The Troll Hunter

Greetings! Many, many posts back I published a list of a lot of the most commonly used terms or lingo that you might see while playing Warcraft. Since then I’ve gotten quite a few emails requesting that I put the list up again with some new updates. So for those who asked, here you go!

This is still mainly for the new players to the World of Warcraft, because you’ll definitely have a whole lot of questions to ask while you first start to level and you’ll be trying to figure out what most of the chat abbreviations stand for in both general and trade chat. Hopefully it will help you not look so noobish too!

REMEMBER: This list is by no means complete in any way. It’s just here to help new players a little with the more commonly used terms in the game. (Maybe some older players too!)

Achievement: Are self-contained goals offer new challenges, satisfy goal-oriented players, and allow others to see your accomplishments in World of Warcraft — To some they are just plain fun and to others they are a waste of time.

Add On: Popular programs by third parties written to enhance your game play. Popular add on websites include Curse & WowInterface.

Auction House: Where you go to buy and sell items in all the major cities. Example: “I’m going to the AH to sell these herbs that I farmed.”

Aggro: What you get if you generate more threat on a mob.

AFK: Away from Keyboard. (Example: “My BF/GF wants dinner, I’ll be AFK for 20 minutes.)

AOE: Area of Effect. Certain spells, such as arcane explosion, have this attribute. AoE spells will hit all enemies in a certain radius, such as 10 yards.

Barren’s Chat: Is like a stupidity centrifuge, distilling the unexpurgated banal thoughts of a thousand morons into a hardened impenetrable lump of smacktardery, spilling endlessly across the bottom of your screen.

BG: Battleground — AV (Alterac Valley); WSG (Warsong Gulch); AB (Arathi Basin); EOTS (Eye of the Storm) WG: (Wintergrasp)

BM: (Hunter reference): Beast Mastery

BOE: Bind on Equip. This item can be traded or sold. It binds to you though the minute you equip it or put it on.

BOP: Bind on pick up. The item binds to you when it is picked up and cannot be traded or sold at the auction house. It can be sold to a vendor.

BtA: Bind to Account is a new form of item binding that was introduced in Patch 3.0.2. Items that are BtA includes Heirlooms, Collector’s Edition companions and the Baby Blizzard Bear.

Buff: A buff refers to a temporary beneficial spell or effect placed on a player. Buffs can range in effect from simple personal shields to buffs which augment almost every category of stats a given player may have for their race or class.

Cataclysm: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the upcoming third expansion for World of Warcraft and was officially announced on at BlizzCon 2009. The majority of the expansion content takes place in drastically reforged Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.

Carebear: A term used by PvP players to describe players on a PvE or RP (Role Playing) server.

Combat Pet: A pet owned by a player that can be controlled to fight. This is usually a hunter. Warlocks have minions to do this, and mages have Elementals.

Companion: (a.k.a. small pets, non-combat pets, mini-pets, or vanity pets) are small creatures (or mechanical replicas thereof) that follow your player character around. They are mainly for show. Several of these companions have their own characteristic behaviors.

Cooldown: The waiting period before another spell can be used again. The more powerful the spell, the longer the cool down.

Daily Quests: (popularly nicknamed dailies) are repeatable quests that can be acquired and completed once per day. These quests have significantly better rewards than other repeatable quests. Daily quests come in many different flavors, and many are for reputation, instances, professions, and battlegrounds.

DeBuff: A spell cast on an enemy or player (PvP) that usually lowers their attributes.

Death Knoob: A Death Knoob (aka Dork Knight, Dunce Knight, Donkey Kong, etc.) is a poorly played death knight. The initial popularity of death knights coupled with a quirky play style resulted in a ubiquitous but not necessarily skilled player base.

DE or Disenchant: Enchanters can disenchant items of uncommon (green) quality or better, which destroys the item and produces magical dusts, essences, and shards, which are used to put enchantments on equipment.

DND: Do Not Disturb: A player can flag himself DND, which has no effect other than to insert DND if front of the character’s name label above their head. Other player’s are expected to respect this.

