Jargon, decoded

The glossary

304 words from World of Warcraft, MMOs, esports and every game chat you have ever been flamed in — what each one means, and how people actually say it. Every entry has its own link, so you can send it to the friend who just asked what a twink is.

Word of the day

AV

PvP

Also: Alterac Valley

Alterac Valley: 40 v 40 across a whole zone, ends when a faction boss dies. Can last hours or minutes depending on the era.

“AV weekend, honor is doubled, everyone's queueing.”

See also: Battleground, Honor

9 of 304 words for “Battleground”

Battleground
PvP
Also: BG
An instanced PvP map with objectives: Warsong Gulch (capture the flag), Arathi Basin (hold bases), Alterac Valley (kill the boss).
“Queue for a battleground while we wait for the tank.”
See also: WSG, AB, AV, Honor
AFK
Gaming slang
Away from keyboard. Also a verb: he AFK'd out of the battleground.
“AFK two minutes, door.”
“Report AFK, he's been at the graveyard the whole game.”
See also: BRB, Bio
Bracket
PvP
A range of levels that queue together for a battleground, e.g. 10–19, 20–29. Twinks live at the top of each one.
“The 29 bracket is all hunters.”
See also: Twink, Battleground
Honor
PvP
Points from killing enemy players and winning battlegrounds. In vanilla they drove a weekly ranking; in Classic they buy PvP gear.
“Honor resets Tuesday, grind while you can.”
See also: Rank, Honorable kill
Premade
PvP
A battleground group formed beforehand, usually on voice chat, against random queuers. Not a fair fight.
“We ran into a premade, 0–3 in eight minutes.”
See also: PUG, Battleground
PvP
MMO
Player versus player: duels, battlegrounds, world fights.
“PvP server, expect to die in STV.”
See also: PvE, Battleground, World PvP
Twink
PvP
A low-level character kept at the top of a battleground bracket (19, 29, 39…) with the best gear, enchants and consumables money can buy.
“Level 19 twink rogue with Shadowfang, welcome to Warsong Gulch.”
“Twinking is a whole economy.”
See also: Bracket, Battleground, Stamina
World PvP
PvP
Fighting other players out in the zones rather than in battlegrounds. Anything from a duel outside Orgrimmar to a 200-person Tarren Mill raid.
“Southshore vs Tarren Mill was world PvP before battlegrounds existed.”
See also: Gank, STV
Rage quit
Gaming slang
Leaving mid-game out of anger.
“Rage quit the battleground at 0–2.”
See also: Tilt, AFK

WoW

World of Warcraft, especially vanilla, Classic and Forever.

79 words

Raiding & dungeons

Group PvE: pulls, loot rules, wipes and parses.

47 words

PvP

Battlegrounds, duels, twinks and world PvP.

31 words

MMO

Words shared by every online RPG.

47 words

Esports

Competitive play, broadcasts and the meta.

21 words

Gaming slang

What people say in every chat, every game.