PvP Glossary for General Terminology, Abbreviations, and Acronyms.
Here you will find a glossary of all PvP abbreviations that are used in WoW PvP. These will touch on certain compositions and gameplay that are constantly addressed and communicated from most PvP players.
Unlock your PvP potential with Skill Capped. Our brand new Skill Capped UI for The War Within will fast track your success, offering everything you need to set up your UI like a pro in just seconds. Skill Capped members can download the complete addon package from our site and unlock premium profiles for BetterBlizzPlates, OmniBar, and OmniCD to gain visual and in depth insights that enhance your gameplay and give you the edge over your opponents. With Skill Capped, you’ll start climbing the ladder in no time.
PvP Terminology:
A
Aggro – Short for “aggressive” and generally means playing with an offensive mindset.
AoE – Stands for “area of effect” and refers to any spell that can hit multiple targets within a radius.
Alter – Short for Alter Time.
AMS – Anti Magic Shell from Death Knights.
AMZ – Anti Magic Zone from Death Knights.
Anti Cap – Ways in which you can prevent the opposing team from capturing objectives in battlegrounds. This is often referred when someone prevents someone from capping the flag such as in Eye of the Storm or Warsong Gulch.
AB – An abbreviation for the Arathi Basin battleground.
B
Block – Short for Ice Block from Mages.
BM – The Emblem PvP trinket, gets its name from the former Battlemaster’s Trinket. Can also refer to Beast Mastery Hunters.
Boomy – Another way of referring to a Balance Druid.
BoP – Blessing of Protection for Paladins, pronounced “bop”.
Bubble – Generally refers to a Paladin‘s Divine Shield, but can mean any spell that grants complete immunity or a huge damage absorption.
Burst – Doing high damage in a short period of time. Usually means a player is using offensive cooldowns.
Bust – Short for Combustion.
C
Cage – Imprison from Demon Hunters, or can refer to Static Field Totem from Shamans.
Cap – Short for “capturing” and refers to interacting with certain objectives in battlegrounds, including flags and nodes.
Cap Stun – Capacitor Totem from Shamans.
Caut or Cauterize – Can mean Cauterize from Fire Mages or Cauterizing Flame from Evokers.
CC – Short for “Crowd Control” which are spells that can partially or completely prevent a player from using abilities.
CD / CDs – Short for “cooldown/s” and refer to spells and abilities that require some time before they are reusable.
Cheap – Short for Cheap Shot.
Cookies – Another way of saying Healthstone.
Crit – An ability increases in damage or healing by 1.5x the original amount in PvP, and 2x the original amount in PvE.
CS – Majority of the time, this is referred to as some sort of interrupt with the major ones being Counterspell and Counter Shot. However, this can also be referenced as Colossus Smash from Arms Warriors.
Cleave – Refers to abilities that can damage multiple targets within a specific radius or cone. Can also refer to a type of arena team compositions, where two similar damage types are stacked.
Cloak – Cloak of Shadows from Rogues.
Cocoon – Life Cocoon from Mistweaver Monks.
Coil – Mortal Coil from Warlocks.
Cross CC – Crowd Control that is used on multiple players simultaneously. This is generally referred to as multiple players using CC at the same time, but also can refer to one AoE CC on multiple targets.
Caster – Another way of referring to a ranged class that requires themselves to cast in order to make use of their toolkit.
D
Dam – Short for damage.
Damp – Stalling the game out longer until dampening reaches a certain threshold, typically when its a high amount. This can also mean winning off mana.
Dark – Short for Darkness.
Dance – Short for Shadow Dance.
Dampening – Healing and absorption affects reduce over the course of a game. Solo Shuffle and 2v2 Dampening occurs earlier and ramps up a lot quicker than 3v3 Dampening. This does not apply to RBGs or BG Blitz.
Death – Short for Shadow Word: Death.
Disarm – A generalized term to notify that a character’s weapon/s have been taken away, and is most commonly used on melees that attack with a weapon in their hand.
Dispel – Refers to removing a helpful buff off enemies or a harmful buff off allies. For the most part, only magical buffs and debuffs can be removed.
“Play D” – A colloquial term that refers to a defensive position or mindset. This is commonly addressed in FC (Flag Carrier) Battlegrounds, where a couple players return back to their base to defend their FC.
