Knights Of Sparta

A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and made-up words and phrases used in World of Warcraft

Have you ever seen something like; "LF1M DPS for UP Hc, OP Tank, Imba Group" appear in your chat window and wonder what language it's written in? Well to try to help you understand such abbreviations, acronyms and outright made-up words that are commonly used in-game, I've put this little guide together, hopefully it might help.

By the way, the above sentence actually means: "We are looking for one more damage dealing class character to join our group to go to the instanced dungeon 'Utgarde Pinnacle' set to 'Heroic' mode. The Defensive class character of the group is overpowered and the group is generally imbalanced for what we have planned." (Now you can see why it gets shortened )


Regarding Game Elements
KoS – Knights of Sparta
WoW – World of Warcraft
Vanilla / Classic – Original WoW game pre-expansion
TBC – 'The Burning Crusade' expansion pack
WotLK – 'Wrath of the Lich King' expansion pack
Cata - 'Cataclysm' expansion pack

AH – Auction House
GY – Graveyard
FP – Flight Path
HS – Hearthstone or Healthstone
BG – Battleground
PvE – Player Versus Environment
PvP – Player Versus Player
DoT – Damage over Time
HoT – Heal over Time
DPS – Damage Per Second
LoS – Line of Sight
CC – Crowd Control (Polymorph, Traps, repentance, Shackle etc)
Proc – The activation of a 'Chance' factor
RNG – Random Number Generator
LFG – Looking For Group
LFM – Looking For More
LF1M – Looking For 1 More
Hc – Heroic Level Dungeon
XP – Experience
Res / Rez – Abbreviation of Resurrect / Resurrection, or to return to life
NPC – Non-Playing Character
Ach – Achievement
HP – Hit / Health Points
SS – SoulStone. A Warlock's means of giving a Resurrecting player a self-resurrection ability in order to recover a group quickly from a 'Wipe'
LFD – Looking for Dungeon tool
LFR – Looking for Raid tool

Spec – Talent Specialisation
Stats – Combat Attributes (Strength, Agility, Intelligence etc)
Loot – The act of robbing dead bodies and the items found when doing so
Buff – A beneficial spell whose effects remain for a period of time. Alternatively, the opposite of "nerf", see below
Debuff – A negative spell whose effects remain for a period of time
Re/Spawn – When creatures reappear a period of time after they've been killed
Threat – Measurement of how much a creature hates a player
Aggro – The act of causing a creature to attack you by gaining more threat than everyone else
Taunt – An ability that causes a creature to attack the player for a time regardless of threat levels
Dump – To rapidly lose (eg Dump aggro and run)
MD – Misdirect threat from a creature to a different character, performed by Hunter's 'Misdirection' or Rogue's 'Tricks of the Trade'
Pull – The act of drawing creatures to the group to fight them away from their starting location (and other mobs)
Wipe – When all your group dies
Kite – To attack a creature and run away from it, keeping it at distance, turning to shoot it occasionally, method used to keep it busy or whittle its health down
Gank – Ambush with greater numbers or with a large level advantage
Zerg – Overwhelm with sheer numbers
Nuke – Produce all out maximum damage regardless of threat production or other factors
Boost – To use a higher level character to clear a dungeon for a lower level character to gain loot without experience.
Mobs – PvE creatures
Elite Mobs – Have a gold dragon around their portrait, they hit harder and have more health than normal mobs of the same level
Rare Mobs – Have a silver dragon around their portrait, mobs with a much lower spawn rate to normal mobs, often carry better loot
Adds – Extra creatures that join or get pulled into an existing battle
Pat – A patrolling mob or group of mobs (that can become adds if not careful)
Boss – A much harder creature often with special abilities and moves
Tag – Damaging a creature sufficiently to label it as 'your kill'. If another player has 'tagged' a creature it's health bar will turn grey to you and you will gain no experience or loot from killing it.


Regarding Players or Characters
GM – Game Master, Blizzard customer support member
GL – Guild Leader
DK – Death Knight
Tank – Defence based Class Role
Healer – Healing Based Class Role
DPS – (Damage Per Second) Damage Dealing Class Role
Main – A player's Main character
Alt – A player's alternative character
Newbie / Noob – A new player, often used as an insult
Toon – A character
Ninja – Player who rolls 'Need' on any item regardless, or otherwise steals things
Twink – A lower level character who is given gifts of money and/or gear (that they wouldn't otherwise normally have at their level) by a higher level character, or the act of doing this. Often done to create an overpowered character to compensate for a lack of skill in low level Battlegrounds. A derogatory term for said character.


General Chat
AFK – Away From Keyboard
OOM – I am Out of Mana
K or KK – OK (I don't know why)
R – Ready
CD – Cool Down. Period until you can next cast the same spell
GCD – Global Cool Down. CD period that affects all your spells
Ding! – I just gained a level
Grats/Gz/Gtz/cg etc – Congratulations
Cmz – Commiserations
TY / THX – Thank You
LOL – Laugh Out Loud
TBH – To Be Honest
BTW – By The Way
FTW – For the Win. Generally preceded by whatever just saved the situation ie "Rogue tanking FTW"
WTB – Want To Buy
WTS – Want To Sell
NVM – Never Mind
IMO / IMHO – In My Opinion / In My Humble Opinion
IYSWIM – If You See What I Mean
IIRC – If I Remember Correctly
PMSL – Peeing My Self Laughing
ROFL – Rolling On the Floor Laughing
LMAO – Laugh my {posterior} Off
WC – Wrong Chat
QQ – crying ('QQ' looks like a pair of crying eyes)
PewPew – Used to denote damage dealing. Used in the phrase "Less QQ, more PewPew"
NN – Night Night
WD – Well Done
CYA – See you later
BIO – I need to visit the lavatory
BRB – Be Right Back
GFI – Go For It
L2P – Learn to Play
Nerf – To dramatically reduce (eg "I see they're nerfing Hunters again in the next patch.")
Buff - To slightly increase (eg "I see they're buffing Druids again in the next patch.") Also the opposite of "debuff", see above
Imba – Imbalance
OP – Overpowered
DC – Disconnected
Help – Please could someone stop this creature from attacking me, I think it escaped the tank, or they missed it, thank you.
wwwww22222225556ssssss2222 or similar – I opened a chat field in-combat by mistake and took a few seconds to notice why I wasn't moving

