Warhammer Online MMO Terms and Abbreviations Guide

Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning MMO Terms and Abbreviations Guide by Sparklehorse

I have noticed a lot of new players joining the game recently and after reading numerous posts I have also noticed there is a small number of people that might be playing an MMO for the first time. We take for granted sometimes that everybody understands us when we throw around our “mdps” and ‘rdps’ but it has come to my attention that some people may not. Hopefully this thread will help the newcomer to Warhammer or to the MMO genre in general.

The list I will create will be as comprehensive as possible but I am sure I will miss many. Please feel free to chime in with any I might have missed, particularly the ones that pertain to warhammer. For some of the more important ones, I will attempt to give a more detailed explanation.

Welcome to the WAAAAAAGH!

First let’s start with class abbreviations:

Archmage- AM
Black Orc- BO
Blackguard- BG
Bright Wizard- BW
Choppa- Choppa
Chosen- Chosen
Disciple Of Khaine- DOK
Engineer- ENG
Iron Breaker- IB
Knight Of The Blazing Sun- KOTBS
Magus- Magus
Marauder- Mara
Rune Priest- RP
Shadow Warrior- SW
Shaman- Shaman
Slayer- Slayer
Squig Herder- SH
Sword Master- SM
Warrior Priest- WP
White Lion- WL
Witch Elf-WE (also see WELF used occasionally)
Zealot- Zealot

Now on to some Terminology (Some of these are Warhammer specific some aren’t)

AI- Artificial Intelligence. The code that causes NPC’s to do what they do.

PC- Player Character (A real person controls this character)

NPC- Non Player Character (The AI controls this character)

PVP- Player versus Player

PVE- Player versus Environment

RVR- Realm versus Realm. You will hear this term used more often in Warhammer Online.

RVR Stuff

Buff- anything that enhances your character’s abilities (mobs can and do have buffs too). These are usually short term, but may also be long term. Many classes in Warhammer have long term buffs that will most often be cast on you before combat (although great buffers will also buff you during combat if the situation allows for it.) Make use of as many of these as you can as every little bit helps.

De-Buff – Anything that removes Buffs currently on a character or mob or reduces an attribute of a mob or player. Mobs/Players can de-buff you and you can de-buff mobs. A de-buff on a mob is not necessarily one that will reduce his ability to harm you, it may also increase your ability to harm him such as an armor de-buff (again, this works both ways). There are a ton of these in Warhammer RVR, learn them and learn them well as they are quite powerful.

DPS- Damage Per Second. This is a term to describe the amount of hurt you are laying down on your opponent. You will hear this a lot.

RDPS- Ranged Damage Per Second. If you shoot with a gun, cast from 40 yards back, plink with a bow, or just pick up a rock and throw it while cringing behind a tree, you just did some RDPS.

MDPS- Melee DPS. Since we are on the subject, it’s pronounced (may-lay.) Sorry, had to get that in there. I’m sure that will start a conversation, if nothing else does :smileyvery-happy:

CC- Crowd Control. The idea behind CC is to slow or stop multiple mobs/players long enough so that you can either, get away (yes that huge green thing wants to kill you) , catch them (if you are on the offense), prevent them from using vital abilities fort a few seconds. There are many, many forms of CC in Warhammer Online. Knowing how to utilize them, recognize them and counter them will go a long way in determining your success with this game.

AOE- There are three main types of aoe in Warhammer.

There is ground targeted aoe which require that the “caster” pick an area on the ground (often depicted by a circular targeting reticule) and cast. These spells are generally channeled.

There is also Point Blank AOE. That guy with the red hair that just exploded right in the middle of the group like a neutron bomb. That was PBAOE. It is AOE that originates from the point of the caster and radiates outward from that point.

There is a third type of AOE that doesn’t get mentioned as much but casters in Warhammer make frequent use of it. This aoe is a targeted aoe that becomes a PBAOE on the target. In other words, when there is a group of enemies standing close to each other, one can be targeted and basically exploded causing all targets around him/her to take damage as well. There is a term for this but I must apologize because it escapes me at the moment. I am sure another helpful poster will correct me shortly.

DOT- Damage Over Time. These are wonderful little spells that “tick” for a portion of their damage over specified intervals. Watch out, some of them are quite nasty.

HOT- Heal Over Time. These are heals that do the same thing as DOTS only they heal you instead of damaging you.

Taunt/Detaunt- These are very important in the Warhammer world and there are different types so I will try and sort them out for you.

PVE Taunt- This is a taunt that is used on a PVE mob to get its attention. Tanks will use this.

RVR Taunt- The same taunt that is used for a PVE mob is also used when fighting other players, however it does something completely different. When you taunt another player in warhammer it performs two functions. It serves as an interrupt to any spell they are currently building and it also increases the amount of damage you are able to do to them for a designated amount of time.

Detaunt- This is also very important to be aware of in Warhammer online. If you don’t learn to detaunt, you won’t survive very long. Detaunt is a skill that allows you to decrease the amount of damage being done to you, hopefully long enough so that you can get healed or escape. There are single target detaunts and aoe detaunts. Most classes have one or the other, some classes have both (lucky gits.)

Ward – Prevents a certain amount of damage from reaching the target. When the ward amount is used up, it drops and the target takes any remaining damage. Warhammer uses a ward system in the high level endgame.

Proc – Programmed Random OCcurrance. Basically a chance that when you do something, another effect will take place. For example, Swordmasters have a 25% chance to proc a ward whenever they hit something or are hit in turn.

LOS- Line Of Sight. Are you standing behind a tree? A rock? I can’t target you! LOS is important in this game for both healers and dps. While most group heals will ignore line of sight, single target, big heals will not. Please keep in mind if you are standing in a corner or behind something and you can’t see your healer, your healer can also not see you. The same works for dps in most cases. If you take cover in Warhammer, it generally works.

PVE Stuff

Mob- The thing you are poking with your sword while you are doing that ever-popular “Collect 10 skins quest.” That’s a mob. Mobs can be humanoid, beasts, undead. This is a PVE term for the most part.

Aggro – The attention aka “aggression” of any other NPC character who wants to hurt you. Once you “draw aggro” you either have to fight them, run away, or have someone “pull aggro” aggro off of you and onto them. This is also sometimes referred to as hate. This term is more common in the PVE environment.

Newb/Newbie- Old schoolers will tell you that this is the friendly, less insulting form of Noob.

Noob- This is the basic, you just did something stupid insult. Some people take great offense to this insult, particularly this spelling. If you would like to jab your buddy when he does something dumb, might I suggest using the friendlier version and call him a newb or newbie. Personally I am fond of the term Bewb but it never caught on (though I continue to try.)

BOP- Bind On Pickup. This item will bind to you as soon as it is looted. It may not be sold to or traded to another player. Some BOP items will also not sell to vendors although many will.

BOE- Bind On Equip. These items will not bind to you until you actually equip them on your character. They may be sold on the AH or traded freely as long as they have not been equipped.

WTS- Want To Sell

WTB- Want To Buy

WTT- Want To Trade

LFM- Looking For More

LFG- Looking For Group

Main- The character you play the most or invest the most in.

Alt- Alternate character.

OK I’m exhausted now. What I tried to do was cover some of the most basic of the slang and terminology that we in the MMO world use frequently so that a new player, if they were new to the genre as well as the game might be able to quickly look here to make sense of some of the things they see on the forum and in game. I know I left a few out. More than a few probably. I quickly realized after beginning this that the vernacular of the MMO world is quite extensive and one could really write a book about it.

Please help me by keeping this bumped through the addition of terms that I omitted.

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