie, MS,
Imp, Gank, Tribute, Princess, Ninja, DE, Lock, all the Alterac Valley
Graveyard abbreviations, Pat, AR, IBS, and TUF.
7. The GameFAQs user, "SKIzlude" for reminding me about BoE and BoP.
8. The GameFAQs user, "Major Gamer" for reminding me about Screenshot and Soul-
stone, as well as Feign Death and Main Assist.
9. The GameFAQs user, "Slash585" for reminding me about Sap and DKP.
10. The GameFAQs user, "DooD 01" for reminding me about Crit and Proc.
11. The GameFAQs user, "AbeOfZanarkand729", for reminding me about the Thorium
Brotherhood.
12. The GameFAQs user, "Pieke Okata", for reminding me that hunters gain AP
from Agility as well, and that Agility adds 2 Ranged Attack Power.
13. The GameFAQs user, "EliteMob", for reminding me about Baron runs.
14. The GameFAQs user, "SoloSaint", for reminding me that Fairie Fire prevents
a target from Stealthing/Vanishing as well.
15. The GameFAQs user, "Seant017", for reminding me about EPL, WPL, and SS.
16. The GameFAQs user, "Phoenix Firebird", for telling me that Europe gets its
maintenance and Honor calculated on Wednesdays, not Tuesdays.
17. The GameFAQs user, "LuniNutz99", for reminding me about Gift of the Wild
and correcting a typo in FTL.
18. The GameFAQs user, "sabbath19pantera", for correctly my defintion of IBS.
19. The GameFAQs user, "Golden Mario", for reminding me about the Scarlet Mon-
estary sections.
20. The GameFAQs user, "DarkshadowMike", for reminding me about GodBubble.
21. The GameFAQs user, "stealthyhunter", for reminding me about Gimp and Pot.
22. The GameFAQs user, "lancer777", for reminding me about 1337 and leet.
23. An E-mail from a "Logan", reminding me about "Imp (2)" and "RTFM/Q".
24. An E-mail from "Gamer_Am_I" for reminding me about "Carebear".
25. "Rageextreme" from Gorganash US server, for telling me about "zerg".
26. The GameFAQs user, "ArquillWephronic", for reminding me about "D" and "O".
27. The GameFAQs user, "mr_fat", for reminding me about "Trinketing".
28. The GameFAQs user, "albedoisadorkis", for reminding me about "LoS".
29. An E-mail from "Teddi P.S.", for fixing my "Obsidian Sanctum" misspelling.
30. The GameFAQs user, "Kokeii", for fixing my "Archavon" misspelling.
31. The GameFAQs user, "BrekenCored", for reminding me of the change to Mage's
Arcane Explosion spell.
32. The GameFAQs user, "Krozard", for a "BC" change reminder.
33. The GameFAQs user, "ArtosRC", for reminding me about "Paw".
34. The GameFAQs user, "sinder311", for reminding me of the Paladin blessing
to "hand" change.
35. The GameFAQs user, "Eye_of_Horus", for reminding me of "nerf", which I for
some reason left out after mentioning it in "gimp".
36. The GameFAQs user, "Paranoia_Panda", for reminding me of "AQ".
37. The GameFAQs user, "Cheerful Chum", for reminding me that Blacksmith is
also a profession, Kirin Tor, HoS, HoL, and OK.
38. The GameFAQs user, "Maota", for fixing my Azjol-Nerub typo and seeing that
I had "Heroic" twice.
39. The GameFAQs user, "xSkitZx", for reminding me of "Mark", "Nub", "Stam",
"Stocks", "Ulda", and "PTR".
40. The GameFAQs user, "ThorTheDinosaur", for reminding me of "Enh" and "Ele".
41. The GameFAQs user, "r0nan88", for reminding me of "Vent".
42. The GameFAQs user, "Neo Vejiita", for pointing out an alphabetical order
error with "LK".
43. An email from "Laura H." for pointing out an error with "Attack Power"
information since I last updated.
##. Blizzard, for it was their Game Manual for this game that reminded me of a
few things I forgot.
##. Blizzard, for making such an awesome game!
===============================================================================
This Guide has been brought to you by:
TTTTTTT HH HH EEEEEEE
T H H E
T HHHHH EEEE
T H H E
TTT HH HH EEEEEEE
SSSSSS TTTTTTT EEEEEEE EEEEEEE LLL
SS T E E L
SSSSSS T EEEE EEEE L
SS T E E L L
SSSSSSS TTT EEEEEEE EEEEEEE LLLLLLL
PPPPPP HH HH A N N TTTTTTT OOOOOOO MMMMMMM
P PP H H A A N N N T O O M M M
PPPPPP HHHHH AAAAA N N N T O O M M M
P H H A A N N N T O O M M M
P HH HH AA AA N N TTT OOOOOOO MM M MM
