What are the most confusing WoW terms for a new player? If you’ve ever jumped into a World of Warcraft dungeon or raid and seen players spamming chat with acronyms like “BL” or “OOM,” you’ve probably realized what I did. WoW has its own language. Players new and old often hit a wall interpreting in-game chat and trying to decipher certain WoW terms. You deserve to understand what “pop BL,” “soak,” or “PARSE” means without confusion.
Common WoW Terms, Slang & Abbreviations
General Chat (The Basics everyone probably knows)
- AFK – Away From Keyboard.
- BRB – Be Right Back.
- WTB / WTS / WTT – Want to Buy / Sell / Trade.
- TY / TYVM – Thank You / Thank You Very Much.
- IRL – In Real Life (outside the game).
- Alt – Alternate character (not your main).
- Main – Your primary character.
Combat, Dungeon & Raid Terms
- Pull – Starting combat (aggroing an enemy).
- Adds – Additional mobs that join mid-fight.
- Wipe – When the entire group dies.
- Rez / Res – Resurrection of dead players.
- CC – Crowd Control (Polymorph, Sap, etc.).
- LOS – Line of Sight; hiding behind objects to block targeting.
- OOM – Out Of Mana.
- CD / Cooldowns – Abilities with cooldown timers.
- Interrupt – Stopping a spell mid-cast (Kick, Pummel).
Raid & Mythic+ Specific
- BL / Hero / Lust – Bloodlust (Horde) / Heroism (Alliance). Asking a mage or shaman to “BL” means cast that haste buff.
- PI – Power Infusion (Priest haste buff).
- CR / BRez – Combat Resurrection (warlock, druid, DK, etc.).
- Stack / Spread – Group up or spread apart during mechanics.
- Soak – Purposefully take a mechanic to absorb it.
- Phase / P1 / P2 / P3 – Stages of a boss fight.
- Burst – Use all big damage cooldowns simultaneously.
- Parse – Performance ranking via logs like Raider.io (DPS, healing).
- DPS Check – Phase where if DPS isn’t high enough, wipes happen.
- Kiting – Move while dragging mobs behind you.
- Pre-pot – Use a potion just before encounter for buff.
Role & Class Terms
- Tank – Takes and holds aggro.
- Healer – Keeps the group alive.
- DPS – Damage Dealers.
- Off-heal – DPS class helping to heal.
- Off-tank / OT – Secondary tank in fights.
- Face Tank – Tank that stands in place to tank mechanics.
- Kite Tank – Tank that moves to dodge attacks and mechanics.
PvP Terms
- BG – Battleground (large scale PvP).
- Arena – Smaller scale PvP fights.
- CC Chain – Chaining crowd control spells.
- Burst Window – Timing your cooldowns for max damage.
- Flag / Cap – Objective terms in battlegrounds.
- Focus Target – Secondary target set for quick crowd control or interrupts.
Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments.
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