by Byron Mudry on Mar 14, 2008
The World of Warcraft (WoW) can be a very confusing place. As with any large game, and especially any Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) there are a veritable ton of acronyms and terminology that is used by its players. This can be very daunting to the new player, and can even be confusing to many veterans that simply can not remember all the terms.
That's where this guide steps in. It is a collection of all common terms an acronyms found in WoW.
To find any term, simply go to the page that has its starting letter and either scroll down to it or press CTRL+F to bring up your find window and type in what you are looking for.
Description
Naxx Short for Naxxramas, the 40 person raid released just before the burning crusade, and hardest of the 40 man level 60 raids. Noob A derogatory term for new or inexperienced players, also sometimes referred to as a newbie. Sometimes used as a self degrogating term as well, such as "Oh, I just had a noob moment". NPC Short for Non Player Character and refers to anything in the game that is not controlled by a player. This includes MOBs, Bosses, vendors and more. NR Short for Nature Resistance, which is the number value use to calculate how much nature damage you will not take when hit with an nature based magic attack.Description
OH Short for Off Hand. This refers to any weapon that can be used in your left hand in the game. OMG A general gaming term, short for Oh My God. Meant to show surprise or anxiety over an item. Such as, "OMG that's too powerful". Ony Short for Onyxia and refers to the 40 man instance and raid boss Onyxia's Lair and Onyxia. This is a very short 40 man level 60 raid that has a few MOBs and then the boss. OOC Short of Out Of Combat. This is meant to let players know when you have gotten out of combat so they either know they can expect a rez in an instance or when they can drink / eat after a fight. OOM Short for Out of Mana. OP Short for Over Powered and used in conversation to describe something that the player feels is too good. OT Short for Off Tank. This refers to the tank that is taking the secondary MOBs or adds on boss fights.Description
Pally Short for Paladin. Generally players will not write out the full class name of Paladin, but instead refer to them as Pallys or their subclass nicknames: Tankadin, Healadin, Retadin (Dpsadin). Pat Short for Patrol. This refers to any group of MOBs that are not stationary. These are the groups that patrol along set lines or in set areas in an instance or zone. Pats are generally the MOBs that turn into Adds. Port Short for teleport and refers to the mage's ability to teleport players to the major cities. PPMShort for Proc's Per Minute. Some proc's have their likelihood of happening based on a possible number of effects per minute. These are referred to in a # basis such as 6ppm. This would mean that you should expect on average the proc to take place 6 times per minute. Players attempting to maximize the proc % chance will therefore use slower weapons so that each swing has a greater % chance to proc.
For example a weapon with a swing speed of 2 would swing 30 times in a minute of which 6 would proc, giving a 20% chance to proc per swing. A weapon with a swing speed of 4 would only swing 15 times and have a 40% chance to proc per swing.
The PPM and percentage chance per swing is based on the unmodified weapon speed. Any haste effects will not effect the % chance per swing.
Proc This is short for special procedure and is a hold over from old MUD's and other MMOG's. It is used to refer to items or abilities that have a secondary effect that may happen. These are effects that have a chance to happen on hit, cast or being hit. PuG Short for Pick Up Group and refers to any group that is created from random players found in the area, general chat or the LFG tool or channel. This is the default type of group for most quests and 5 man instances. However they have a very bad reputation as many times you can get players that are either sub-geared or sub-skilled, which causes issues in completing the quest or instance. PullThis is a term used to describe the start of controlled combat. If combat starts accidentally it is usually called an add.
Pulls are usually done by hitting the MOB with a ranged attack to get their attention and get them to aggro you. They can also however be body pulled.
Once aggro'ed the player attempts to move the MOB to a safe distance from any other MOBs in the area so that everyone in the group can fight without causing an Add.
PvE Player versus Environment. Used in reference to either PvE realms where faction vs faction fighting is not allowed or in general reference to the act of fighting elements controlled by the servers. PvP Player versus Player. Used in reference to either PvP realms where each faction can freely fight each other or to battleground and arena combat systems.Description
QFT Short form of Quote for Truth. This is a generic gaming term to symbolize agreement with a statement. Example: Player A - "Druids are too good in arena combat", Player B - "QFT". QQ Short for Crying, often used as a derogatory or slang term. For example if you defeat someone in a duel and they comment that your class is overpowered, you could comment back QQ, meaning go cry about it.Description
Rage Rages it the Warriors and Druid Bear Form equivalent of mana or energy. They both consume it to use different abilities. Both start combat without rage and much build it up by doing damage or being hit. When out of combat it fades quickly over time. Raider Refers to a player that generally works with a group of other players to progress through the raid instances in WoW. RAP Short for Ranged Attack Power, which is the key statistic for most hunters. Respec The refers to returning to your class trainer and paying to clear the points placed in your talent tree. Each time you do this the cost rises up to a maximum cost of 50 gold. Over time the cost decreases, but not swiftly. RFC Short for Ragefire Chasm, which is the first available instance as a Horde player. It is located in the city of Orgrimmar in the Cleft of Shadows. It is meant for players roughly level 12-14. RFD Short for Razorfen Downs, which is an instance located at the southern edge of the Barrens. It is meant for players level 34-36. RFK Short for Razorfen Kraul, which is an instance located at the southern edge of the Barrens. It is meant for players level 30-34. RL Short for Real Life and refers to anything in the real world as opposed to in-game. ROFL Short for Roll On Floor Laughing. This is used in conversation to show that you think something is very funny. RollRefers to rolling a virtual die to determine who gets something. Usually done out of 100 using the standard /random command but can be done out of anything by placing a number after the command, for example /random 200.
