World of Warcraft Abbreviations – Explained

If you’re a new or returning player to World of Warcraft, you may be confused by some of the lingo and abbreviations being thrown around. Come with me as I try and lay out just what these abbreviations mean, and when YOU should use them!

The lists below are in Alphabetical Order for sake of easy searching. If you have something specific you are looking for, you can use your browsers search feature! Use CMD+F on mac, or Cntrl+F on PC and type in the abbreviation or word you’re looking for.

General Abbreviations-

Below are a series of abbreviations you will see commonly in Trade Chat, or in conversation with other players! I’ll do my best to keep these in Alphabetical Order for precise seeking!

• AFK – Away from Keyboard. Used to let someone know you need to step away.
• Alt – A character other than your Main. A 2nd, or 3rd character, etc.
• Blizz – Short for Blizzard Entertainment. The Company in charge of creating World of Warcraft.
• BRB – Be Right Back, let someone know you will return shortly.
• DC – Disconnect or Disconnected. Someone is experiencing internet or game connectivity issues.
• DE – Disenchant. Using the Disenchant skill of Enchanters to break down an item into magical components.
• Ding – The sound made when a player levels up! Usually used as an Exclamation to celebrate leveling.
• Enchant – To enhance a piece of gear by using an Enchantment created by a player with the Enchanting Profession.
• FoTM – Flavor of the Month. A class or specialization that is considered to be Over Powered or Exciting, if only temporarily.
• GG – Good Game, typically used upon successfully achieving something.
• GL – Good Luck, or Guild Leader depending on context.
• GM – Game Master, or Guild Master depending on context.
• Gratz or Grats – Short form of Congratulations.
• HS – Hearthstone. An item used to Teleport to your home location, typically an Inn.
• Inv – Short form of Invite. A request to be invited to a party or raid.
• Ilvl – Short form of Item Level. The cumulative score fo your equipped armor.
• Lvl – Short form of Level. Referring to your characters actual level.
• LF – Looking For. Depends on context. (LF JC = Looking For Jewelcrafter)
• Lore – History of the game and in-game canon.
• Mats – Short Form of Materials. Items used in crafting professions.
• MMO – Abbreviation for Massively Multiplayer Online. Typically referring to online roleplaying games.
• NPC – Abbreviation for Non-player Character. This refers to any neutral or friendly character in game NOT controlled by a person.
• Proff – Short form of Profession. In game skills utilized by players.
• Prog – Progression. The distance a group or individual has made into content, typically raids.
• Pug – Pick Up Group. A group comprised all or partially of people that are not in your guild or friend group.
• QQ – Crying Emoji. Used to either mock someone, or to emote displeasure at someone’s behavior.
• Respec – Changing your specializations.
• RP – Role Play or Role Playing. Either done by a player in character, or an NPC.
• RiP – Rest in Peace. Used when a group member dies, or possibly leaves your guild.
• Toon – Referring to a character on your account.
• WTB – Want To Buy, someone is looking to purchase an item or service.
• WTS – Want To Sell, someone is looking to provide an item or service.

Group Abbreviations-

These are going to be lingo and abbreviations that you’d commonly experience in group content. Dungeons, Raids, and Battlegrounds specifically.

• 1, or 123 – A request for summons. The shorthand changes based on Region.
• Adds – NPC’s that join a fight in progress that must be tanked or killed.
• Aggro – This is referring to how much threat someone has generated against a target. Who a target is attacking.
• AoE – Area of Effect. Any ability designed to heal or damage multiple targets at a time.
• BR – Battle Resurrect. An ability used by certain classes to bring a player back from the dead in the middle of combat.
• CD – Cool Down. An ability on a timer that improves a players performance for a set amount of time.
• CR – Combat Resurrect. Same as a Battle Resurrect. An ability that returns a play from the dead in the middle of combat.
• DD – Damage Dealer. A person that focuses on dealing damage in combat.
• DoT – Damage over Time. An ability that does damage over a set amount of time, rather than instantly.
• DPS – Damage Per Second. A measure of how much damage is being dealt over the course of an encounter.
• Face pull – Pulling a boss or Mob by running into them, instead of using an ability.
• Healer – A person whose job is to keep the party alive by restoring Health.
• HoT – Heal over Time. An ability that restores health over a set amount of time, rather than instantly.
• HPS – Healing Per Second. A measure of how much healing is being done over the course of an encounter.
• Interrupt – An ability used to counter an opponents ability. These tend to also silence an opponent.
• Kick – Same as Interrupt. This is named after the Rogues interrupt ability, which once had the shortest cool down of all interupts.
• LFG – Looking For Group. A Person is looking for a party or group for a specific dungeon or raid.
• LFM – Looking For More. Someone is recruiting players for piece of content.
• LFR – Looking For Raid. A form of content that pairs a raid group together from people in a queue automatically. Seen as an entry to Raiding.
• LoS – Line of Sight. Whether or not something or someone can be seen by the player. When used in a dungeon, it means that someone is either not healable, or the Tank is breaking Line of Sight to force Mobs to move.
• Lust/Hero – A Cool Down used by certain classes that greatly increases Haste and Attack Speed for a period of time.
• M+ – Mythic Plus, a form of dungeon content that scales higher and higher.
• Mobs – Hostile NPC’s that are found in dungeons, raids, and open world content.
• Peel – Pulling Threat or Aggro off of another player. Typically done by the Tank.
• Tank – A person whose job is hold Threat of Bosses and Mobs. This prevents them from dealing damage to the Party directly.

