Anise

Is there any place ( I couldnt find it .. course I'm old and my eyes aren't what they used to be..) where you explain to us layman aka renoobiers.. what all these different acronyms are? or a thread in the strategies about all the different things we need to accomplish in order.. in one thread... so that we can start to raid with the guild? I read the raid positions.. great threads btw .. so I know what I am supposed to do using my class, but I am not sure what attunements or keys or whatnot I need to work on and in what order and what the heck is UBERS? You all talk in guild so fast and everyone knows what these things are .. and I am jealous!

Tarenth

General rule of thumb is: "If you don't know, ask." I know that sounds kinda condecending and trite, but its true and we'll be happy to break it down. I mean, we use the lingo because we just get so used to seeing it that there really is no more point to typing things out, however it loses its impact if people who see it don't understand it.

There crops up a lot of 'lingo' that gets rushed into service when certain conditions are met. Yeah, there are some basic ones (which I'll list off the top of my head), but some of the really esoteric acronyms can only fully be appreciated if you know what's being discussed at the time. Most of the time that's between members of the same class (like hunter to hunter) in reference to skills and abilities.

Basic Acronyms (or quickieWoW4Joo!)
WoW - Usually World of Warcraft. Kinda a given unless the context is just a plain 'wow' in amazement. If you're really creative get punny with it.

Locations:
SS - Southshore
IF - Ironforge
LF - Lagforge. Play on IF and refers to the sever lag you get there
SW - Stormwind
Darn - Darnassus
Scholo - Scholomance. Undead instance for 56-60 just north of Aerie Peak
AP - Aerie Peak
EPL - Eastern Plague Lands
WPL - Western Plague Lands
Silith - Silithus
Strat - Stratholme. Undead instance for 56-60 in Northwest eastern plague lands. Usually broken into two sides and completed seperately
Scarlet Strat - East side of Stratholme where the Scarlet Crusade have taken residence.
Baron Strat, Undead Strat - West side of Stratholme where Baron Rivendare has taken residence and the majority of undead.
45min Baron - Refers to the quest in the Tier 0.5 armor line that requires completion of the Baron side of Strat in 45 minutes.
DM - Dire Maul or Deadmines
VC - Stands for Van Clef and is an alternative name for Deadmines
BFD - Black Fathorm Deep
WC - Wailing Caverns
BRD - Black Rock Depths, 52-58 instance located in lower black rock mountain
Jailbreak - Refers to a quest in BRD
UBRS - Upper Black Rock Spire. Requires a key acquired in LBRS. 10 man instance that is located in upper black rock mountain
LBRS - Lower Black Rock Spire. 5 man instance that is located in upper black rock mountain
ST - Sunken Temple aka Temple of Atal'Hakkar (but who wants to say ToAH?)
Mara - Maraudon
ZF - Zul'Farrak
ZG - Zul'Gurub
WSG - Warsong Gulch
AB - Arathi Basin
AV - Alterac Valley
BWL - Blackwing Lair
AQ - Ahn'Qiraj. Set of instances in Silithus
AQ20 - Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. 20 man AQ instance
AQ40 - Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. 40 man AQ instance
MC - Molten Core. 40 man instance in Black rock mountain
Ony - Onyxia. 40 man encounter
4 dragons - Refers to the 4 world dragons that spawn in Ashenvale, Darkshire, Hinterlands, and Feralas
Stocks - Stockades in Stormwind
RFD - Razorfen Downs
RFK - Razorfen Kraul
SM - Scarlet Monastery
SFK - Shadowfang Keep
Gnomer - Gnomeragan
Ulda - Uldaman

