====================================================================== ______ ______ ______ \ / \ / \ / | | | | | | __ __ _ __|__| |__| _|__|_ _ ___/\_________ |_ \ / _|/_\ /_ _ \ / _ \ /_ _ \ /_\ \ __/\__ __/ \ \ / / //_\\_ | |_)| |/ \/ | |_)| //_\\_ ||_ | | \ \/\/ / / ___ _\| _ / || | | _ / / ___ _\| _| | | \_/\_/ /_/ \\ |_| |\ |\_/\ |_|||\/_/ \\ |_\ /___\ __________|__|__\___/___|__|____________ \___T_H_E___F_R_O_Z_E_N___T_H_R_O_N_E__/ /____\ /____\ /____\ __________________ _ _ ____ __ ___ __ ___ ____ __ __ \_ _/\_ _/\_ _ \ / \ / \\ / \ \ ||/ _ \\ | / _ \ / ___\\ \ / / || || ||_) )| \/ | || | \ |||| || || || ||| / __ \ / || | | | _ / ||\ /|| || ||\\|||| || || || ||| ||_ \ \ / || _||_ || |\ || \/ || || || \ |||_|| ||__ ||_||| |__|| | | /__\ /____\ || |_\|_\ /_|/__\ || \|\___/ |___|\___/ \____/ |_| F A Q ====================================================================== Last updated 10/6/04 By Dandude776 ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1. Version History 2. Introduction 3. Common Terms.....................(Gosu, AoE, nuke... etc) 4. Gameplay/General Terms...........(Tiers, harassing, teching... etc) 5. Spell Terms......................(AoE, nuke, buff... etc) 6. Battle.net Terms.................(GG, AT, C&C... etc) 7. Heroes...........................(FS, AM, DK... etc) 8. Human Terms......................(Sorclemage, SB... etc) 9. Undead Terms.....................(Coil, Stats... etc) 10. Orc Terms........................(Gruntapult, Zerks... etc) 11. Night Elf Terms.................(DotC, AoW... etc) 12. Neutral Terms...................(LT, BoF, Merc... etc) 13. Contributor Info 14. Contributor Recognition 15. Thanks 16. Legal Stuff ================== 1. VERSION HISTORY ================== Version 1.0 - 4/28/04 Well first version done and sent to GameFAQs. Let's wait and see if it gets up or not. Version 1.01 - 5/2/04 Yay, another website asked to host. Version 1.1 - 5/10/04 A few more terms (IMO, IMHO, Imba... etc), along with better explanations for certain terms (AoE). Enjoy! Version 1.11 - 5/12/04 One or two more things. Version 1.2 - 6/15/04 Yay. Some new stuff, along with some more comments. New terms: Nerf, buff, dispel, caster, anti-caster, and a few more that I forgot. It's a list of words, what do you expect me to add?! Version 1.21 - 6/18/04 Now featured on www.ign.com! Version 1.3 - 7/21/04 More stuff: Tank(ing), Wagonmancing, Chippo, Chobo, AFAIK, Noob Elf, along with a Neutral Terms section for stuff that didn't fit anywhere else. And some other random stuff. Version 1.4 - 7/27/04 Some more battle.net terms like "BRB", "AFK", Lag, Lagger... etc. Also some gameplay things like BO. Version 1.45 - 8/7/04 Just a few more things. Some more background on Chobo, along with more emoticons which I got an e-mail asking about. Also I added Cooldown which I felt might be needed. Version 1.5 - 8/16/04 Mostly terms for the awesome new heroes. :D Version 1.6 - 8/20/04 Some typo corrections, and a few terms I've never heard before like "GLHFDDDSKA". Also Bats, and some more neutral hero stuff. Version 1.65 - 10/6/04 Added Kiru (A common question on GameFAQs!), along with a Common Terms section for quick reference for a newb just starting battle.net. Also, RoS update! :D =============== 2. INTRODUCTION =============== Ahoy hoy! My name's Dandude, and this is my 3rd finished FAQ (My other 2 are the Warcraft III: Frozen Throne: Undead FAQ, and the Enter the Matrix: Boss FAQ)! Anyway, I don't really know what to say here... so maybe you're wondering why I wrote this. Maybe you're not wondering why I wrote this. But too bad, because I'm going to tell you anyway. I was looking around the GameFAQs Warcraft III: Frozen Throne message board one day and noticed a couple of newbies posting topics and asking what some terms meant. I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be great if there was a great FAQ full of terminology, and definitions for Warcraft terms?" So here's what I did: nothing. And then a few weeks later (Today to be exact) I had a few hours until the movie I was waiting to see stated, so I decided to scribble down a Terminology FAQ. And here it is. Enjoy! Hopefully this can help a few newbies who played their first game of WC online and had no idea about what was going on, or pros who didn't know what something meant but were too ashamed to ask. I'm just trying to make the board a better place. NOTE: I've tried to group these terms into categories, but a lot of them don't really fit anywhere. I've done my best, so e-mail me if you have a suggestion of any kind. Also if you want the definition of one term, press Ctrl+F on your keyboard to open up the Find box. Then type in the word, and see if it pops up. If not, either you misspelled it, I misspelled it, or it's not here. E-mail me and I'll add it in. DOUBLE NOTE: Seeing as how a lot of these are made up words, or have developed multiple meanings, don't complain that my definition is "wrong". People give different definitions to the same word. I just picked the most common meanings. =============== 3. COMMON TERMS =============== These are pretty much the essential terms to know if you're just starting battle.net, and also the most commonly asked. SO here they are! AOE AoE stand for Area of Effect, or the area where the effect of the spell occurs. Many spells with AoE either damage or cause a special effect of buff to units within the AoE. Most AoE are either aimed with an aiming beacon (Creates a large circle representing where the area is), occur immediately around the hero, or use a single-target cursor to select one unit or spot, and all nearby