According to dictonary.com the word Acronym means “a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words” so basically it is the first letters of the words it stands for. The examples (ex) are to show you how you could use them in chat. In this article I’m going to go over some of the most common ones in World of Warcraft (WoW or wow). There is your first one. WoW or wow stands for World of Warcraft. Now here are some others.

LFG = Looking for Group, means that you are looking for a group of people to play with either to finish a quest, go to an instance, go on a raid or something of that sort.

ex: LFG to finish a quest

LFM = Looking for Member, it basically means the same thing as LFG but the other way around, you are in a group and looking for more people to join.
ex: LFM to go raid some town

LFxM = Stands for the same thing as LFM except for x stands for a number, it is used when you are looking for more than one member.
ex: LF3M to come help me with a quest

FP = Flight Path or Flight Plan, a flight path is where you can fly from one town/city to another
ex: I am going to go to the FP

AFK = Away From Keyboard, you use that when you are not at the keyboard
ex: I was AFK

COD = Cash On Delivery, when you mail someone something and want them to pay you for it before they get you can use this.
ex: I will COD it to you

DE = Dis Enchanting, something enchanters do to items to get things to do enchants
ex: Will you DE this for me

G2G or GTG = Got To Go, when you have to go and leave the game you can use this
ex: I g2g will be back later

NPC = Non Playable Character, that is a character in the game that isn’t human..it is played by the computer
ex: That is a NPC

WTS = Wanting To Sell, this is usually in the trade channel and you use it if you want to sell something
ex: WTS Copper bar

WTB = Wanting To Buy, just the opposite of WTS..use it if you are looking to buy something
ex: WTB Silver bar

PST = Please Send Tell, it basically means to whisper the person..a tell is like a whisper or private message.
ex: If you are looking to join my group pst

AH = Auction House, the place where you buy and sell stuff
ex: Go look in the AH

BRB = Be Right Back, this is used when you are going to be away from the game for a little bit but still in the game.
ex: I will BRB, need to go and get a drink

DPS = Damage Per Second, you use this when talking about weapons
ex: What kind of DPS does that have

GM = Game Manager, someone that helps make sure the game goes smoothly and can assist you if you need help or have a problem
ex: Just go to ask the GM

Now here are the abbreviations for some of the places in WoW. You will use these a lot and it will save you a lot of time and typing so these are good to know.

UC = Undercity
Org. = Orgrimmar
DM = Deadmines

SFK = ShadowFang Keep
RFC = RageFire Chasm
WC = Waling Caverns

TB = Thunder Bluff
Xroads or XR = Crossroads
SM = Scarlet Monastery

BFD = BlackFathom Deeps
BRD = BlackRock Depths
IF = IronForge

RFD = RazonFen Downs
RFK = RazonFen Kraul
WSG = WarSong Gulch

There is a lot to remember but once you start to see them more and use them you will start to remembering them. My next article about Wow will be on some of the least known acronyms, so be on the lookout for that.

Is your World of Warcraft guild not as active as it used to be? Do you still want to raid, but don’t want to have to change guilds and leave your friends? Well, you still can. Every day, no matter the time, there’s usually some person in trade chat looking for some role or another for a raid. Some are individuals trying to form a pick up group (PUG) from scratch. Others are guilds trying to fill their own raid ranks.

No matter what sort of group you get into, though, there’s always a chance that it could be a bust. Maybe you’ll only do the first boss and get locked to the group. Maybe you’ll spend an hour in a group that is trying to get filled only to have impatient people leave until the group falls apart all together. And my least favorite: when you do a few bosses and then get to a kind of hard one at or near the end only to have people bail out because they don’t like wiping.

The first boss lock out is particularly bad in terms of the Ice Crown Citadel raid. The first boss is the weekly raid boss sometimes and if you get locked to a group after that boss, it’s almost impossible to fill the spots you need to since everybody wants to do the weekly raid.

Despite these pit falls, there are things a player can do to attempt to avoid these situations.

Guild Runs

Ensure that the group is a guild run. In my experience guild runs are generally less jerky. The people all get along and as long as you’re not a jerk they get along with you well. They also seem to be the groups that don’t have people (at least their guild members) bail out after wiping a few times. These guild groups are generally just trying to push through the content and don’t have the numbers or maybe the skill to do it themselves, so they recruit for the raid in trade. I tanked for a guild for a while after my own guild’s Friday night raids. It was a killer doing a double raid, especially after working all day. But, the guys were a great bunch and I got to experience a lot of firsts with them as they didn’t have a suitable second tank. I played with them for about two months before their numbers fell through.

Research

No matter who is inviting in trade, even if they claim it’s a guild run, look them up on the Armory. The Armory is great for fact checking or seeing what kind of gear a player is using or even checking the player(s) specs to see if they have any idea as to what they’re doing in the game. By fact checking, I mean to check a person’s achievements. Some people claim to have done things that they haven’t. There are even add-ons that allow players to fake achievements in game. The armory is a great resource for seeing how competent a player might be.

Listen to the grape vine. If you’ve been playing on a server for a while, you’ll learn what guilds are good and what guilds aren’t. Usually, in my own experience, rumors end up being true. So, get to know your server. If you’re in trade chat check out who’s saying what. You can shift-click a player’s name from a chat channel and it will list what guild they’re in. Talk with guildmates who have been pugging and see what they have to say about guilds or players.

Figure out what days people are pugging on your server. I know that on my server open pugs (ones started by one or a few people and then filled) are more likely to happen on Wednesdays and Thursdays, then again on Saturday nights and Sundays. Guild pugs are more likely to happen on Friday and Saturday nights. Everybody has a different schedule; the same applies to a server. What holds true on my server isn’t necessarily going to hold true for another. Some similarities might hold, but I wouldn’t bank on it.

Play Hard to Get

Recently, I’ve stopped just replying to someone immediately for a raid. I’ve found that I have better luck seeing how long they keep looking. I was in Dalaran for about an hour the other day watching a guy spam trade for 2 tanks and 1 healer. Slowly, he got to LF 1 tank. So, I messaged him. I got in, we did VOA and all was right with the world. Now, had I messaged immediately I would have been sitting in a raid for over an hour waiting to go, afraid to get up because I would be expecting to pull trash at any moment. Instead, I was able to do a load of laundry and catch up on some missed TV shows.

So, if you take a little time to get to know your server you can alleviate some of the headache of pugging a raid. And, if you try and be a little more strategic about when you decide to pug and how you reply to a raid you might not waste as much time sitting in a bust raid. Happy pugging!