DoT: Damage over Time, generally abbreviated as DoT and or simply dot, refers to inflicting some damage on one’s foe which will be applied at a regular interval for a limited duration.

DPS: Damage per second. DPS class are those that don’t heal or tank, but mainly provide damage.

Drop: An item found on an enemy. Items, silver, copper, etc.

Epic: Is the level of item quality in between Rare and Legendary. Epic quality items can be found in end-game instances, from various professions, world drops, and reputation purchases. While Legendary quality items appear in the game, most WoW players will never get one and only even see them on occasion.

ERP: (Normally heard of on RP servers): Erotic Role Playing – Nuff said.

EXP or XP: Referred to your experience you gain while playing.

Flag, Flagged or to Flag: The PvP flag indicates whether or not you can engage or be engaged in PvP combat by a player of an opposing faction. If it is up, you are open for combat against the opposite faction. If it is not, you cannot be attacked by a player of an opposing faction. The PvP flag can be seen in the top corner of the screen next to your players portrait.

GM: Usually referred to a Blizzard game master to help you while playing. Example: “Put in a ticket to a GM and wait 12 hours for an answer.”

Gnome: And annoying little creature that nobody likes and wants to ‘punt.’. Usually they are very tasty on rye bread. *grin*

Gold Seller: A gold seller is someone who sells in-game gold for real currency. Buying gold from one of these companies usually leads to your player account being hacked later and if you are caught it is a permanent ban from Warcraft.

Grinding: Fighting the same enemies for a long time for drops or experience, usually it’s the same as farming to.

Guild: A guild is an in-game association of player characters. Guilds are formed to make grouping and raiding easier and more rewarding, as well as to form a social atmosphere in which to enjoy the game.

Heirloom: Heirloom is an item type that is new with Wrath of the Lich King. Once purchased, heirlooms bind to account, as opposed to an individual character. Another advantage of heirlooms is their lack of a durability stat, and therefore lack of need to repair. This saves money when leveling your character.

HoT: Heal over time (generally abbreviated as HoT) refers to a type of healing ability. A HoT does not immediately heal a target; a HoT instead heals the target for a certain amount over regular intervals.

Huntard: In essence, a huntard is a Hunter who does not know how to play his class well. While slang to describe badly-played classes is common, hunters have this stigma above all others.

IMBA: (or imba) is an abbreviation for “imbalanced” that is often used within the realm of online gaming (especially on online message boards). It generally refers to a tactic or ability that is considered unfairly powerful.

Instance: A dungeon where only you and your party members are inside. As in Deadmines, Black Fathom Deeps, Mana Tombs, etc.

Kiting: What Hunter’s do best. Keeping an enemy or another player (PvP) out of range so they cannot attack you, but in range so you can attack them. Annoying isn’t it?

LFG: (Looking for Group): Is a chat channel is often used by a player character when not in a group who wants to join a group, usually to pursue a quest.

Metal Head: Usually referring to a plate wearing character. Mainly used to describe Paladins, Warriors or Death Knights.

MMORPG or MMO: Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (Warcraft, EQ, etc.)

MOB: Enemy, monster.

Mod: Popular add on programs by third parties written to enhance your game play.

Mount: (Ground) Mounts are a much sought after form of transportation in which players ride atop the backs of various more or less exotic beasts (or machinations). Warlocks, Paladins and Death Knights can learn to summon mounts as a class perk. Mounted travel is always faster than walking and now can be learned at level 20.

MT or Mistell: A mistell is when a player accidentally sends a message to the wrong player or chat channel.

Naxxramas or Naxx: Naxxramas is an introductory level-80 raid instance floating above Dragonblight. It has the shape of a necropolis and serves as the seat of one of the Lich King’s most powerful officers, the dreaded lich Kel’Thuzad.

Nerf: This is a term that means to be rendered ineffective or less effective by a change in the rules or game system.

Ninja: A player who steals items or resources that they do not deserve.

NPC: Usually referred to a non-playing character such as a Innkeeper, shopkeeper, vendor, etc.

Noob or Newb: Usually used to describe a person new to Warcraft. Also is used to describe annoying and rude players to.