Combat:
Aggro - Can either mean the generative threat process where damage and healing causes threat towards you, or the act of getting the attention of the mob so that it runs over and starts attacking you.
Examples: "Manage your aggro" or "Insertnameofmeatshieldhere has aggro"
Battle Rez - Reference to the druid skill 'rebirth' which is the only rez spell castable during battle
SS, stone - Reference to the Soulstone ability of warlocks which can be used to allow a person to self rez.
HoT - Heal-over-time. Reference to a spell that does healing based on ticks (Rejuvenation from druids, Regrowth from druids, Renew from priests)
DoT - Damage-over-time. Opposite of a HoT. A spell that does damage based on ticks.
CC - Stands for crowd control and refers to any spell or ability that removes a mob's ability fight
Sheep, Poly - Reference to mage's polymorph that turns some mobs into sheep. It'll be interesting to see what else is used once mages start picking up the Polymorph (pig) and Polymorph (turtle) spells.
Sleep - Can refer to either a hunter's wyvern sting or a druid's ability to sleep beasts with their 'hybernate' spell.
Root - Refers to the 'entangle' spell that druids have
Trap - Commonly refers to the Hunter freezing trap and its short crowd control
Combat Trap - The ability of a hunter to use feign death to exit combat and trap again since traps are out of combat only skills
Reset - Refers to when Bosses in some instances return to their spawn point and drop combat if you leave a certain area.
Wipe - When everyone in the party dies. Stands for 'wipe the slate clean and start over' or 'wipe out'.
Burn - To use something so that it is on cooldown and no longer availible
Mark - Refers to the Hunter skill 'Hunter's Mark' that places a red bouncing arrow over a mobs head.
Flare - New to 1.10. Refers to the glowing dot on the ground that hunters can drop with their 'flare' skill. Now used less for a an anti-stealth skill and more as a marker.
AP - Attack Power.
MAP - Melee Attack Power
RAP - Ranged Attack Power
Shoes - Refers to the tactic of throwing your shoes at something when you're all out of options. In this case it means paladins using hammer of wrath, a damage spell avalible to them only when a mob is under 20% health.
Decurse - The act of using dispell, cleanse, purify, cure disease, abolish disease, cure poison, abolish poison, or remove curse to remove debuffs.

Paladins:
FoL - Flash of light. Paladin quickie heal
HL - Holy Light. Paladin slow heal.
LoH - Lay of Hands. Paladin emergency heal.
DI - Divine Intervention. Paladin wipe protection that kills the paladin and removes someone from combat for up to 3 minutes
LF - Lightforge gear
SF - Soulforge gear
LB - Lawbringer gear
Judge - Judgement gear

Buffs:
MotW - Mark of the Wild. Druid single person buff that lasts 30 minutes
GotW - Gift of the Wild. Druid group buff that lasts 60 minutes
AI - Arcane Intellect. Mage single person buff that lasts 30 minutes
AB - Arcane Brilliance. Mage group buff that lasts 60 minutes
PW:F - Power word: Fortitude. Priest single person buff that lasts 30 minutes
PoF - Prayer of Fortitude. Priest group buff that lasts 60 minutes.
DS - Divine Spirit. Priest single person talent buff that lasts 30 minutes
PoS - Prayer of Spirit. Priest group talent buff that lasts 60 minutes.
SP - Shadow Protection. Priest single person buff that lasts 10 minutes
PoSP - Prayer of Shadow Protection. Priest group buff that lasts 20 minutes.
PW:S - Power word: Shield. Priest buff that absorbs damage
Bubble - PW:S, Mana Shield, Ice Barrier, Divine Protection, and Divine Shield. Refers to the circular graphic shields that protect the wearer from damage have.
BoP - Blessing of Protection. Paladin blessing for physical damage immunity
BoM - Blessing of Might. Paladin blessing for melee attack power
BoW - Blessing of Wisdom. Paladin blessing for mana over time
BoSalv, Salv - Blessing of Salvation. Paladin blessing for decreased aggro generation
BoSanc, Sanc - Blessing of Sanctuary. Paladin talent blessing. Reduces the damage you take by X can makes warriors and paladins cause Y damage when they block with a shield.
BoK, Kings - Blessing of Kings. Paladin talent blessing. Increases stats by 10%
BoL, Light - Blessing of Light. Paladin blessing. Increase heals done by paladin spells by X amount.
RF - Rightous Fure. Paladin self buff that gives extra aggro when holy damage is dealt.
Devo - Devotion Aura. Paladin aura that provides armor
Ret - Retribution Aura. Paladin aura that causes damage per hit
FRA - Fire Resist Aura. Paladin aura
FrRA - Frost Resist Aura. Paladin aura
SRA - Shadow Resist Aura. Paladin aura
IF - Inner Fire. Preist self buff
AotW - Aspect of the Wild. Hunter aura that gives nature resist
AotM - Aspect of the Monkey. Hunter self buff that gives dodge
AotH - Aspect of the Hawk. Hunter self buff that gives Ranged Attack Power
AotC - Aspect of the Cheetah. Hunter self buff that gives run speed
AotP - Aspect of the Pack. Hunter aura that gives run speed
AotB - Aspect of the Beast. Hunter self buff that makes them an 'abomination' and untrackable
TSA - True Shot Aura. Hunter talent aura that provides MAP and RAP

