Hello! I hope you are well. With this post, I hope to clarify some acronyms and abbreviations which may leave new players forum users feeling confused or overwhelmed. Experienced users, please feel free to edit or add your own (as long as people actually use them).
The explanations will be in this format:
Acronym - What it stands for
WoW - World of Warcraft
Common Internet Acronyms
- LOL- Laughing Out Loud
- ROFL - Rolling On the Floor Laughing
- LMAO - Laughing My (butt) off.
- GG - Good Game
- IMO - In My Opinion
- TBH - To Be Honest
- /s at the end of a post means someone is being Sarcastic
- BTW - By The Way
- AFK - Away From Keyboard
- ASAP - As Soon As Possible
- IDK - I Don’t Know
- JK - Just Kidding
- OFC - OF Course
- Necro - responding to a topic which has not had activity in several weeks
- OP - Original Poster or OverPowered
- OMG - Oh My Goodness/God
- PEBKAC - Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair
- RPG - Role-Playing Game
- MMO - Massive Multiplayer Online
- Mod -MODerators (usually of the forum) or a MODification to the game
- IIRC - If I Recall Correctly
- AFAIK - As Far As I Know
- GTG - GoTta Go
Classes and Specialization
Spec - Specialization
Hunter
MM - Marksmanship
BM - Beast Mastery (or Bowel Movement)
SV - SurVival
Shaman
Enh - Enhancement
Resto - Restoration
RSham - Restoration Shaman
Ele - Elemental
Death Knight
DK - Death Knight
UHDK - UnHoly Death Knight
FDK - Frost Death Knight
BDK - Blood Death Knight
Warrior
Prot - Protection
ProtW - Protection Warrior
Paladin
Pally - Paladin
HPal - Holy Paladin
Prot - Protection
ProtP - Protection Paladin
Ret - Retribution
Druid
Resto - Restoration
Boomy - Boomkin (as in Balance Druid)
Bear - Guardian
Demon Hunter
DH - Demon Hunter
HDH - Havoc Demon Hunter
VDH - Vengeance Demon Hunter
Monk
WW - WindWalker
BrM - BrewMaster
MW - MistWeaver
Rogue
Sin - assasSINation
Sub - SUBtlety (or submissive)
Mage
None
Warlock
Lock - warLOCK
Destro - Destruction
Demo - Demonology
Aff - Affliction
Priest
Disc - Discipline
Evoker
Dev - Devestation (or developer)
Prev - PreserVation
Important Spells
ROP - Ring of Peace (Monk Spell)
Lust/Hero/TW - Heroism
These all mean the same thing, a powerful haste buff for your whole team with a ten minute cooldown. This can be Time Warp for Mages, Heroism for Shamans, Primal Rage for Hunters, and now Fury of the Aspects for Evokers.
FD - Feign Death (Hunter spell)
MD - Misdirect (Hunter) or Mass Dispel (Priest)
BOP - Blessing of Protection (Paladin) or Bind on Person (the item becomes soulbound when it enters your inventory)
PI - Power Infusion (Priest)
SS - Soul Stone (Warlock)
Group Utility and Social Organization
CD - CoolDown
HP - Hit Points (How much health some target has)
CC - Crowd Control (like slows, roots, stuns, anything that controls crowds of mobs)
Brez/Battle Res - Battle Resurrection, a resurrection of a dead teammate that can be done in combat
Lust/Hero - Heroism (see above)
Bio - Biological Function. Using the restroom, getting water, etc. They will be AFK (Away From Keyboard) for a bit.
LF - Looking For
LFG - Looking for Group (player seeking group)
LFM - Looking for More (group seeking players)
Inc - Incoming
OMW- On My Way
MT - Main Tank
OT - Off Tank
DPS - Damage Per Second (or the role of the person who primarily deals damage)
HPS - Heals Per Second
DR - Damage Reduction or Diminishing Returns
NPC - Non-Player Character
ST - Single Target (damage or healing)
AoE - Area of Effect, Multi-Target (damage or healing)
Mob - enemy NPC
Pat - Patrol (A mob that walks around. Pat inc means a mob that walks around is coming towards you)
Add - ADDitional mob that is summoned by a boss
DOT - Damage Over Time
OOM - Out Of Mana
PUG - Pick-Up Group
Pot - Potion
Proc - Procedure (A buff or event that happens procedurally)
PvE - Player vs Enemy (The enemies are NPCs)
PvP - Player vs Player
RP - Role Playing
ML - Master Loot
UI - User Interface
WTB - Want To Buy
WTS - Want To Sell
WTT - Want To Trade
BOE - Bind on Equip (you can trade this thing until you equip it)
Expansions (Ordered by Release Date)
- Classic Era/Vanilla is the version without any expansions, not to be confused with ‘Classic’ in general.
- TBC - The Burning Crusade
- WotLK/Wrath - Wrath of the Lich King
- Cata - Cataclysm
- MoP - Mists of Pandaria
- WoD - Warlords of Draenor
- Legion is written regularly
- BFA - Battle For Azeroth
- SL - Shadowlands
- DF - Dragonflight
Expansion-specific dungeons and zones will often have their own abbreviations but those will not be listed here for brevity. For example, HoA is Halls of Atonement, a dungeon from Shadowlands.
TLDR - Too Long, Didn’t Read. A summary of what the post said. This post explained some common abbreviations and acronyms in WoW.
Please add ones I’ve missed to help new players 