World of Warcraft Guides

In this guide I will try to cover as many Abbreviations used in World of Warcraft as possible. I’ve many times had people ask what on earth certain abbreviations stand for, and frankly I’ve had my fair share of trouble with this as well. In some cases certain abbreviations actually have multiple uses, in this case I’ve tried listing all I could find. Please note that this is not my personal view on things but rather a complete list of abbreviations and how various people use them. You might use a certain abbreviation in a completely different way and in this case I would love to hear from you in a comment, so that it may be added.

WoW Abbreviations

1h - One-handed
2h - Two-handed
5SR - Five-second rule (Mana regeneration from spirit only occurs if you haven’t spent mana on a spell in the last five seconds)
AB - Arathi Basin
AB - Arcane Brilliance/Arcane Blast
Add - An “additional” mob that has been aggroed
AE - Arcane Explosion
AFAIK - As far as I know
Aff/Afflic - Affliction talent tree
AFK - Away from keyboard
Agg/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”
AI - Arcane Intellect
Alt - An “alternate” character — not your main (character)
AoE - Area of effect (a spell or effect that takes place over an area, as opposed to working only on a single target)
AotH - Aspect of the Hawk
AotP - Aspect of the Pack
AotV - Aspect of the Viper
AotW - Aspect of the Wild
AP - Arcane Power
AP - Attack power
AQ20/RAQ - Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj
AQ40/TAQ - Temple of Ahn’Qiraj
AR - Astral Recall
Arm - Armory wing
AS - Arcane Shot
ATM - At the moment
AV - Alterac Valley
Ban - Banish
BE - Blade’s Edge
BE/Belf - Blood Elf
BF - Blade Flurry
BF - Blood Furnace
BFD - Blackfathom Depths
BG - Battleground
Bio - Short for “biological,” this refers to fulfilling biological needs (i.e. using the restroom); often used to explain AFKs in groups
BM - Beast Mastery talent tree
BM - Black Morass
BoE - Bind on Equp
BoK/Kings - Blessing of Kings
BoL/Light - Blessing of Light
BoM/Might - Blessing of Might
BoP - Bind on Pick-up
BoP - Blessing of Protection
BoS/Salv - Blessing of Salvation
BoU - Bind on Use
BoW/Wis - Blessing of Wisdom
BRD - Blackrock Depths
BRS - Blackrock Spire
BRT - Be right there
BS - Backstab
BS - Battle Shout/Battle Stance
BS - Blacksmith/Blacksmithing
BT - Bloodthirst
BTW - By the way
Buff - A beneficial spell, or a change to the game that makes a given class/spec stronger
BW - Bestial Wrath
BWL - Blackwing Lair
Camo - Camouflage
Cath - Cathedral wing
CB - Cold Blood
CBA - Can’t be arsed
CC - Crowd control
CloS - Cloak of Shadows
CoA - Curse of Agony
CoC - Cone of Cold
CoD - Curse of Doom
CoE - Curse of the Elements
CoEx/CoX - Curse of Exhaustion
CoH - Circle of Healing
Conflag - Conflagrate
CoR - Curse of Recklessness
Corr - Corruption
CoS - Curse of Shadows
CoT - Curse of Tongues
CoW - Curse of Weakness
CS - Cheap Shot
CS - Counterspell
Darn - Darnassus
DC - Death Coil
Def/DS - Defensive Stance
Demo - Demonology talent tree
Demo - Demoralizing Shout
Dest/Destro - Destruction talent tree
Deva - Devastate
DI - Divine Intervention
DIAF - Die in a fire
Disc - Discipline talent tree
DKP - Dragon Kill points, a term for a system guilds use to distribute loot
DL - Drain Life
DM - Dire Maul
DND - Do not disturb
DoT - Damage over time
DP - Dark Pact
DPM - Damage per mana
DPS - Damage per second
DR - Damage reduction (due to armor)
Drae - Draenei
DS - Divine Shield
DS - Divine Spirit
DS - Drain Soul
DS1/DS2/DS3 - Class-specific sets of gear that drop from 5-man dungeons. DS1 and DS2 were known as T0 and T0.5, respectively, but that analogy breaks down when it comes to DS3.
