WoW language 101: Know your game abbreviations

The World of Warcraft, like any online community, has its own dialect. Now, for the neophytes that find themselves befuddled by the world (of Warcraft)’s diverse set of slang that goes beyond your typical “LOL” or “WTF” abbreviations found in many an MMORPG’s vocabulary, help is on the way.

Eliah Hecht has just come up with a comprehensive list of WoW’s recurring game lingo, and aside from normal abbreviations like DPS (Damage Per Second), also delves into the more intricate (but essential) slangs. Here’s a sample of the Outlands:

• OL: Outlands:
• BE: Blade’s Edge
• HFP: Hellfire Peninsula
• HH: Honor Hold
• NS: Netherstorm
• SH/Shat: Shattrath City
• SMV: Shadowmoon Valley
• Tero: Terokkar
• TM: Thrallmar
• ZM: Zangarmarsh

For the WoW gamer just learning the ropes, look at this as a part of the growing compendium of beginner’s guides to help you young ‘uns get around in the realms, all the more with the new discoveries The Burning Crusade offers.

The full list awaits after this jump!

The World of Warcraft, like any online community, has its own dialect. Now, for the neophytes that find themselves befuddled by the world (of Warcraft)’s diverse set of slang that goes beyond your typical “LOL” or “WTF” abbreviations found in many an MMORPG’s vocabulary, help is on the way.

Eliah Hecht has just come up with a comprehensive list of WoW’s recurring game lingo, and aside from normal abbreviations like DPS (Damage Per Second), also delves into the more intricate (but essential) slangs. Here’s the full list:

Miscellaneous:

• 1h: One-handed
• 2h: Two-handed
• 5SR: Five-second rule (the rule that mana regeneration from spirit only occurs if you haven’t spent mana on a spell in the last five seconds)
• Add: An “additional” mob that has been aggroed, usually unintentionally
• Agg/Aggro: Probably short for “aggression” or some related word, it refers to who a mob is attacking — that player is said to “have aggro” or have “pulled aggro”
• AoE: Area of effect (a spell or effect that takes place over an area, as opposed to working only on a single target)AP: Attack power
• Alt: An “alternate” character — not your main (character)
• BE/Belf: Blood Elf
• BG: Battleground
• AB: Arathi Basin
• AV: Alterac Valley
• EotS: Eye of the Storm
• WSG: Warsong Gulch
• BoE: Bind on Equp
• BoP: Bind on Pick-up
• BoU: Bind on Use
• Buff: A beneficial spell, or a change to the game that makes a given class/spec stronger
• CC: Crowd control
• DKP: Dragon Kill points, a cover term for a number of systems guilds use to distribute loot (see WoWWiki)
• DND: Do not disturb
• DPM: Damage per mana
• DPS: Damage per second
• DR: Damage reduction (due to armor)
• DS1/DS2/DS3: Class-specific sets of gear that drop from 5-man dungeons. DS1 and DS2 were known as T0 and T0.5, respectively, but that analogy breaks down when it comes to DS3.
• DW: Dual wield
• DoT: Damage over time
• Drae: Draenei
• Eng/Engi/Engy: Engineering
• FA: First Aid
• FP: Flight point/flight path
• FR: Fire resistance
• GTAoE: Ground-targeted AoE (an AoE spell for which the caster can choose a target, like Flamestrike)
• HPM: Healing per mana
• HPS: Healing per second
• HS/Hearth: Hearthstone
• HoT: Heal over time
• IRL: In real life
• LOM: Low on mana
• MA: Main assist
• MAP: Melee attack power
• Mats: Short for “materials;” refers to the ingredients in a crafted item
• ML: Master loot/master looter
• Mob: Short for “mobile” (derived from MUDs, where any NPC was either a stationary shopkeeper or mobile; see WoWWiki), this refers in WoW to NPCs, primarily NPCs that are meant to be killed.
• MP5: Mana per five seconds
• MT: Main tank
• NE: Night Elf
• NPC: Non-player character
• NR: Nature resistance
• NW: Netherweave
• Nerf: A change to the game that makes a given class/spec weaker
• OH: Off-hand
• OOM: Out of mana
• OP: Overpowered
• Pat: Patrol
• PBAoE: Point-blank AoE (an AoE spell that radiates out from the caster, like Arcane Explosion)
• Pot: Potion
• Proc: As best as I’ve been able to figure out, this is short for “Process” “Procedure” (see WoWWiki). What it refers to is things that have a chance to go off when some event happens. For instance, a Fiery enchant has a chance per hit to cause extra fire damage. This ability of the Fiery enchant is known as a “proc;” when it activates and causes the extra damage, one can say that it has “procced,” and the activation itself, the extra damage, can also be called a “proc.”
• PUG: Pick-up group (a group formed “on the spot” by use of the LFG tool or a channel or something, as opposed to a guild group or some other group of friends)
• RAP: Ranged attack power
• Res/Rez: Resurrect/Resurrection
• RL: Real life
• SR: Shadow resistance
• Spec: Specialization (in a profession or talents)
• T1/T2/etc.: Class-specific sets of gear that drop from raids.
• UD: Undead
• Xmute: Transmute