Hunters:
AS - Aimed shot or Arcane shot. Skill used commonly in a shot rotation
MS - Multishot. Skill used commonly in a shot rotation
FD - Feign Death. Skill used to leave combat and drop all aggro
Dis - Disengage. Skill used to lower aggro at melee range
WC - Wingclip. Skill used to slow at melee range
RS - Raptor strike. Skill used to do extra melee damage
MB - Mongoose Bite. Skill used to retaliate after avoiding a blow
SS - Serpent Sting. Hunter DoT
Scorp - Scorpid Sting. Hunter combat debuff (-strength/agility)
Viper - Viper Sting. Hunter mana drain
WS - Wyvern Sting. Hunter short CC and DoT talented sting
Con - Concussive shot. Hunter ranged slow and talented stun
Scatter - Scattershot. Hunter talented skill that can be used close range.
BW - Beastial Wrath. Hunter talented skill that buffs their pet
Count - Counterattack . Hunter talented skill that roots on retaliation
Imm - Immolation Trap. Hunter single DoT trap
Exp - Explosion Trap. Hunter AoE trap
Frost - Frost Trap. Hunter AoE snare trap
EotB - Eyes of the Beast. Hunter skill that lets them take control directly of their pet
RF - Rapid Fire. Hunter temporary self buff that increase ranged attack speed by 40%
SB - Scare Beast. Hunter skill that causes fear in 1 beast mob
LF - Lightning Reflexes. Talent in survival tree
RWS - Ranged Weapon Specialization. Talent in marksman tree
MM - Marksman
Surv - Survival
BM - Beastmaster
BS - Beaststalker gear
BM - Beastmaster gear
GS - Giantstalker gear
DS - Dragonstalker gear

__________________
My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

Kossi

Wow Tar! did you type all that up!?


Your like my new official hero! >hugz<


I would almost vote this a sticky in the fourms!

Anise

Thank you soooooo much I printed that out it makes it so much easier for me! And yes if I see one in guild chat I will ask.. I was secretly hoping I would magically understand so you all wouldn't start going argh .. there's that woman on again hehehe.

Tarenth

Heh. If you want a key to puzzling out all the acronyms you have understand why they're created in the first place and have some basic knowledge of the topic it is in reference to.

Generally speaking the acronym will include the first letter of each word in the title or recognizable word in any compound words.

Examples:
Western Plague Lands = WPL
Stormwind = Storm Wind = SW
Blackrock Depths = Black Rock Depths = BRD

If the subject matter is one long word, then it is shortened to an abreviation to the first short easily pronouncable word.

Examples:
Scholomance (pronounced skolomance) -> Scholo
Stratholme -> Strat
Darnassus -> Darn

If the same abreviations or acronyms can be used multiple times then the first rule is applied to the most common in occurance and the second is used for each other application. If they are equally common, or uncommon, then you will typically see a similar acronym or abreviation with only a slight deviation to designate which is which because the incident where they will be used is typically obvious.

Examples:
Serpent Sting -> SS
Scorpid Sting -> SS -> Scorp
Scattershot -> Scatter Shot -> SS -> Scatter
Blessing of Salvation -> BoS -> BoSalv
Blessing of Sanctuary -> BoS -> BoSanc
Fire Resist Aura -> FRA
Frost Resist Aura -> FRA -> FrRA


Some jargon has some hold overs and history behind them that you won't understand unless you do some digging or have background with it. These are carry overs from older games that were grandfathered over from gamer to gamer.

Examples:
Mob - Stands for 'mobile' and is a hold over from when games changed from stationary enemies to moving ones. In such games anything that moved was typically out to get you.
NPC - Nonplaying character. In RPGs anyone who isn't played by a character, but not obviously an enemy, is an NPC.
Kite - Refers to the act of killing an enemy while staying out of reach and holding the enemy at bay. This is in reference to flying a kite where if it gets too close to you it will cause the flight to fail and if it gets too far then it will get away.
DKP - Stands for Dragon Kill Points and is a hold over from Everquest. Most people know the history behind this already and its explained different ways. Basically its a benign way of saying a system that rewards continued participation to futher the improved outfitting of its participants while penalizing prolonged inactivity. Anyhow, DKP is much shorter than STRCPTFTIOOIPWPPI.