DoT – Short for “Damage over Time” and refers to any effect that deals damage periodically, usually as a debuff on the target. Pronounced like “dot”.
Dome – Short for Power Word: Barrier.
DP – An abbreviation for Devouring Plague and Desperate Prayer.
DR – Short for “diminishing returns” and is a mechanic that prevents crowd control effects from lasting permanently. Every crowd control effect belongs to one category of diminishing returns. If a crowd control breaks on a player, it will put every spell within its own category of crowd control on diminishing returns for 18 seconds, reducing the duration of the next crowd control within the same category by half, and then by another half if the same occurrence happens within an 18 second window, eventually causing the player to be “fully DR’d” until 18 more seconds elapses, in which the diminishing return resets. Very confusing.
E
Earthen – Short for Earthen Wall Totem.
EoTS – An abbreviation for the Eye of the Storm battleground.
EFC – Stands for “Enemy Flag Carrier” and is used in Battlegrounds.
F
FC – Stands for “Flag Carrier” and is used in Battlegrounds.
Fade – Priest spell, but refers to the Phase Shift PvP Talent.
Fake – A colloquial term when a player cancels their cast to bait an interrupt.
Fear – Refers to some crowd control effects on the disorient DR, including Fear, Howl of Terror, Psychic Scream, and Intimidating Shout.
Fly – Refers either to Evokers with Deep Breath, Demon Hunters with Rain from Above, or Holy Priests with Divine Ascension.
Focus – Can refer to the act of attacking a single target, or can also refer to the “focus frame”.
Freedom – Refers to Paladins with Blessing of Freedom, Hunters with Master’s Call, or Monks with Tiger’s Lust.
Full – Short for “full duration” which means a CC effect that is lasting its full duration, not subject to diminishing returns.
G
Gate – Short for Demonic Gateway.
Go – Can refer to the act of attacking a single player as a team, or can mean initiating a kill attempt with CC and burst.
Glimpse – One of DHs PvP talents that refers to immuning a CC or ability.
Grip – Refers either to Evokers with Rescue, Priests with Leap of Faith, or Death Knights with Death Grip.
Ground – Short for Grounding Totem.
GS – Acronym for Guardian Spirit.
H
HoJ – Acronym for Hammer of Justice.
HoT – Short for “Healing over Time” and refers to any helpful spell which heals periodically, usually as a buff on the player.
HS – Acronym for Healthstone.
I
IBF – Short for Icebound Fortitude.
Imp – Refers to a Warlock using an Imp pet and commonly mentioned when they dispel magic Crowd Control off their teammate.
Immune – Commonly used to describe a target that is “fully DR’d”, meaning they can’t be CC’d by that specific type of ability, or can’t be attacked. A good example of the latter is Netherwalk from Demon Hunters.
Inc – When an enemy team is incoming to an objective, typically in battlegrounds.
Incap – Short for incapacitate, which can include any spell in that category of Diminishing Returns.
Incarn – Short for Incarnation.
J
Juke – Identical term to “fake”. When a player cancels their cast to bait an interrupt.
K
Kick – A generalized term for any type of interrupt, but originated from the Rogue‘s ability Kick.
Kite – Refers to constant avoidance of an opponent by moving away.
Knock – Refers to abilities that push characters away from their current location. This can be seen as a pseudo CC, and is more impactful in BGs.
L
Lay – Short for Lay on Hands.
Lasso – Short for Lightning Lasso.
LoS – A way to interact with another player or target without any interference with an obstacle. If a target is behind an obstacle, e.g. a wall or pillar, that would be considered “out of Line of Sight”, making most abilities directed to that target unusable.
Locked – Another way to describe being interrupted or spell locked in a specific school / tree.
Lust – Originally known to shorten the ability Bloodlust, but is a colloquial term that refers to a spell that dramatically buffs your team’s haste. This applies the Sated, Temporal Displacement, or Exhaustion debuff as well depending on the spell that was used, meaning you can’t use any similar effect until the debuff falls off. Spells that fall under this term, aside from Bloodlust, are Heroism, Time Warp, Primal Rage, Fury of the Aspects.
M
Meld – Short for Shadowmeld.
MD – Abbreviation for Mass Dispel from Priests.