Zones:

Eastern Kingdoms:

• EPL: Eastern Plaguelands
• IF: Ironforge
• STV: Stranglethorn Vale
• SW: Stormwind City
• UC: Undercity
• WPL: Western Plaguelands

Kalimdor:

• Darn: Darnassus
• Exo: Exodar
• Gads/GZ: Gadgetzan
• Org: Orgrimmar
• STM: Stonetalon Mountain
• STP: Stonetalon Peak
• TB: Thunder Bluff

OL: Outlands:

• BE: Blade’s Edge
• HFP: Hellfire Peninsula
• HH: Honor Hold
• NS: Netherstorm
• SH/Shat: Shattrath City
• SMV: Shadowmoon Valley
• Tero: Terokkar
• TM: Thrallmar
• ZM: Zangarmarsh

Instances (5-man):

• RFC: Ragefire Chasm
• WC: Wailing Caverns
• VC/DM: Deadmines
• Stocks: Stockade
• SFK: Shadowfang Keep
• BFD: Blackfathom Depths
• Gnomer: Gnomeregan
• RFK: Razorfen Kraul
• SM: Scarlet Monestary
• GY: Graveyard wing
• Arm: Armory wing
• Lib: Library wing
• Cath: Cathedral wing
• RFD: Razorfen Downs
• Ulda: Uldaman
• ZF: Zul Farrak
• Mara: Mauradon
• ST: Temple of Atal’Hakkar (a.k.a. Sunken Temple)
• BRD: Blackrock Depths
• BRS: Blackrock Spire
• LBRS: Lower Blackrock Spire
• UBRS: Upper Bloackrock Spire (technically a 10-man, but doesn’t feel like a raid, in my opinion)
• DM: Dire Maul
• Strat: Stratholme
• UD Strat: Undead side of Stratholme
• SC/Live Strat: Scarlet side of Stratholme
• Scholo: Scholomance
• HFR: Hellfire Ramparts
• BF: Blood Furnace
• UB: Underbog
• SP: Slave Pens
• SH: Shattered Halls
• SL: Shadow Labyrinth
• SV: Steamvaults
• BM: Black Morass

Instances (Raid):

• ZG: Zul’Gurub
• AQ20/RAQ: Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj
• AQ40/TAQ: Temple of Ahn’Qiraj
• MC: Molten Core
• Ony: Onyxia
• BWL: Blackwing Lair
• Naxx: Naxxramas
• Kara/KZ: Karazhan

Forums:

• GG: Good game (often sarcastic)
• GJ: Good job (often sarcastic)
• Imba: Imbalanced; usually means “overpowered”
• IBTL: In before the lock
• L2P: Learn to play
• OP: Original post/original poster
• OT: Off-topic
• QFE: Quoted for excellence
• QFT: Quoted for truth
• QQ: Doesn’t “stand for” anything per se; rather, it’s an emoticon: it looks like two crying eyes. It basically means “you’re complaining,” although it can also be used as a verb (“stop QQing”).
• TL;DR: Too long; didn’t read

Chat:

• AFAIK: As far as I know
• AFK: Away from keyboard
• ATM: At the moment
• Bio: Short for “biological,” this refers to fulfilling biological needs (i.e. using the restroom); often used to explain AFKs in groups
• BRT: Be right there
• BTW: By the way
• DIAF: Die in a fire
• FFS: For f—‘s sake
• FTL: For the loss (means “is bad”)
• FTW: For the win (means “is good”)
• GTFO: Get the f— out
• IDC: I don’t care
• IDK: I don’t know
• IIRC: If I recall correctly
• IMHO: In my humble opinion
• IMO: In my opinion
• Inc: Incoming
• LF: Looking for (“LF tank,” etc.)
• LF1M/LF2M/etc.: Looking for one more, two more, etc.
• LFG: Looking for group
• LFM: Looking for more (for a group)
• MT: Mistell (means “I sent this message to the wrong channel or person”)
• OMW: On my way
• STFU: Shut the f— up
• WC: Wrong channel
• WTB: want to buy
• WTF: What the f—
• WTH: What the hell
• WTS: Want to sell
• WTT: Want to trade

For the WoW gamer just learning the ropes, look at this as a part of the growing compendium of beginner’s guides to help you young ‘uns get around in the realms, all the more with the new discoveries The Burning Crusade offers.