units take effect. There was a debate about this on GameFAQs, so here's my description: AOE SPELLS ARE SPELLS THAT EFFECT MULTIPLE UNITS, AND THE AOE OF THE SPELL IS THE AREA OR GROUP OF UNITS THAT ARE EFFECTED. -EXAMPLES- BEACON AOE: Blizzard, Death and Decay, Cluster Rockets WAVE AOE: Carrion Swarm, Shockwave SPLASH AOE: Frost Nova, Drunken Haze, Acid Bomb IMMEDIATE AOE: War Stomp, Thunder Clap, Fan of Knives PASSIVE/AUTO ONCE ACTIVATED: Burning Oil, Immolation C&C The opposite of rushing (See below), C&C entails creeping and teching while waiting to either attack late game with a powerful, high-tier army, or defending when the enemy attacks before countering them. CONTROL-GROUP Control grouping your units is very important. To control group a units, building, or group of units, select the unit(s)/building. Now hold down the Ctrl key, and press a number from 0-9. Now whenever you press that number, you'll auto-select the grouped unit(s)/building. Control-group your unit-producing buildings so you can select them and train units without looking back at your base, and also groups of your units (Heroes, ranged, casters... etc) CREEPING Creeping is killing the neutral hostile creatures like Trolls, Ogres, Gnolls, and Dragons throughout the map. Killing Creeps gives heroes experience (And thus, levels), many creeps drop items, and many creeps guard neutral buildings and shops. After a hero reaches level 5, he no longer gains experience from creeping. CREEPJACKING Creepjacking is attacking someone while they are creeping. It can be very powerful, as the enemy will be pinned between you and the creeps. Most of the time you can use scouts to spot enemies and creepjack them, early game an enemy will usually creep near their base so you can rush over and jack them early, or you could just get lucky. GOSU Gosu means pro, or expert. I've heard numerous reasons for the origin of this word, such as many people saying that it's Korean for "high hand" and later evolved to mean pro. I've also heard that it originated in Starcraft, when Korean players couldn't type the Korean for pro, so they spelt it out in English phonetically and got "gosu" (Go-sue). Then a bunch of people thought it sounded cool and adopted it as pro. MACRO/MACROMANAGEMENT Macro is the art of resource/army/base management. It includes stuff like expanding, managing your army to counter the enemy, building your base well... etc. MICRO/MICROMANAGEMENT This is really key to winning, so pay attention. Micro is basically the art of controlling individual parts of your army, instead of just giving vague commands and hoping to win. Instead of just selecting your army and telling them to attack-move to the enemy base, try the following: -Move injured units out of the line of fire. Either use a unit to heal them, have them use a move like Cannibalize, or just let them sit. You don't want the enemy getting experience for killing your units. -Dance your heroes around. Never let them get surrounded or cornered. -Use the Alt key a lot to show health bars, and focus on killing injured enemy units. -Try to surround the enemy -Use spells. Stuff like that. Practice until you can micro very well and try to never use a unit (Or at least limit it). NUKE/TRI-NUKE Nukes are powerful direct damage spells. Tri-nukes are 3 nukes cast on one enemy in an effort to severely damage or kill them (Usually used on heroes). -EXAMPLES- Nukes: Frost Nova, Shadowstrike, Storm Bolt Tri-Nukes: Frost Nova + Death Coil + Impale Shadow Strike + Entangling Roots + Mana Burn Banish + Storm Bolt + Holy Light (When facing UD) ========================= 4. GAMEPLAY/GENERAL TERMS ========================= Let's get straight to the good stuff: These are all terms that are used in general when describing strategies or just about anything, and it's important to know these if you want to play well. So learn them! Or else... *shakes fist* AA AA stands for anti-air, or units/spells made for damaging flying units. ANTI-CASTER Units made for killing spellcaster units. They typically have dispels, spell-immunity, and other abilities to destroy spells and/or the people that cast them. -EXAMPLES- Spellbreaker, Destroyer, Faerie Dragon, Dryad, Spirit Walker BO Build order. This is the order and setup of your base. For instance a "Fiends BO" would entail building a Graveyard and Crypt early so you can get Crypt Fiends quickly. There are different build orders for different strategies. C&C The opposite of rushing (See below), C&C entails creeping and teching while waiting to either attack late game with a powerful, high-tier army, or defending when the enemy attacks before countering them. CASTER A unit with mana who casts spells. Usually physically weak, but it's spells are powerful. -EXAMPLES- Priests, Banshees, Shamen, Druids of the Claw CONTROL-GROUP Control grouping your units is very important. To control group a units, building, or group of units, select the unit(s)/building. Now hold down the Ctrl key, and press a number from 0-9. Now whenever you press that number, you'll auto-select the grouped unit(s)/building. Control-group your unit-producing buildings so you can select them and train units without looking back at your base, and also groups of your units (Heroes, ranged, casters... etc) CREEPING Creeping is killing the neutral hostile creatures like Trolls, Ogres, Gnolls, and Dragons throughout the map. Killing Creeps gives heroes experience (And thus, levels), many creeps drop items, and many creeps guard neutral buildings and shops. After a hero reaches level 5, he no longer gains experience from creeping. CREEPJACKING