DW - Death Wish
DW - Dual wield
Ele - Elemental talent tree
Eng/Engi/Engy - Engineering
Enh - Enhancement talent tree
EotS - Eye of the Storm
EPL - Eastern Plaguelands
ES - Earth Shock
Evis - Eviscerate
Evo - Evocation
Exec - Execute
Exo - Exodar
FA - First Aid
FB - Firebolt/Fire Blast/Frostbolt
FD - Feign Death
FF - Faerie Fire
FFF - Faerie Fire (Feral)
FFS - For fuck’s sake
FH/Fheal - Flash Heal
FoL - Flash of Light
Fort - Power Word - Fortitude/Prayer of Fortitude
FP - Flight point/flight path
FR - Fire resistance
FS - Frost Shock
FTL - For the loss (”sucks”)
FTW - For the win (”awesome”)
FW - Fear Ward
Gads/GZ - Gadgetzan
GftT - Go for the Throat
GG - Good Game
GH/Gheal - Greater Heal
GJ - Good Job
Gnomer - Gnomeregan
GoA - Grace of Air totem
GotW/Gift - Gift of the Wild
GTAoE - Ground-targeted AoE (an AoE spell for which the caster can choose a target, like Flamestrike)
GTFO - Get the fuck out
GW - Ghost Wolf
GY - Graveyard wing
Hemo - Hemorrhage
HF - Hellfire
HF - Holy Fire
HFP - Hellfire Peninsula
HFR - Hellfire Ramparts
HH - Honor Hold
HL - Holy Light
HM - Hunter’s Mark
HoJ - Hammer of Justice
HoT - Heal over time
HoT - Howl of Terror
HotW - Heart of the Wild
HoW - Hammer of Wrath
HPM - Healing per mana
HPS - Healing per second
HS - Healthstone
HS - Heroic Strike
HS/Hearth - Hearthstone
HT - Healing Touch
HW - Healing Wave
IAotH - Improved Aspect of the Hawk
IBTL - In before the lock
IDC - I don’t care
IDK - I don’t know
IDS - Improved Divine Spirit
IF - Inner Fire
IF - Ironforge
IIRC - If I recall correctly
Imba - Imbalanced; usually means “overpowered”
IMHO - In my humble opinion
Imm/Immo - Immolate
IMO - In my opinion
Inc - Incoming
Incin - Incinerate
Inn/Innerv - Innervate
IRL - In real life
ISS - Improved Sinister Strike
Kara/KZ - Karazhan
KS - Kidney Shot
L2P - Learn to play
LBRS - Lower Blackrock Spire
LF - Looking for (”LF tank,” etc.)
LF1M/LF2M/etc. - Looking for one more, two more, etc.
LFG - Looking for group
LFM - Looking for more (for a group)
LHW - Lesser Healing Wave
Lib - Library wing
Lock - Warlock
LoH - Lay on Hands
LOM - Low on mana
LotP - Leader of the Pack
LS - Last Stand
LT/Tap - Life Tap
LW - Lightwell
MA - Main assist
MAP - Melee attack power
Mara - Mauradon
Mats - Short for “materials;” refers to the ingredients in a crafted item
MB - Mind Blast
MC - Mind Control
MC - Molten Core
MD - Master Demonologist
Medi - Meditation
MF - Mind Flay
ML - Master loot/master looter
MM - Marksmanship talent tree
Mob - Short for “mobile” (derived from MUDs, where any NPC was either a stationary shopkeeper or mobile; see WoWWiki), this refers in WoW to NPCs, primarily NPCs that are meant to be killed.
MoD - Master of Deception
MotW/Mark - Mark of the Wild
MP5 - Mana per five seconds
MS - Master Summoner
MS - Mortal Strike
MT - Main tank
MT - Mistell (means “I sent this message to the wrong channel or person”)
Naxx - Naxxramas
NE - Night Elf
Nerf - A change to the game that makes a given class/spec weaker
NF - Nightfall
NPC - Non-player character
NR - Nature resistance
NS - Nature’s Swiftness
NS - Nature’s Swiftness
NS - Netherstorm
NW - Netherweave
Ofc - Of course
OH - Off-hand
OL - Outlands -
OMW - On my way
Ony - Onyxia
OoC - Omen of Clarity
OOM - Out of mana
OP - Original post/original poster
OP - Overpower
OP - Overpowered
Org - Orgrimmar
OT - Off tank
OT - Off-topic
Pally - Paladin
Pat - Patrol
Paw - Mark/Gift of the Wild
PBAoE - Point-blank AoE (an AoE spell that radiates out from the caster, like Arcane Explosion)
PI - Power Infusion
PoH - Prayer of Healing
Poly/Sheep - Polymorph
PoM - Prayer of Mending
PoM - Presence of Mind
Port - Portal
Pot - Potion
Premed - Premeditation
Prep - Preparation
Proc - As best as I’ve been able to figure out, this is short for “Process” “Procedure”. What it refers to is things that have a chance to go off when some event happens. For instance, a Fiery enchant has a chance per hit to cause extra fire damage. This ability of the Fiery enchant is known as a “proc;” when it activates and causes the extra damage, one can say that it has “procced,” and the activation itself, the extra damage, can also be called a “proc.”