Meta – Describes what are the most optimal builds or classes that are currently in the game. This is commonly changing based on patches and game balance. Also can reference a Demon Hunter’s Metamorphosis.
O
Open – Selecting a target to attack once the gates open.
Opener – The abilities a player uses when they initially attack, which can describe their methods of CC and how they choose to deal damage.
P
Peek – When a player is momentarily within LoS of another player.
Peel – Involves controlling the opposing team in order to protect an ally in danger.
PI – Acronym for Power Infusion.
Pillar – An obstacle that can prevent Line of Sight to targets if opposing players are between it.
PoM – Acronym for Prayer of Mending.
Pop – The act of activating a cooldown or ability, either to initiate, react to your team’s pressure, or to react to enemy CDs.
Port – Short for Teleport (Demonic Circle: Teleport for Warlocks and Transcendence for Monks)
Proc – An effect that can occur after certain conditions. This is one example of WoW’s RNG mechanics.
Pre – Using an ability in anticipation of an opponent’s move. For example, this can include using a defensive before entering a CC (Pre-Wall) or predicting when they are about to cast and stopping it immediately (Pre-Kick).
Precog – Short for Precognition, which is now a gem players can equip on their gear.
PS – Acronym for Pain Suppression.
Purge – Any sort of effect that removes enemy debuffs. This could be from Tranquilizing Shot, Spellsteal, Dispel Magic, etc.
R
Ray – Short for Ray of Frost.
Re – Can refer to getting a follow up Crowd Control on the opposing target, typically with the same CC that has the same Diminish Returns category. Also can describe a team resetting their positioning during a fight, mainly from stealth-based classes that are attempting to re-stealth.
Roll – Short for Roll the Bones. Most commonly talked about when players obtain True Bearing for cooldown reduction or Ruthless Precision for a massive crit modifier.
Root – General term for spells that immobilize a player.
RoP – Short for Ring of Peace.
Rot – Commonly referred as a way that players can deal damage, which involves spreading DoT (Damage over Time) effects across multiple players to decay their health over time. Also mentioned as a general type of composition, “Rot comp”, since multiple players are “rotting down” the enemy’s HP. A good example of this is Shadowplay; “Shadow Priest / Affliction Warlock“
RNG – Acronym for Random Number Generator, and refers to the mechanism of how a proc happens, how you crit, etc.
S
Sac – Short for Blessing of Sacrifice.
Sleep – Short for Sleep Walk.
Sheep – Another way to say Polymorph.
Shroud – Short for Nullifying Shroud.
Silence – Eliminating the opportunity for players to cast, however can be impactful against some melee (Death Knights silenced can’t use Icebound Fortitude). Classes such as Death Knight, Hunter, Shadow Priest, and Assa Rogue currently have silences.
Slow – A debuff that reduces a target’s movement speed. This is also a form of Crowd Control.
Spam – Repeatedly using the same ability or committing the same action over and over. This is commonly done quickly without any change in a player’s action.
Spec – Short for specialization, refers to a specific talent build that a player can choose from.
Spin – Using AoE on a node or objective to prevent the enemy team from capturing it. This could also be used to describe ‘spinning’ out of Crowd Control with Bladestorm. This removes Stun, Fear, or Incap Crowd Control that’s applied to the Warrior if timed correctly, while placing you on Diminishing Returns from that category of CC. Commonly used on Stun effects.
Sprint – Known as a Rogue spell, but can refer to any significant movement speed increase.
Stealth – A general term that prevents players from seeing their character or targeting. Only Druids, Rogues, Mages, and Hunters can make use of this.
Step – Short for Shadowstep from Rogues.
Stun – Temporarily disabling a target from movement or any action while taken into effect. This also makes targets more vulnerable to attacks, especially if applied to targets with dodge increase cooldowns like Evasion, negating its effect while the target is in a stun.
Stun-Silence – A colloquial term for Shadow Priests, in case they use their stun and silence effect simultaneously.
Swap – Most notably spoken to readjust to a different target, or can be referred to Void Shift from Priests.
Surge – Short for Arcane Surge.
T
Train – Sticking on one target. This involves reducing the opposing target’s uptime to give a player more uptime, and is best to do if they have already used all of their defensive cooldowns.
Trap – Short for Freezing Trap.
Treants – Short for Grove Guardians.
Tree – Short for Incarnation: Tree of Life.