Creepjacking is attacking someone while they are creeping. It can be very powerful, as the enemy will be pinned between you and the creeps. Most of the time you can use scouts to spot enemies and creepjack them, early game an enemy will usually creep near their base so you can rush over and jack them early, or you could just get lucky. EXPO/EXPANSION An expansion is a secondary base at another gold mine. Expos are usually used only for the extra resources and usually consist of just a Town Hall, Peasants to mine and collect lumber, and some towers, although some people like to build some buildings there. FAST-EXPANDING Fast expanding is killing the creeps guarding a gold mine very early in the game, and quickly expanding there. It used to be commonly done by human players who could quickly clear a mine by turning many of their Peasants into Militia, and then having 5 Peasants speed build a Town Hall for early mining. FOCUS-FIRE Focus-firing is having all of your ranged units aim for one enemy. This is good if you spot an enemy hero with low HP, and want to pick them off before they get away. HARASSING Harassing is when you attack the enemy early with either just a hero, or a hero and a few units, with the effort to disrupt their economy and teching. Usually harassing involves just killing a few workers, and then either hiding or running off when the enemy army comes, before harassing again, and it is usually used to slow down the enemy's teching while you upgrade in your base and attempt to reach tier 2/3 quickly. Certain common types of harassing include Blademaster harassing (Run in, kill some workers, when enemy comes just Windwalk to turn invisible, and when they leave repeat), Far Seer harassing (Run in, summon wolves, when enemy comes run Seer away while Wolves attack workers, summon wolves again and repeat), and Warden harassing (Run in, Shadowstrike and attack workers to kill them, and Hide when the enemy comes. When they leave, repeat, and once at level 2 you can get Blink to easily escape if the enemy corners you). HOTKEY Hotkeys are extremely important to learn. Every command and spell in the game has a hotkey letter, which is whatever letter is highlighted in its name. Pressing that button will automatically select the corresponding command. Learn the hotkey's for any command you perform often, like "A" for attack, "S" for stop, and moves like "C" for Death Coil or "E" for Impale. HP HP is health, hit points, whatever you want to call it. Run out of HP and you are dead. HP slowly regains (For most units), but there are many healing spells and items. MACRO/MACROMANAGEMENT Macro is the art of resource/army/base management. It includes stuff like expanding, managing your army to counter the enemy, building your base well... etc. MICRO/MICROMANAGEMENT This is really key to winning, so pay attention. Micro is basically the art of controlling individual parts of your army, instead of just giving vague commands and hoping to win. Instead of just selecting your army and telling them to attack-move to the enemy base, try the following: -Move injured units out of the line of fire. Either use a unit to heal them, have them use a move like Cannibalize, or just let them sit. You don't want the enemy getting experience for killing your units. -Dance your heroes around. Never let them get surrounded or cornered. -Use the Alt key a lot to show health bars, and focus on killing injured enemy units. -Try to surround the enemy -Use spells. Stuff like that. Practice until you can micro very well and try to never use a unit (Or at least limit it). MP MP is mana, magic points, whatever you want to call it. Spells require mana, and mana is regained over time (For most units). You can use items like Mana Potions, or spells to regain faster. TANK -Contributed by Jothki- A tank is a unit that is meant to soak up damage. Examples include the Crypt Lord, the Beastmaster's Bears, and the supreme example: The Mountain Giant. If you're using Mountain Giants to tank for Archers, the MGs are absorbing the damage and drawing attention while the Archers do their attacking. TIERS The tiers are your tech level. Tier 1 is all units/buildings/upgrades that require a Town Hall (Or racial equal). Tier 2 is all units/buildings/upgrades that require a Keep (Or racial equal). Tier 3 is all units/buildings/upgrades that require a Castle (Or racial equal). Then, for example, Crypt Fiends are tier 1.5 units because they require a Necropolis, but also a Graveyard. ROC Reign of Chaos. Warcraft III! RUSHING Rushing is what it sounds like: Attacking early on with a hero and low tier units. Do-or-die rushes are powerful rushes that could result in a win, but if they fail you usually have no way to make a comeback. SEIGE Seige units/spells are made for destroying buildings TECHING Teching is upgrading. Teching to tier 2 (See above) would be upgrading your Town Hall into a Keep. Teching to Frosties would be upgrading to tier 3, building a Sacrificial Pit, and building a Boneyard. TOWER-RUSHING Tower-rushing is a strategy of rushing normally but bringing along workers to start building in the enemy base. The enemy will have to either deal with your hero and army TFT The Frozen Throne! Warcraft III expansion! TP Town Portal. Your first hero always starts with a Scroll of Town Portal, an item which teleports the hero and nearby friendly units to the selected friendly Town Hall, or the nearest Hall if you double- click the icon. You should always carry a TP incase your base is attacked, and if your playing multiplayer and an ally starts shouting "TP! TP Noob!!" They want you to teleport