OP: Overpowered. See Pallies & Rogues

OOC: Out of character, a roleplaying concept where the player acts out of character. Can also mean Out of Combat.

OOM: Out of mana. Usually you’ll hear Mages or Priests saying this.

Pug: Pick up Group: A pickup group is usually one put together from players who respond to a request in the group channel or asked at random, as compared to a group organized within a guild. Because players won’t know others in a pickup group, there is a greater risk of ninjas, racists, and 14 year olds.

Pull: The act of drawing an enemy, (almost always by use of a ranged attack or spell) away from a large group of enemies. Used in parties and dungeons almost exclusively.

PST: Please Send Tell. (Example: “WTS 20 Titansteel Bars really cheap. PST me for more info.”)

PVE: Player vs. Environment. No PvP here with the exception if a player chooses to ‘flag’ and do so, or enters a battleground.

PVP: Player vs. player.

PC: Stands for Price check. Example: “Can I have I price check on this Epic Sword please?”

Raid: A 10-man or 25-man instance — Examples: Kara (Karazhan); Naxx (Naxxramas) SSC (Serpentshrine Cavern); TKBT (Black Temple). Also, Gruul’s Lair, Magtheridon and Mount Hyjal., etc. (Tempest Keep)

Respec: To change your character’s specialization.

RP: Role Play: An RP server is a normal PvE server but the players chose to role play the character that they have created.

RP-PVP: A Role Playing and Player vs. player server.

Spam or Spamming: Sending an overly repeated message or large useless quantity of text in a Chat channel. Players often “spam” the Trade channel with multiple copies of the same message in order to get their message seen. This can be reported to Blizzard by using the “Report Spam” button when right-clicking a player’s name in the chat box.

Spec: Your character’s specialization, based on talent trees. (Also Duel Spec)

Squishy or Squishies: Any cloth wearing character. Mage, Warlock, Priest.

Stack: A unit of measure, usually 20 of an item. “I’m selling 6 stacks of Netherweave Cloth at the Auction House, (AH).

Soulbound: Means it cannot be traded. The item is bound to your character.

Tank: A tank is a character or pet who can take a lot of damage. Tanks are most frequently warriors, paladins, and death knights. In a group, it is the tank’s job to keep monsters’ attention focused on him or herself, to quickly distract monsters attacking weaker party members (especially healers) and, if need be, to sacrifice him or herself to save the healer’s life.

TBC or BC: The Burning Crusade.

Taunt: The act of causing a monster to attack you instead of someone else. (see aggro).

Thot: A popular quest searching website thotbott.com that provides information and location on quests.

Trade Chat: A communication channel where players are supposed to advertise their trade skills and sell things. (Usually it’s spammed to death)

Twink: A character that has top-of-the-line weapons, armor and gear, with the best enchants available. Levels are usually 19, 29, 39, 49 and 59. (Used primarily for PVP situation.)

UI or User Interface: is the part of the game mechanic the player uses to interact with the game. The term generally refers specifically to the buttons, windows, and other controls the player sees when playing the game.

Vendor Trash: Items whose names are gray are of the poorest possible quality. Other than equipment for players under level 5, they are considered to be useful for nothing other than selling to vendors.

Wipe: A group wipes when everybody in the party dies. Wiping in a dungeon can be especially bad, as monsters start reappearing after a set time. If the group enters the dungeon again to find that the monsters at the beginning are back, they will effectively have to start over.

WotLK: Wrath of the Lich King.

WTB: Want to buy.

WTS: Want to sell.

WTT: Want to trade.

This isn’t even close to complete but I hope it helps anyone new to Warcraft just a little bit so that you’re not left scratching your head trying to figure out what people are saying on the chat channels. If you have anything to add to The Troll Hunter’s list, then please feel free to contact me or leave a comment below!

((The Troll Hunter is a duel specced 0/57/14 Marksmanship and a 0/15/56 Survival 53/18/0 Beast Master hunter who plays on a RP-PVP server, he talks funny because this is how trolls are supposed to speak in a role-playing environment.))