Item Abbreviations-

These abbreviations and lingo are commonly associated with items and gear worn by players!

• BiS – Best in Slot. This item has the ideal statistics for a persons Class or Specialization.
• BoA – Bind on Account. This item can be freely shared and used by all characters on an individuals account.
• BoE – Bind on Equip. This item can be freely traded between all players until the moment it is Equipped. This will bind it to the player that equips the item and prevents it from being traded further.
• BoP – Bind on Pickup. This item will bind to a player as soon as it is looted, and may not be eligible for trade.
• Green – Items with their name in Green. Also known as “Uncommon.” Typically quest rewards or drops from Mobs in the world.
• Grey – Items with their name in Grey. Found as random drops and are typically considered to be trash. The exception being Armor pieces that may be transmoggable.
• Ilvl – Item Level. The average score of armor currently equipped on your character.
• Orange – Legendary Items. Found after following long questlines designed for specific classes.
• Purple – Epic Quality items. Seen as the best quality armor from Raids and Mythic+ Dungeons.
• RNG – Random Number Generator. RNG is often to blame for who gets what item and what stats an item may roll.
• Trash – An item that is only good to be vendored.

Character Abbreviations-

These are going to be some abbreviations and lingo that are usually associated with personal abilities or skills used by individuals.

• Burst – A period of heightened damage. Usually the result of stacked Cool Downs.
• CD – Cool Down. An ability that will grant a large boost to player ability on a timer. Once used, it must refresh over a period of time.
• GCD – Global Cool Down. A Cool Down incurred internally after using almost any ability. This is intended to prevent people from pressing buttons as quickly as possible for results. Instead, you must wait 1 second between inputs.
• Invis – Invisibility. Can be caused by potions and abilities. Notably a rogues Stealth or Shroud of Concealment.
• MT – Main Tank. An individual whose purpose is to hold aggro on the main boss or target, usually by themselves.
• OOM – Out Of Mana. When a Healer runs out of mana and can no longer support the party.
• OT – Off Tank. An individual whose purpose is to gather adds and mobs that spawn during a fight, while the main tank focuses the boss.
• Port – Teleport. A mage can open portals for the party to travel from one point to another.
• Procc – An effect that occurs as a result of something else.
• Sheep – Request for a mob to be Polymorphed or Crowd Controlled. This can be done by many classes, but originally stems from Mages and their infamous ability to turn others into Sheep.
• TP – Teleport. Opening a portal from one location to another.

PvP Abbreviations-

Abbreviations and Lingo associated with Player versus Player content.

• BG – Battleground. This can be your standard Battleground or an Arena.
• Cap – Capture. Many Battlegrounds revolve around capturing bases or flags for points.
• Inc – Incoming. There is a group of players converging on a point.

Common City Short Names-

There are many cities that are commonly discussed in WoW, to save time players typically shorten the names for the sake of brevity.

• IF – Ironforge. The Dwarven Capital City.
• Dal – Dalaran. Both the version in Northrend and the Broken Shores. It is seen as a good central hub for traveling to locations in the Expansion the city is housed in. (Exists in 2 expansions simultaneously, Confusing for new players.)
• Org – Orgrimmar, the Orc Capital of the Horde. Home of portals to most expansions that are accessible only by the Horde.
• Shatt – Shattrath. Main city of The Burning Crusade expansion.
• SW – Stormwind City. The capital of the Alliance. Houses portals to most expansions and is only accessible by the Alliance.
• Val – Valdrakken. The main city/hub in Dragonflight. Located in Thaldrazzus.

Expansion Names-

Finally, we have all of the Expansions so far, and what players call them in conversation!

• BFA – Battle For Azeroth.
• Cata – Cataclysm.
• Classic – The Re-release of the original versions of World of Warcraft.
• DF – Dragonflight.
• MoP – Mists of Pandaria.
• SL – Shadowlands.
• TBC – The Burning Crusade.
• Vanilla – The original version of World of Warcraft.
• WoD – Warlords of Draenor.
• WotLK – Wrath of the Lich King.

I hope that this has helped shed some light on the words and shorthand used by players. It’s an important part of the community, especially since so much of conversation is text based!