to their base, and try to help them defend. TURTLING Turtling is a strategy of holing up in your base, surrounding yourself in towers and defense, and slowly trying to amass a powerful army. It doesn't work well against a competent opponent who will use siege or use hit-and-runs with flying units from the back. ============== 5. SPELL TERMS ============== Okay, these are all terms which refer to spells and abilities. AOE AoE stand for Area of Effect, or the area where the effect of the spell occurs. Many spells with AoE either damage or cause a special effect of buff to units within the AoE. Most AoE are either aimed with an aiming beacon (Creates a large circle representing where the area is), occur immediately around the hero, or use a single-target cursor to select one unit or spot, and all nearby units take effect. There was a debate about this on GameFAQs, so here's my description: AOE SPELLS ARE SPELLS THAT EFFECT MULTIPLE UNITS, AND THE AOE OF THE SPELL IS THE AREA OR GROUP OF UNITS THAT ARE EFFECTED. -EXAMPLES- BEACON AOE: Blizzard, Death and Decay, Cluster Rockets WAVE AOE: Carrion Swarm, Shockwave SPLASH AOE: Frost Nova, Drunken Haze, Acid Bomb IMMEDIATE AOE: War Stomp, Thunder Clap, Fan of Knives PASSIVE/AUTO ONCE ACTIVATED: Burning Oil, Immolation AURA An aura is something that certain heroes release, giving beneficial side-effects to nearby units. It is passive, meaning that it is automatically in effect, not activated. -EXAMPLES- Unholy Aura, Brilliance Aura, Command Aura, Healing Ward Aura AUTO-CAST Auto-cast spells are spells that can be set to automatically activate right-clicking on them (You can deactivate them by right-clicking again). -EXAMPLES- Slow, Carrion Beetle, Frost Armor, Phase Shift BUFF A buff is any good special effect on a unit. Buffs are either permanent as long as the unit is near the unit radiating the buff, or given for a limited time. -EXAMPLES- Inner Fire, Any Aura, Anti-Magic Shell, Divine Shield CHANNEL(ING SPELL) A channeling spell is any spell in which the caster must stand still for a set amount of time, and either charge up for the spell to occur when he's done channeling, or the spell occurs as long as the unit channels. If the channeling unit is given an order, dies, or is interrupted (See below), the spell stops. -EXAMPLES- Death and Decay, Flame Strike, Starfall, Possession, Big Bad Voodoo. COOLDOWN Most spells have cooldown, which is the time you have to wait after casting a spell, to cast it again. After you cast a spell, the cooldown is represented by the shadow unraveling in a clockwise direction around the icon. Once the shadow moves all the way around and the icon is bright again, the cooldown is over and you may cast again. Cooldown varies between spells, with most auto-cast spells having short cooldown, and ultimates having longer cooldown. DE-BUFF De-buffs are negative buffs on units. Bad effects. -EXAMPLES- Curse, Drunken Haze, Doom, Slow, Faerie Fire, Burning Oil DISPEL A dispel is a move which removes buffs and/or damages summoned units. Some dispels are Area of Effect, while others are single target. -EXAMPLES- Dispel (Duh), Devour Magic, Abolish Magic, Purge, Disenchant INTERRUPT Interrupts are stunning spells that can be used to stop channeling spells. -EXAMPLES- Storm Bolt, the fall from Infernal, War Stomp, Entangling Roots PASSIVE Passive abilities are abilities that are not activated and either always have their affect occurring, or automatically occur on certain circumstances. -EXAMPLES- Any Aura, Spiked Carapace, Reincarnation, Permanent Immolation NUKE/TRI-NUKE Nukes are powerful direct damage spells. Tri-nukes are 3 nukes cast on one enemy in an effort to severely damage or kill them (Usually used on heroes). -EXAMPLES- Nukes: Frost Nova, Shadowstrike, Storm Bolt Tri-Nukes: Frost Nova + Death Coil + Impale Shadow Strike + Entangling Roots + Mana Burn Banish + Storm Bolt + Holy Light (When facing UD) ULTIMATE Each hero has an ultimate spell which is only available once at level 6. Ultimates vary between heroes, but are all very powerful. -EXAMPLES- Mass Teleport, Stampede, Robo-Goblin, Animate Dead, Charm =================== 6. BATTLE.NET TERMS =================== These are all terms used on battle.net. Read these well so you'll understand what your enemy is actually saying when he tries to insult you. ^_^ Also, please note the difference between "newb" and "n00b". 1337 As strange as it may sound, someone actually asked me the meaning of this. It's "elite". See the "1" is an "L" or "El", the "3"s are "E"s, and the "7" is a "T". AFK "Away from keyboard". If someone says this it means that they're leaving for an indefinite amount of time, so either don't bother talking to them if they're in a channel, or take over if they share control in a game. AFAIK -Contributed by Ndssai- "As far as I know" AMM Anonymous-match-making system. Blizzard's system for randomly matching you with people to play against. AoS AoS stands for Aeon of Strife, a custom game on battle.net. It was the first game in which you choose one from a group of heroes, and are put on one of two teams. Each team has computer-controlled spawned units, which auto-attack to the enemy base. The heroes on each side try to fight through with the spawnies, and destroy the enemy base (Like a tug of war). Now, any custom game with this style is referred to as having AoS style gameplay. APM Actions per minute. You can download some APM counters to clock your average actions per minute, and see how much you're doing. Some people say that APM is proportional to skill, but it really depends. Some people have 250 APM by