Usually used for determining who gets loot, chests, mining nodes, etc.
RPG Short for Roll Playing Game. These are traditionally the pen and paper games such as Dungeons and Dragons that lead to MMORPG's or MMOG's.Description
S Used as a short form for Silver in relation to buying something. For example: I will pay you 25s for that item. Silver is the middle denomination of currency in WoW. Salv This refers to the Paladin blessing ability called Blessing of Salvation. This ability reduces the threat generated by the affected player by 30%. Can also refer to the greater version of the blessing. A player may only be affected by one blessing at a time per paladin. Scholo Short for Scholomance, the level 58-60 instance located in the Western Plaguelands. SFK Short for Shadowfang Keep, a low level instance (level 20-25) found in the southern edge of Silverpine Forest. It is controlled by Arugal and his Worgen allies. Sheep Refers to the mage ability polymorph. This ability turns a MOB or enemy player into a sheep (or a few different animals) for a short time. While "sheeped" the MOB regenerates health very quickly, but has no control over themselves. Any damage breaks the sheep and returns the MOB or Player to their normal form. SM Short for Scarlet Monastery, a level 35-40 instance located deep in Horde territory in northern Tirisfal Glades. It was the first real "winged" instances with 4 separate areas. SoJ Short for Seal of Justice, a Paladin seal that stuns the target for a short period of time, based on roughly 5 procs per minute. SotC Short for Seal of the Crusader, a Paladin seal that allows the Paladin to attack faster but for less damage each hit. Spec Refers to which specialty you are, or which talent tree you have spend the most points in. Such as a BM spec’ed hunter, which refers to a hunter that has spent most of their talents in the Beast Master talent tree. Spec This refers to your talent specialization and is essentially how you allocate your talent points. For example, and Paladin that puts his talent points in to the holy talent tree is said to have spec'ed holy. Squishy Refers to any cloth wearer. This means that they will die quickly to melee combat once engaged. SR Short for Shadow Resistance, which is the number value use to calculate how much shadow damage you will not take when hit with an shadow based magic attack. SSC Short for Serpent Shrine Cavern, a 25 person level 70 raid located in Zangarmarsh. Stam This refers to your stamina statistic. Stamina ups the health of your character at a rate of 1 stamina providing 10 health. Stat Short for statistic. Usually used to refer to character statistics such as strength, stamina, etc. Stocks Short for the Stockades, which is a mid level instance located right in Stormwind. Str This refers to your strength statistic. Strength affects your melee attack power, block value and more. Strat (Strath) Short for Stratholme the level 55-60 instance found on the northern edge of the Western Plaguelands. It is generally referred to as either UD (undead) Strat or SC (Live or Scarlet) Strat, to reference which side you will be doing. STV Short for Stranglethorne Vale the jungle zone at the southern edge of the continent of the Eastern Kingdoms. SW Short for Stormwind, which it the Human capital city. SW: P Short for Shadow Word: Pain, the priest DOT ability. It deals shadow damage over time and is one of a shadow priests main weapons.Description
TB Short for Thunder Bluff, which is the Tauren capital city. Tick A tick refers to the time between effects that happen over time. Depending on the effect it is between a 1 and 3 second period of time. TM Short for Tarren Mill, a Horde town in Hillsbrad that used to host running PvP battles from Tarren Mill to Southshore. Trash Trash is a slang term coined by raiders to describe all MOBs in a raid that are not bosses. Because they are in the way of the good fights and loot, they are considered trash.Description
UBRS Short for Upper Blackrock Spire, which is the second half of the Blackrock Spire instance located in Blackrock Mountain. It is considered the first raid in WoW and meant for 10 level 60 players. UC Short for Undercity, the Horde Undead capital city. Uld Short for Uldaman, a mid level instance found in the Badlands.Description
VC This is used to refer to the instance of the Deadmines for low level characters. Because DM can be confused for Dire Maul, DM generally now refers to Dire Maul and the Deadmines are referred to as VC in reference to the final boss there Van Cleef. VT or Vendor Trash Refers to all the gray and white items that you pick up that are sold off to the vendors. VW Short for Voidwalker, which is a Warlocks tank type pet.Description
WC Short for Wailing Caverns, which is a low level instance meant for Horde players located in the Barrens. Wife Aggro (Spouse Aggro) This is a term commonly said while in an instance or raid, "Ooops, have to go, wife aggro". It refers to one's wife or spouse getting mad that you are in WoW instead of doing household chores, watching the kids, paying them attention, etc. WSG Warsong Gulch, a 10 person battleground located in Ashenvale. It can be entered into from that zone or from the battlemasters in the major cities. It is won by control resource generation points.Description
XR Short for Crossroads, which is the main hub of Horde activity in the Barrens.Description
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ZA Short for Zul'Aman, which is a 10 man raid meant for level 70's located in the ghostlands. It is home of the troll warlord Zul'jin and is tuned to be slightly harder than Karazhan and is considered progression for KZ running guilds. Zerg A term that refers back the the Starcraft alien race of the Zerg, that win by overwhelming it's opponents with pure numbers. In WoW players refer to a mass rush against an opponent as a zerg. ZF Short for Zul'Farrak, a mid-level instance located in the dessert of Tanaris. ZG Short for Zul'Gurub, a 20 person level 60 raid located in Stranglethorne Vale. The final boss being the Troll God Hakkar.Comments or questions? Email us (Messiah@TenTonHammer.com) or post on our forums!