Tremor – Short for Tremor Totem.
Trinket – Refers to the PvP Medallion trinket.
Turtle – Refers to a team that is playing very defensive. This could either be described as defending a node or objective in a battleground, constantly stalling or pulling away from the opposing team in arena, or Aspect of the Turtle.
Tunnelling – Commonly describing a player that is training a target while their defensives are up, or when a player is tunnel-visioned. The latter means they are lacking in awareness of other scenarios that are happening in the game.
U
UA – Acronym for Unstable Affliction.
V
Veins – Short for Icy Veins.
Vendetta – The original Assassination Rogue cooldown, but has been replaced by Deathmark. Old-school players may continue to refer to Deathmark as Vendetta.
VT – Acronym for Vampiric Touch.
W
Wall – A way to denote that a defensive has been used on a player.
Will – Refers to the Undead racial, Will of the Forsaken.
Wings – Shorter way of describing Avenging Wrath.
WSG – Acronym for the Warsong Gulch battleground.
Z
Zone – A method of keeping distance between enemy players, or short for Anti-Magic Zone.
Compositions:
B
Beast Cleave: Enhancement Shaman / Hunter / Healer
Boomy DH: Balance Druid / Havoc Demon Hunter / Healer
C
Cupid: Retribution Paladin / Hunter / Healer
D
Dancing with the Stars: Balance Druid / Rogue / Healer
Double Dragon: Preservation Evoker / Devastation Evoker or Augmentation Evoker
DHDK: Unholy Death Knight / Havoc Demon Hunter / Healer
E
Ebola Cleave: Feral Druid / Unholy Death Knight / Healer
F
Fireplay: Shadow Priest / Fire Mage / Healer
FLX: Feral Druid / Warlock / Healer
FMX: Feral Druid / Mage / Healer
Frozen Chicken Cleave: Balance Druid / Frost Mage / Healer
G
Godcomp: Shadow Priest / Mage / Restoration Druid or Holy Paladin
H
Hero Cleave: Unholy Death Knight / Havoc Demon Hunter / Healer. Identical composition to DHDK.
HLX: Hunter / Warlock / Healer
J
Jungle Cleave: Feral Druid / Hunter / Healer
K
KFC: Warrior / Hunter / Healer
Kitty Cleave: Feral Druid / Warrior / Healer
L
LSD: Warlock / Elemental Shaman / Restoration Druid
LSD2: Warlock / Balance Druid / Restoration Shaman
LSD3: Warlock / Enhancement Shaman / Restoration Druid
M
Melee Cleave: A composition that contains 2 melees and a healer. For example, TSG: Death Knight / Warrior / Healer.
MLX: Mage / Warlock / Healer
O
Owlplay: Balance Druid / Shadow Priest / Healer
P
PHDK: Death Knight / Hunter / Healer
PHP: Same composition as Cupid: Retribution Paladin / Hunter / Healer
R
Ret War: Retribution Paladin / Warrior / Healer
RLX: Rogue / Warlock / Healer
RMX: Rogue / Mage / Healer
RPX: Rogue / Shadow Priest / Healer
S
Scatterplay: Hunter / Shadow Priest / Healer
Scooby Doo Cleave: Retribution Paladin / Rogue / Healer
Shadowplay: Shadow Priest / Warlock / Healer
Shadowcleave: Death Knight / Warlock / Healer
Shatterplay: Shadow Priest / Frost Mage / Restoration Druid or Holy Paladin
Smoke Bomb Cleave: Rogue / Death Knight / Healer
Spell Cleave: A composition that contains 2 casters and a healer. For example, Godcomp: Shadow Priest / Mage / Restoration Druid or Holy Paladin.
Spicy Chicken Cleave: Balance Druid / Fire Mage / Healer
T
The Walking Dead (TWD): Windwalker Monk / Death Knight / Healer
Thunder Cleave: Elemental Shaman / Warrior / Healer
Thug Cleave: Rogue / Hunter / Healer
TSG: Death Knight / Warrior / Healer
Turbo Cleave: Enhancement Shaman / Warrior / Healer
V
Vanguards Cleave: Retribution Paladin / Death Knight / Healer. Named after the notorious Paladin, Vanguards.
W
WLX: Warrior / Warlock / Healer
WMX: Warrior / Mage / Healer