just doing lots of useless actions and spamming rally points, while other players have 100 AMP but make lots of great micro moves and are very good. AT AT stand for Arranged Team, a game-type on battle.net where you select your allies and fight other arranged teams. AT ABUSE(R) AT Abusers are people who play lots of AT games with lots of people, but only a few games with each ally (Or the ally repeatedly makes new accounts. As each new team will start as a level 1 team, the AT Abuser can get a great record by playing against newbie teams over and over again. BRB "Be right back" BS/TK Backstabbing or team killing. If you play random-team, you can be sure that eventually you'll be stuck with a backstabber who will either idle (Sit and do nothing), actually attack you and other allies, or do something stupid like mass Acolytes. BUFF When Blizzard buffs a unit in a patch they are making it stronger. This can be anything from increasing its damage, to reducing it's cost, to making it take less time to train, to having it's spells cost less mana. The opposite of a NERF. CHANNEL Once on battle.net you can enter a channel which is pretty much a lobby to hang out and talk, set up games, or look at people's records. There are lots of channels including the Blizzard channels which appear on the channel list and Clan channels which are named as channel "Clan *NAME OF CLAN*". You can type in anything in the channel box to enter a channel even if no-one's inside, so if you want to play with one person, invite them to your own channel and talk there. CHOBO -Contributed by Ndssai- Newbie. Not sure how it developed, why (I know I've seen some Korean players use it), and if it's a Final Fantasy reference. So don't ask me. ***According to Blade (His friends actually, but he sent me the email), Chobo is used by Koreans to mean "worse than newbie", and is taken extremely harshly by some players.*** CLAN A clan is a group of players who play together, are members of a group, or something else. A clan is comprised of 10 or more members. Now with the 1.15 patch, there is a clan-ladder, so playing games will contribute to your clan's record, lowering or raising the clan standing. You must be invited into a clan to join, or create one yourself and get 9 other people to join. A clan consists of ONE Chieftain who can close the clan and pretty much runs it, up to FIVE Shamans who are appointed by the Chieftain to assist, Grunts who are appointed by the Shamans or Chieftain and contribute to the clan ranking, and Peons who do not contribute to the ranking and can be upgraded to Grunts by the Shamans or Chieftain. CUSTOM GAMES Custom games are what they sound like: Games that are hosted by normal users and are not Blizzard approved. Once logged onto battle.net, press the Custom Game button to open up a list of currently-hosted customs, and either join a public game, or create your own (Make it private and give the people you want to join the game name). Losing or winning custom games will not affect your record. "DD" "Don't die" "D D D..." Some people type this in over and over again when someone's lagging, and I've heard a few reasons for it. Some people just say that the D stands for drop and they're just typing it over and over again, some people think that the enemy computer processing all the Ds will lag out (Yeah right), and other people just have nothing to do while they wait for the lagging opponent. DotA DotA is Defense of the Ancients, a custom game on battle.net. In it each team has the computer controlling waves of forces to fight through to the enemy fortress. You and your allies control only heroes and gain experience as you attempt to tilt the battle in your favor. It plays out like a tug of war. Most people say that the original RoC Defense of the Ancients is awesome, while the newer Allstars editions are unbalanced pieces of crud. "DS" "Don't suck" ENFO'S Enfo's Team Survival is yet another custom game on battle.net. You and a group of allies choose a single hero each from a large group, and try to fend off waves of attacking enemies. FFA FFAs are free-for-alls, a game-type on battle.net with multiple players, and each person on their own team. GATEWAY/SERVER There are 4 gateways (Sometimes 5 whenever Westfall opens up for beta testing): Lordaeron, Azeroth, Northrend, and Kalimdor, cooresponding to US West, US East, Europe, and Asia. You must create a new account if you want to go on a different gateway, and records do not carry over. "GG" Good game. If you've lost, it's a nice, honorable way to go out. Instead of saying "Abuser!" say "GG. You were really good" or something like that. If you've won, it's usually best to wait for your opponent to say GG before you do; otherwise you may be perceived as arrogant. "GL HF" "GL HF" stands for "Good luck, have fun". It's a nice way to start a game. GOSU Gosu means pro, or expert. I've heard numerous reasons for the origin of this word, such as many people saying that it's Korean for "high hand" and later evolved to mean pro. I've also heard that it originated in Starcraft, when Korean players couldn't type the Korean for pro, so they spelt it out in English phonetically and got "gosu" (Go-sue). Then a bunch of people thought it sounded cool and adopted it as pro. "IDK" "I don't know" "IIRC" "If I recall/remember correctly" IMBA Stands for imbalance. For example, if someone says "Footies is imba!!1" they mean that Footies are unbalanced. "IMO/IMHO" "In my opinion" or "In my humble opinion" "KA" Kill all" "KIRU!" It has no real meaning, it's just a "warcry" of sorts used by some users before they post. As far