AS----> – Congratulations on gaining an exploration achievement
Gratzzz – Congratulations on gaining a fishing achievement
Chef! – Congratulations on gaining a cooking achievement
Gratsh – Congratulations on gaining a drinking achievement
Prof! – Congratulations on gaining an archaeology achievement

Professions
LW – Leatherworking
BS – Blacksmithing
JC – Jewelcrafting
Eng – Engineering
Ench – Enchanting
DE – Disenchanting
Insc – Inscription
FA – First Aid
Arch – Archaeology


City Names
SW – Stormwind
IF – Ironforge
Darn – Darnassus
Exo – Exodar
Org – Orgrimmar
UC – Undercity
TB – Thunder Bluff (distinguish from Tol Barad by context)
SMC – Silvermoon City
Shatt – Shattrath
Dala – Dalaran

Zones Names Often Shortened
STV – Stranglethorn Vale
SoS – Swamp of Sorrows
WPL – Western Plagelands
EPL – Eastern Plaguelands

IQD – Isle of Quel'Danas
HFP – Hellfire Peninsula
BEM – Blade's Edge Mountains
SMV – Shadowmoon Valley

HF - Howling Fjord
BT - Borean Tundra (distinguish from Black Temple by context)
WG – Wintergrasp

TH - Twiglet Twilight Highlands
TB - Tol Barad (distinguish from Thunder Bluff by context)


Battleground Names
WSG – Warsong Gulch
AB – Arathi Basin
AV – Alterac Valley
EotS – Eye of the Storm
SotA – Strand of the Ancients
IoC – Isle of Conquest
TP – Twin Peaks
BfG – The Battle for Gilneas


Dungeon/Raid Names
DM – The Deadmines
RFC – Ragefire Chasm
WC – Wailing Caverns
SFK – Shadowfang Keep
BFD – Blackfathom Deeps
Stocks – The Stormwind Stockade
Gnomer – Gnomeregan
RFK – Razorfen Kraul
RFD – Razorfen Downs
SMGY – Scarlet Monastery Graveyard
SMLib – Scarlet Monastery Library
SMArm – Scarlet Monastery Armory
SMCath – Scarlet Monastery Cathedral
Ulda – Uldaman
ZF – Zul'Farrack
Mara – Maraudon
ST – Sunken Temple
BRD – Blackrock Depths
LBRS – Lower Blackrock Spire
UBRS – Upper Blackrock Spire
BWL – Blackwing Lair
MC – The Molten Core
DiM – Dire Maul
Strath – Stratholme
Scholo – The Scholomance
AQ20 – Ruins of Ahn' Qiraj
AQ40 – Temple of Ahn'Qiraj
ZG – Zul'Gurub
OL – Onyxia's Lair

Ramps – The Ramparts
BF – The Blood Furnace
SH – Shattered Halls
ML or Mag – Magtheridon's Lair
SP – The Slave Pens
UB – The Underbog
SV – The Steamvault
SSC – Serpentshrine Cavern
MT – Mana Tombs
AC – Auchenai Crypts
Seth – Sethekk Halls
SL or SLabs – Shadow Labyrinth
CoT – Caverns of Time
Durn – Durnholme: Old Hillsbrad
BM or Dark Portal – Black Morass: The Opening of the Dark Portal
TK – Tempest Keep
Bot – The Botanica
Mech – The Mechanar
Arc – The Arcatraz
Kara – Karazhan
ZA – Zul'Aman
Gruul – Gruul's Lair
Hyjal – Mount Hyjal
BT – Black Temple (distinguish from Borean Tundra by context)
MgT – Magister's Terrace
SWP – Sunwell Plateau

UK – Utgarde Keep
UP – Utgarde Pinnacle
Nex – The Nexus
Occ – The Oculus
AN – Azjol-Nerub
AK – Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom
DTK – Drak'Tharon Keep
VH – The Violet Hold
GD – Gundrak
CoS – The Culling of Stratholme
HoS – Halls of Stone
HoL – Halls of Lightning
ToC5 – Trial of the Champion
FoS – Forge of Souls
PoS – Pit of Saron
HoR – Halls of Reflection
Naxx – Naxxramas
OS – The Obsidian Sanctum
EoE – The Eye of Eternity
VoA – Vault of Archavon
ToC10/25 – Trial of the Crusader
ToC10/25 Hc – Trial of the Grand Crusader
Uld – Ulduar
ICC – Icecrown Citadel
RS – Ruby Sanctum

TotT – Throne of the Tides
BRC – Blackrock Caverns
Stone – The Stonecore
VP – Vortex Pinnacle
GB – Grim Batol
HoO – Halls of Origination
LCotTV or LC or TV – Lost City of the Tol'vir
ET – End Time
WoE – Well of Eternity
HoT – Hour of Twilight
BH – Baradin Hold
BWD – Blackwing Descent
BoT – Bastion of Twilight
T4W or TFW – Throne of the Four Winds
DS – Dragon Soul