Lastly, and something I didn't include in the list of acronyms off the top of my head, are techinques and occurances that are quite common and thus given names for.

Examples:
Jumpshot - Refers to the ability to jump, spin around 180 degrees, cast an instant at a target behind you, continue the last 180 degrees midair, and continue running forward. This is most commonly associated with hunters, but can be used and seen by any class that has instantly activated spells and abilities. This is because while jumping you continue moving in the same direction you were going when you initiated the jump. Instant abilities also can be used on the move and don't require any standing time. So you jump and spin around midair to face your target and cast an instant before facing forward again and keep running.
Joust - Refers to the act of engaging and running through your target at melee while landing a few blows. This is, obviously, in reference to knight jousts where you run at your enemy, trade blows, then ride past. In WoW there is a simple game mechanic where you cannot cast or attack targets that are behind you. Therefore, it became common practice to run through your target in order to mess with their ability to target you. Hunters take this one step further by sometimes snaring their target with wingclip and using raptor strike to inflict as much damage as possible in their short tenure at melee. As they leave melee range their autoattack timer continues running so that the next time they raptor on a joust is works almost like an instant attack.
AoE Farming - Refers to the frost mage ability to slow and kill multiple enemies with area affect spells like improved blizzard, cone of cold, and frost nova.

__________________
My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

Manny

Tarenth, you are Way to much.

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Tarenth

Just thought of one where I have no idea the origin of it and its pretty hard to understand unless explained to you.

Proc - Used to describe the activation of a 'chance to hit' affect or spell.

There are two kinds of weapon procs in the game:

1. Chance per hit per minute
2. Chance per hit

Paladin seals like Seal of Command have a chance to activate per hit and can have a maximum number of hits per minute. Therefore we say SoC has a proc per minute. The Firey enchant (not Enchant:Fire from the Badlands quest reward) has a flat chance to hit and can hit an unlimited number of times per minute. When your weapon special affect, spell, or ability activates then we say it procs.

__________________
My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

ScratchMonkey

Can someone explain "crits"? (It might require a new thread, as it sounds like a potentially complicated concept.)

Re the jumpshot, when I'm running around the ramps in Booty Bay, I tend to use "Quake rules" for movement and steer while in the air to avoid falling in the water. Is this in fact ineffective? Do I really just keep going in the direction of the original jump?

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Tarenth

Crits stands for critical hit. Its a hit that does more damage than usual on your target.

Physical crits will do 200% of your normal damage.
Spell crits will do 150% of your normal damage.

Your chance to crit is based off your agility for physical crits and intelligence for spells. There are talents that increase the damage bonus from your crits and chance to crit.

At level 60 (the normal basis for experimentation and research) it takes 20 agility for 1% physical crit with paladins, warriors, priest, mages, warlocks, and shamans; 23 agility for rogues, and 53 agility for hunters. For spell crits the rate is 59 intelligence per crit for mages, priest, warlocks, shamans, and paladins. Hunters have spells, but their crit rate and damage bonus goes off their physical crits so they're the exception of the rule.

If doing calculations for gear then consider that 1% crit is 1:100 chance to double your damage. With that in mind then out of 100 shots you will do 101 shots worth of damage. Therefore 1% crit is equal to 1% damage over time. With talents this changes (like hunter talent Mortal Shot which increases ranged crit bonus from 100% to 130% to make the end damage 230% of normal) so use as you deem fit.

The standard calculation for criticals is:

(Agility/Class standard * Your weapon skill/Target defense skill) + talent bonus + item bonus + highest buff bonus.

You can view your physical crit chance in your spellbook if you hover over the 'autoattack' button under general. Your ranged and spell crits, however, will have to require a little bit of math.

__________________
My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

beep

"Crit" is a critical strike. For melee attacks (physical; ranged and close combat) with weapons, the chance to crit is based on agility and critical strikes deal 200% normal damage. There is some dispute about the multiplier, but 200% is the accepted norm. Both players and mobs can deal Critical Strikes. +Defense is the armor stat specifically designed to mitigate crits, which is why tanks need + defense armor to reduce the crit/spike damage from mobs. FYI, +1 Defense reduces the chance of crit against a lvl 60 boss by .04% (meaning 400 defense will eliminate the chance of receiving any crit from a level 60 boss. Now considering that most end-game bosses are level 63, you can reduce but not eliminate the chance of being critted. As you might guess, receiving multiple crits from a boss will usually overwhelm healers ability to keep the MT alive.