as I know, popularized by Filip Nyman. LAG Lag is when a computer's internet access isn't fast enough and can't keep up, so the game starts sputtering, the animation gets choppy, some units some moving to their destination instantly, the game briefly freezes up, and a screen pops up with the person who is lagging's name, a countdown, and the button "Drop Player" at the bottom. Basically if that player cannot catch up before their countdown hits, everyone can press Drop Player to boot them out of the game. It is difficult to play with a lagger, as it makes micromanaging nearly impossible. LAGGER Someone who lags a lot and slows the game down. "LOL" "Laugh out loud", or sometimes "Lots of luck". According to Blizzard's glossary on the Warcraft 3 website, it is "uncool" to use "Lol". Hahaha. MH Map hacking. Not a good thing to see online. Some people download bad map-hack programs that reveal the map for them in their games, allowing them to easily counter or creep-jack you. DO not map-hack (Or use any hack, for that matter). Hacking is bad!! NERF The opposite of a buff. When Blizzard makes a unit weaker in a patch. This can be anything from making it do less damage, to being more expensive, to taking longer to train, to moving more slowly. NEWB/NEWBIE Newbies are people who are new/inexperienced/bad at the game, but are still nice, write in understandable sentences, nicely ask for help, take criticism well, and honestly want to get better. Also, it's pretty much lost most of it's meaning, so people currently use Newb as an insult. NOOB/N00BIE Noobs (n00bs) are people who are new/inexperienced/bad at the game, but think of themselves as better then everyone else, don't take criticism, are mean, like to flame, and are generally not nice people. People will also use Noob to insult you. NOOB ELF -Contributed by John Jackson- A derogatory term for Night Elves or Night Elf players. : ) ROS Reign of Satire, the hilarious, and awesome map that I've been working on for months, which is currently in beta testing and should be online within a few weeks. :D RotW Replay of the week. Used on some Warcraft replay websites. RT RT stands for random team, a game-type on battle.net of either 2vs2, 3vs3, or 4vs4, where your allies are chosen randomly. SC I don't know, you might hear it in an argument going on. SC is Starcraft, the game that Blizzard made before Warcraft III, which some people enjoy arguing about (Whether SC or WC is better). SMURF Smurfs are pros/people with good high level-accounts who make new accounts so they can pound newbies into the ground with ease and quickly get a nearly-perfect record. Also the little blue guys from that old TV show. TD Tower Defense games are custom games in which the players build towers to defend against swarms of enemy creeps. ToB ToB stands for Tides of Blood, another custom game on battle.net. It uses the standard AoS style, but each level has 18 levels, it's actually fairly well balanced (Compared to some other custom games), and can be a blast. TT/tt This is supposed to mean crying/sad. I've yet to find out an exact reason, but I've heard from numerous people that it's supposed to be two eyes (The top line of the T) with a stream of tears running down (The bottom of the T), as this is how people crying look like in a lot of anime cartoons. Or so I've heard. XD Tilt your head to the left. It's a smiley of a face cracking up (The X is the eyes closed, and the D is the mouth). It' just like :D but laughing harder. ^^ This is pretty much a shortened ^_^, which is supposed to be a happy face (The "^"s are eyes, and the "_" is a mouth). ========= 7. HEROES ========= This section lists abbreviations for heroes. They are grouped according to race. Note that there are four heroes who are commonly referred to as "BM"s. Usually you can figure it out according to the context. If a human player says that they're going BM+AM, it likely means Bloodmage + Arch Mage. If someone says that they're being wind- walk harassed by a BM, it's the Blademaster. If someone says that a drunken BM just split into 3 smaller, multi-colored BMs, it's likely the Brewmaster. ------ HUMANS ------ -AM- Arch Mage, a Human wizard. Good at summoning and supporting the army. -BM/BLM- Blood Mage, a Blood Elf wizard. Good at mana-draining and pounding weak units. -MK- Mountain King, a Dwarven warrior. Good at pounding weak units and nuking heroes. -PALLY- Paladin, a Human supporter. Good at supporting and healing the army, and nuking the Undead. ---- ORCS ---- -BM- Blade Master, an Orc assassin. Good at harassing and hunting down enemy heroes. -FS- Far Seer, an Orc wizard. Good at summoning and harassing. -SH- Shadow Hunter, a Troll supporter. Good at supporting and healing the army, and for anti-air. -TC/MARN- Tauren Chieftain, a Tauren warrior. Good at pounding weak units and tanking. ------ UNDEAD ------ -CL- Crypt Lord, a beetle warrior. Good at pounding weak units and tanking. -DK- Death Knight, an Undead supporter. Good at supporting and healing the army, and nuking. -DL- Dreadlord, a demon supporter. Good at supporting the army, and summoning. ----------- NIGHT ELVES ----------- -DH- Demon Hunter, a Night Elf warrior. Good at pounding weak units and mana-draining. -KotG- Keeper of the Grove, a Night Elf wizard. Good at supporting the army, summoning, and harassing/nuking. -PotM- Priestess of the Moon, a Night Elf archer. Good at supporting the army. ------- NEUTRAL ------- -BM/BEM- Beastmaster, a half-Orc half-Ogre warrior. Good at summoning. -BM/BRM/PANDA- Pandaren Brewmaster, a Pandaren warrior. Good at disrupting the enemy army. -DR- Dark