WoWGlossary
This page contains a glossary of more or less common WoW (World of Warcraft) terms and acronyms. Some entries are in German because I play on a German realm. Each list is sorted alphabetically.
Terms
- Add
- Additional mob
- 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"
- Alt
- An "alternate" character - not your main (character)
- Bubblehearth
- A term referring to the Paladin escape method of casting their Divine Shield (an invulnerability spell) followed by activating their Hearthstone, in an attempt to teleport to their home town without being killed.
- Classic/Vanilla
- Refers to the original World of Warcraft content, before Burning Crusade
- Clothie
- A character of a class that is restricted to wear cloth armor.
- Grind
- To grind refers to doing a repetitive task in order to achieve a goal, e.g. gain reputation with a faction.
- Imba
- Short for "Imbalanced", e.g. if a character is geared incredibly well. May also refer to an ability or class that is perceived to be overpowered.
- Main
- The main character, i.e. the most played, highest level, or first created character. Not one of your "alts".
- Mine, Farm
- To stay in one place, killing the same mob over and over and over again, for loot or XP. May also refer to gathering a resource.
- Mob
- A term from older text based MMOs, standing for "Mobile Object," ie, an NPC that moves around on it own
- Nerf
- A change to the game that makes a given class/spec weaker
- Pat
- Patrol
- Proc
- Short for "Process", "Procedure", or some similar term (see WoWWiki). What it refers to is things that have a chance to go off when some event happens.
- Rez
- To rez means to resurrect a dead player. Various classes have different rez abilities, which can usually be cast only out of combat. Druids are the only class that have the ability to battle rez, i.e. to rez while a battle is still in progress.
- Sheep
- Sheeping refers to the Mage ability to polymorph a target into a sheep for a limited time, thus rendering an enemy mob harmless. Sheeping is a form of crowd control (CC).
- Spawn
- A place where an NPC or mob appears in the game world
- Squishy
- A character of a class that is restricted to wear cloth armor, thus is an easy, "squishy" target for enemies. Basically the same as the term "clothie".
- Tankadin
- A Paladin character that has the tank role
- Toon
- Short for cartoon, a character.
- Trash
- Monsters that are not bosses are often referred to as the trash of the instance
- Twink
- An alt character, often one that has unusually high quality gear & enchants
Acronyms
WoWWiki has an entire category with articles that explain acronyms.
- AoE
- Area of Effect
- AH
- Auction House
- AFK
- Away From Keyboard. Your character gets this status after a certain time elapses without keyboard or mouse activity. The character can be explicitly put into this state by issuing the command "/afk".
- AK
- Archavons Kammer, or Vault of Archavon. A raid dungeon.
- AP
- Attack Power, a stat in the game.
- AQ
- Ahn'Qiraj. General name for the region where several raid dungeons are located.
- AQ20/RAQ
- Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. A raid dungeon.
- AQ40/TAQ
- Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. A raid dungeon.
- BB
- Booty Bay
- BC
- Burning Crusade
- BFD
- Blackfathom Depths
- BG
- Battleground
- BoA
- Bind on account
- BoE
- Bind on equip
- BoK/Kings
- Blessing of Kings. A Paladin buff.
- BoL/Light
- Blessing of Light. A Paladin buff.
- BoM/Might
- Blessing of Might. A Paladin buff.
- BoP
- Bind on Pick-up. Also: Blessing of Protection, a Paladin buff.
- BoS/Salv
- Blessing of Salvation. A Paladin buff.
- BoW/Wis
- Blessing of Wisdom. A Paladin buff.
- BRD
- Blackrock Depths
- [U|L]BRS
- [Upper|Lower] Blackrock Spire
- BWL
- Blackwing Lair. A raid dungeon.
- CC
- Crowd control
- CD
- Cooldown
- DC
- Disconnect
- DD
- Damage Dealer
- DE
- Disenchant
- DF
- Dungeon Finder. An in-game tool that helps players to find others to team up to play an instance.
- DK
- Death Knight
- DKP
- Dragon kill points, a cover term for a number of systems guilds use to distribute loot (see [http://www.wowwiki.com/Dragon_kill_points WoWWiki)
- DM
- Dire Maul, or Deadmines. To prevent confusion, Deadmines is sometimes also abbreviated to VC, after the end boss Van Cleef.
- DND
- Do Not Disturb. Your character gets this status after issuing the command "/dnd".
- DoT
- Damage over time
- DPS
- Damage per second
- FFF
- Faerie Fire (Feral), a Druid ability.
- FP
- Flight point, flight path
- GM
- Game master
- GS
- GearScore, an addon for evaluating a player's gear. (In)famous and controversial because raid leaders looking for group members often require players to have a minimum "gear score", thus ignoring a player's skill.
- HoT
- Heal over time
- IF
- Ironforge
- LF
- Looking For ("LF tank," etc.)
- LFG
- Looking For Group. If used by a player on a global channel that player is literally looking for a group that she may join. An older in-game mechanism to team up with other players was also called "Looking For Group", nowadays the tool is called the Dungeon Finder.
- LoS
- Line of Sight
- MA
- Main Assist
- MC
- Mind Control. Also: Molten Core, a raid dungeon.
- MMO
- Massively multiplayer online game, e.g. World of Warcraft.
- MP5
- Mana per five seconds
- MT
- Main Tank
- NPC
- Non-player character
- OH
- Off-hand
- OOM
- Out of mana
- OT
- Off tank
- PDK
- Prüfung des Kreuzfahrers, or Trial of the Crusader. An epic 10- and 25-player raid dungeon.
- PDoK
- Prüfung des obersten Kreuzfahrers, or Trial of the Grand Crusader. A heroic mode 10- and 25-player raid dungeon.
- PUG
- Pickup group, i.e. a group of random players that are grouped together via the matchmaking system, usually to do an instance or quest. Not necessarily limited to a 5-man group, randomly assembled raids are also PUGs.
- PvE
- Player vs. Environment
- PvP
- Player vs. Player
- PW
- F : Power Word: Fortitude
- PW
- S : Power Word: Shield
- Re
- ?; used in chat to announce that one is no longer AFK.
- RL
- Real life
- RNG
- Random Number Generator, may refer to any situation where a random element is involved
- STV
- Stranglethorn Vale
- SW
- Stormwind City
- TPS
- Threat per second
- TS
- Teamspeak
- Vent
- Ventrilo
- WB
- Welcome Back; used as greeting after someone has returned from being AFK
- WC
- Wailing Caverns
- WotLK
- Wrath of the Lich King
- WoW
- World of Warcraft
- XP
- Experience points
- ZF
- Zul Farrak
Abbreviations
WoWWiki has an entire category with articles that explain abbreviations.
- Naxx
- Naxxramas
- Ony
- Onyxia's Lair
- Kara
- Karazhan
- Scholo
- Scholomance
- Shatt
- Shattrath City
- Strat
- Stratholme