At the risk of providing more than you want, for tanking warriors, the first armor challenge is to get the normal set pieces (tier 0 = Valor set) with upgrades (Heroic = tier .5). For tanks it gets complicated since the +defense stats on the tier 0 and .5 sets isn't all that good, so by the time you want to go to MC and tank, you should have 375 or so total defense (300 from skills, 10 from protection talents, rest from gear) with a desired goal of 400+. That means having different sets of armor.

Tanks then begin an immediate transition to getting better armor pieces (Tier 1 = Might) and other high blue or epic pieces that increase Stamina (for more hit points/health). There is a very strong argument for this in that with more health, you can survive the big "normal" damage and occasional crits until your next heal. Crit mitigation (i.e. +defense) avoids only spike damage, so if your total armor and health are lower to gain +defense, you may not have made progress.

My experience is that you keep your direction/speed/momentum while in the air. Turning while airborne affects only your facing.

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Beep


Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Tarenth

Re: re: the jumpshot

Gotta give me more to go on than 'Quake Rules'. I'm more of a DoD:S, CS:S, RTCW, and RTCW:ET kinda person. Generally speaking the jumpshot is where you spin around and shoot while kiting or running away in order to do damage or slow your target. As such it is best to keep running directly away from your target in order to keep the maximum amount of distance between you and it. You can also side strafe to shoot at your target or circle strafe, but those are alternatives to jumpshots and don't actually fall under jumpshots.

__________________
My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

Tarenth

Hehe...going further into detail with what Beep wrote...because I can.

At equal level defense vs weapon you will see 5% miss and 5% crit due to base stats. You can never drop below 1% miss and you can never drop below 1% crit.

There is a skill max of 5 per level for weapons and defense for NONELITES and players. So at level 60 you will see a max of 300:300.

Elites, however, have increased health, damage, weapon, defense, or a combination of the 4. Therefore it is possible to see level 60 mobs with greater than 300 defense and weapons. This will affect the critical chance formula as show in my post before last.

Bosses are catagorized 3 ways: Mini, Semi, and Final. They have increased stats over normal elites just like normal elites have over normal mobs.

In addition to critical strikes, mobs have crushing blow that they can deal against you. This is a 150-200% damage hit that is NOT a crit and is calculated if your defense is too low in comparison to the mobs weapon skill. On the flip side, if your weapon skill is too low compared to the mobs defense skill you will deal a glancing blow with can do 5-80% of your normal damage.

The %miss and %crit rate are manipulated by your weapon and defense skills. That's why you can go and have a 95% crit rate against level 5 mobs at level 60.

__________________
My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.

ScratchMonkey

In Quake and other games of the genre, your steering still works when airborne, so you can run off a platform, turn around in the air, and "run" back (while airborne) to land on the ledge immediately below. There's no momentum and you effectively have "traction" while in the air.

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Tonk

why do hunters get nerfed? 53 agil instead of 23??? cause i have 605 agility with full raid buffs.... that would be around 27% chance to crit!! /drool add in the 4% i have with my items.. almost 1/3 crit.. that wouldnt be overpowered >.<

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Tarenth

There are two reasons actually.

1) Rogues have a primary stat of agility like hunters, but they are a melee based class. That's why warriors and paladins, with strength as their primary damage stat, have a melee crit per 20 agility, and rogues per 23. However, they get 2 MAP from strength and only 1 MAP from agility. Therefore, with the high crit from agility they suffer from relatively weak melee hits due to low MAP. They crit often to make up for the lack of MAP.

2) Hunters have a primary stat of agility like rogues, but they are a ranged based class. While rogues gain only 1 MAP from agility, hunters gain 2 RAP per agility. This is why they have the highest crit:agility ratio in the game. Therefore, to make up for the naturally heavy ranged hits from high RAP they have a relatively low number of crits.


So...

Rogues weak white damage, heavy number on crits
Hunters heavy white damage, low number on crits

__________________
My sanity is not in question...
It was a confirmed casualty some time ago.