Ranger, an Undead archer. Good at disrupting the enemy army, and summoning. -GT/TINK- Goblin Tinker, a Goblin mechanic. Good at fast siege. -NAGA/SW- Naga Seawitch, a Naga archer. Good at disrupting the enemy army, and pounding weak units. -PL/PITTIE- Pit Lord, a demon warrior. Good at disrupting the enemy army, pounding weak units, and tanking. -GA/ALCHIE- Goblin Alchemist, and uber powerful (But slow, and badly armored) monstrosity. Good at healing, tanking (With support), and making money. -FL- Firelord, an awesome being of pure flame. Good at summoning an army, nuking, and harassing. ============== 8. HUMAN TERMS ============== These are terms that refer to all things human. Human units, human spells, common human strategies... You name it. If it involves the Humans, and it's abbreviated, it's here. HU Human!! AV Arcane Vault, the Human shop BA/BRILLIANCE Brilliance Aura, the Arch Mage's aura which increases nearby mana regen. BREAKER Spell Breaker, the Human anti-caster DS Divine Shield, the Paladin's invincibility spell. FOOTIES Footies are Footmen, the Human tier 1 melee (And possibly range counter, with the new Defend). FS/FP Flame Strike, the Blood Mage's AoE spell. I've heard a few players refer to it as FP, and call it Flame Pillar, but it's the same thing. GRYPHANK : ) It's Gryphon Riders + Siege Engines HL Holy Light, the Paladin's healing spell. MILITIA RUSH Turning a bunch of Peasants into Militia and rushing early game. MT Mass Teleport, the Arch Mage's ultimate. SB Storm Bolt, the Mountain King's nuke/stun move. SORC Sorceress. The Human secondary spell caster girl with Slow, Invisibility, and Polymorph. SORCLEMAGE A strategy that some Human players like to use which is pretty much Riflemen + Sorceresses + Arch Mage. The enemy gets Slowed and then blasted by Rifles. WE Water Elemental, either referring to the Arch Mage spell, or the Water Elemental that the spell summons. =============== 9. UNDEAD TERMS =============== These are terms that refer to all things undead. Undead units, undead spells, common undead strategies... You name it. If it involves the Undead, and it's abbreviated, it's here. UD Undead!! ABOM Abomination, the Undead's heavy tier 3 melee ACO Acolyte, the Undead's worker unit. AMS Anti-Magic Shield, the Banshee's Adept spell which renders a unit resistant to spell damage. BLIGHT Blight is that purple-brown dirt stuff that appears under Undead buildings and quickly spreads, much like the Zerg's (Starcraft) creep. You can only build Undead buildings (Besides the Necropolis or Haunted Gold Mine) on blight, and all buildings extend the blight in a radius. CF/FIEND Crypt Fiend, the Undead's tier 1 ranged unit. COIL/DC Death Coil, the Death Knight's nuke/healing spell. Extremely useful. CS Carrion Swarm, the Dreadlord's AoE wave spell DAG Dual Aura Ghouls. Using Ghouls along with a Death Knight and Dreadlord for Unholy Aura and Vampiric Aura, which really power up the Ghouls. DESTRO Destroyer, the Undead's tier 3 flying anti-caster DP Death Pact, the Death Knight's spell which kills a friendly unit to restore health. FROSTY/FW/WYRM Frost Wyrm, the Undead's heavy tier 3 air. GARG Gargoyle, the Undead's light air. HotD Halls of the Dead, the UD Keep. NECRO Necromancer, the Undead's primary caster NOVA/FN Frost Nova, the Lich's uber-nuke OBSIDIAN/STATUE/STAT Obsidian Statue (^_^), the Undead's mobile healer. Should be in every army. ToR Tomb of Relics, the Undead shop UF/FRENZY Unholy Frenzy, the Necromancer's Adept spell which causes a unit to attack faster but take damage. UNHOLY/UA Unholy Aura, the Death Knight's great aura which increases regeneration and speed. VAMP/VA Vampiric Aura, the Dreadlord's great aura which causes melee units to steal health with each hit. WAGONMANCER -Controibuted by John Jackson- Going Meat Wagons and Necromancers. Use the Skeletons! ============ 10. ORC TERMS ============ These are terms that refer to all things orc. Orc units, orc spells, common orc strategies... You name it. If it involves the Orcs, and it's abbreviated, it's here. BATS -Contributed by Falxon2- Bat Riders, the flying Orc siege CL Chain Lightning, a Far Seer spell which zaps multiple enemies with bolts of lightning. CS Critical-strike, the Blademaster's passive, random-super-attack move. DEMO Demolisher, the Orc siege weapon. ENDURANCE/EA Endurance Aura, the Tauren Chieftain's speed aura. FS Feral Spirit, the Far Seer (Also FS) spell which summons two Spirit Wolves. GRUNTAPULT A common Orc strat of going Grunts and Demolishers. HH Headhunters, the Orc tier 1 ranged units. HW Healing Wave, the Shadow Hunter's chain-healing spell. KODOs Kodo Beasts, the massive support/hungry units. MI Mirror Image, the Blademaster's illusion spell. SHAMS Shamen, the primary Orc casters. SW Spirit Walker, Tauren caster. Also Serpent Ward, the Shadow Hunter's serpent summon. VL Voodoo Lounge, the Orc shop. WDs Witch Doctors, the secondary Orc casters. WW Wind-walk, the Blademaster's invisibility spell. ZERKERS Berserkers, the tier 3 Headhunter upgrades. =================== 11. NIGHT ELF TERMS =================== These are terms that refer to all things Night Elf. Night Elf units, Night Elf spells, common Night Elf strategies... You name it. If it involves the Night Elves, and it's abbreviated, it's here. NE Night Elf!! AoW Ancient or War (NE tier 1 production), Ancient of Wind (NE aerial production), or Ancient of Wonders (NE shop)! AoL Ancient of Lore, the NE tier 2 production. CHIPPO -Contributed by Jothki- A strategy of going Chimaeras and Hippogryph(rider)s CHIM Chimaera, the NE tier 3 heavy flying. DotC Druid of the Claw, the