Prot - Protection talent tree
PS/Fear - Psychic Scream
PUG - Pick-up group (a group formed “on the spot” by use of the LFG tool or a channel or something, as opposed to a guild group or some other group of friends)
PW -F - Power Word - Fortitude
PW -S/Shield - Power Word - Shield
Pyro - Pyroblast
QFE - Quoted for excellence
QFT - Quoted for truth
QQ - Doesn’t “stand for” anything per se; rather, it’s an emoticon - it looks like two crying eyes. It basically means “you’re complaining,” although it can also be used as a verb (”stop QQing”).
RAP - Ranged attack power
Res/Rez - Resurrect/Resurrection
Resto - Restoration talent tree
Resto - Restoration talent tree
Ret - Retribution talent tree
RFC - Ragefire Chasm
RFD - Razorfen Downs
RFK - Razorfen Kraul
RL - Real life
Roots - Entangling Roots
Sac - Demonic Sacrifice
SB - Shadow Bolt
SB - Shield Bash/Shield Block
SC/Live Strat - Scarlet side of Stratholme
Scholo - Scholomance
SF - Seal Fate
SF - Shadowform
SFK - Shadowfang Keep
SH - Shattered Halls
SH/Shat - Shattrath City
Shammy - Shaman
SL - Shadow Labyrinth
SL - Siphon Life
SL - Soul Link
SM - Scarlet Monestary
SM - Shadow Mastery
SMC - Silvermoon City
SMV - Shadowmoon Valley
SnD - Slice and Dice
SoB - Seal of Blood
SoC - Seal of Command
SoC - Seed of Corruption
SoE - Strength of Earth totem
SoL - Seal of Light
SoL - Surge of Light
SoR - Seal of Righteousness
SoR - Spirit of Redemption
SotC - Seal of the Crusader
SoV - Seal of Vengeance
SoW - Seal of Wisdom
SP - Slave Pens
Spec - Specialization (in a profession or talents)
SR - Shadow resistance
SR - Silent Resolve
SS - Sinister Strike
SS - Soulstone
SS - Steady Shot
SS - Stormstrike
SS - Sweeping Strikes/Shield Slam
SS/ShS - Shadowstep
ST - Temple of Atal’Hakkar (a.k.a. Sunken Temple)
STFU - Shut the fuck up
STM - Stonetalon Mountain
Stocks - Stockade
STP - Stonetalon Peak
Strat - Stratholme
STV - Stranglethorn Vale
Succy - Succubus
SV - Steamvaults
SW - Shield Wall
SW - Stormwind City
SW -D - Shadow Word - Death
SW -P - Shadow Word - Pain
T1/T2/etc. - Class-specific sets of gear that drop from raids.
TB - Thunder Bluff
TBH - To be honest
TC - Thunder Clap
Tele - Teleport
Tero - Terokkar
TF - Tiger’s Fury
TL;DR - Too long; didn’t read
TM - Tactical Mastery
TM - Thrallmar
ToL - Tree of Life
ToW - Totem of Wrath
TP - Teleport
TSA - Trueshot Aura
UA - Unstable Affliction
UB - Underbog
UBRS - Upper Bloackrock Spire
UC - Undercity
UD - Undead
UD Strat - Undead side of Stratholme
Ulda - Uldaman
VC/DM - Deadmines
VE - Vampiric Embrace
VT - Vampiric Touch
VW - Voidwalker
Warr - Warrior
WC - Wailing Caverns
WC - Wrong channel
WF - Windfury (weapon or totem)
WPL - Western Plaguelands
WSG - Warsong Gulch
WTB - want to buy
WTF - What the fuck
WTH - What the hell
WTS - Want to sell
WTT - Want to trade
WW - Whirlwind
Xmute - Transmute
ZF - Zul Farrak
ZG - Zul’Gurub
ZM - Zangarmarsh
ZS/Zerker - Berserker Stance

Credits:
Various members of the iO guild from Twisting Nether
Eliah Hecht