NE caster/tier 3 melee. DotT Druid of the Talon, the NE caster/light air. ER/ENTANGLE/ROOTS Entangling Roots, the KotG's stun/nuke. FD Faerie Dragon, the NE anti-caster FoK Fan of Knives, the Warden's AoE spell. FoN Force of Nature, the Keeper of the Grove's summon. HIPPO Hippogryph, the NE anti-air flying. HIPPO-RIDER A Hippogrygh mounted by an Archer. HUNT Huntress, the NE tier 1 anti-melee. IMMO Immolation, the Demon Hunter's fire defense spell. MB Mana Burn, the Demon Hunter's nuke/mana drainer. SS Shadow Strike, the Warden's nuke. ToL Tree of Life, the NE Town Hall. ================= 12. NEUTRAL TERMS ================= Stuff dealing with neutral heroes and shops and stuff. AB Acid Bomb, the Goblin Alchemist's nuke/AoE poison spell. BoF Breath of Fire. The Brewmaster's AoE torch spell. BoS Boots of Speed. An item which increases your movement speed. CoN Circlet of Nobility. An item which gives +2 to all your hero's stats. CR/CHEM/RAGE Chemical Rage, the Goblin Alchemist's power-up move. GM Goblin Merchant. Sells various items. HoT Howl of Terror. The Pit Lord's AoE de-buff spell. HS Healing Spray, the Goblin Alchemist's AoE healer. LT Usually used to refer to the map Lost Temple. MERC Mercenary. Neutral units hired from Mercenary Camps. RoF Rain of Fire. The Pit Lord's AoE spell. SB Soul Burn. The Firelord's nuke/debuffer. SEF Storm, Earth & Fire. The Brewmaster's ultimate. TR Usually used to refer to either the map Two Rivers, or the map Turtle Rock. ==================== 13. CONTRIBUTOR INFO ==================== Okay! Obviously, there are a lot of WC terms, and I'm sure I forgot a few. E-mail away! My e-mail address is: Dandude776@aol.com Be sure to make the topic something like "FAQ", "Warcraft", "TERMINOLOGY"... etc. Something that will let me know it has something to do with this. I get a ton of spam, and if I don't know what your e- mail is, into the trash it goes. I have 2 other FAQs, and I have gotten numerous good contributions, that I trashed just because the sender didn't put a good subject! Anyway, try to only make contributions or ask questions about terminology. If you have a question regarding the game (Like you want to get better as a certain race or something), I guess you could read my Undead FAQ if it has to do with Undead, but otherwise, avoid asking other stuff. ******VERY IMPORTANT******* Please do not Instant Message me via AOL. I really like getting e- mails about my FAQ, but IMs are just not good. If it's a contribution, it's too easy for me to accidently close the IM box or delete your good idea, or anything else. Also, from my Undead FAQ and Enter the Matrix FAQ, a few people told other people what my screen name was and they started harassing me. Needless to say, I easily used my super powers to make their computers explode, but just do not IM me or tell other people to harass me. I'm not afraid to hurt you. : ) Stuff to e-mail me: -Maybe you were playing a game and someone said something you didn't understand. Maybe I can help, or at least I'll add it here. -If there's a common term I missed. -Thanking me for writing this (^_^) -If you find a website other than the one's listed in the Legal Stuff section hosting this! -If you want to host this on your website! I'd be happy to let you, but you must ask first! Stuff not to e-mail me: -Spam. Honestly. Do I have to explain? -Flames. Do you think I really care that you hate my Terminology FAQ so much that you use it as toilet paper? If you have constructive criticism, say something. If you have no reason, don't. -Please don't ask me to help you beat that level in the campaign/counter gruntapults/get better at starcraft. =========================== 14. CONTRIBUTOR RECOGNITION =========================== *Crickets chirping* Yep. Almost all empty right now. If I missed something, or you're a newbie who doesn't understand something, ask away and get your name in here! You're guaranteed to become famous! (Not a guarantee) -Jothki, for reminding me of Chippo, and Tanking -Ndssai, for reminding me of Chobo, and AFAIK -John Jackson, for reminding me of Wagonmancing, and Noob Elf -Blade, for telling me his friends' definition of Chobo -mjfloyd0, who asked what XD meant and got me to put it in the FAQ. -Falxon2, for suggesting I add Bats -Icy Rebirth, for pointing out that I wrote AMP in the APM section ========== 15. THANKS ========== Some people/stuff I'd like to thank: -To anyone who read this -To Blizzard for making the awesome Warcraft series -To all the psychos on battle.net who make up their own terms for things which become so common that I have to write an FAQ about it. -To the folks on the GameFAQs Warcraft III: TFT message board, for being cool (Most of them) and for sometimes helping me clarify stuff. -Me, I guess... -Any website that hosts this =============== 16. LEGAL STUFF =============== This FAQ is copyright, Danny Markowitz, 2004. All rights reserved. It may only be used on the following website(s): www.GameFAQs.com http://dlh.net www.ign.com Just note that GameFAQs will always have the lasted version. Do not use any or all of it without my permission. All of the text is owned and was written by Daniel Markowitz. You may print it out if you want, but don't turn it into a strategy guide and sell it, unless you send me the profits! That would be okay! If you are want to use my FAQ on your website, you must ask my permission first, and you may not alter or change the text in it anyway. All in all, if you really want to use it for something (litter box for your pets... whatever.) besides just a personal FAQ, ask me first. _,.-~=*'`"^THE END!!^"`'*=~-.,_