Acronyms, abbreviations, and common terms

A# = Alexander raids, with the number indicating the "floor". Alexander: Gordias represents A1-A4, Alexander: Midas represents A5-A8, and Alexander: The Creator represents A9-A12. Also commonly used with N or S to indicate normal or Savage mode (e.g. A9S refers to Alexander - The Eyes of the Creator (Savage)).

ACC = Accuracy became Direct Hit Rate

ACN = Arcanist

Adds = Additional Enemies that spawn during boss fight

AF = Artifact Armor; The iconic armor of your job that is obtained by completing the level 45 and 50 job quests. (iLvl 50) Additional sets added every expansion at each new level cap.

AFK = Away From Keyboard

Aggro = Drawing the attention of enemies

AK = Amdapor Keep; An entry-level level 50 dungeon that drops iLvl 60 gear.

ALC = Alchemist

Anima = The Anima Weapons series of weapons, introduced in Heavensward.

Animus = The second upgrade step in the Zodiac series of weapons. Animus weapons are ILvl 100.

AoE = Area of Effect: Abilities that do damage or inflict debuffs to multiple enemies

ARC = Archer

ARM = Armorer

ARR = A Realm Reborn

AST = Astrologian

Atma = The first upgrade step in the Zodiac series of weapons. Atma weapons are nominally iLvl 100, but with stats between 90 and 100. Also refers to a set of items that are required to perform the upgrade.

BA = The Baldesion Arsenal

BCoB = The Binding Coil of Bahamut; the game's first 8-man raid instance. The raid is split into 13 parts called "Turns", with turns 10 to 13 being the hardest instances in ARR and also known as The Final Coil of Bahamut.

Bio = Bio break. In organized group content such as raids, when the leader calls a break to allow group members a few minutes to take care of real life biological needs, such as getting snacks, going to the bathroom, etc.

BiS = Best in Slot; The single best item for a specific job to use in a specific gear slot.

BLM = Black Mage

BLU = Blue Mage

Bonus = Shorthand for "first-time clear" since adventurers new to a duty grant the party a bonus for first-time completion. Often used to indicate "No bonus" - i.e. only players who have already cleared the duty are allowed.

BRB = Be Right Back

BRD = Bard

BSF = The Bozjan Southern Front

BSM = Blacksmith

BTN = Botanist

C4# = Clear for (number of people). Often advertised in party finder. Basically experienced players helping one or more individuals with beating encounter.

CC = Crowd Control - abilities that disable or immobile enemies such as Sleep. OR Copycat Cassie if inside Eureka Pagos

CD = Cooldown of abilities; countdown

CLL = Castrum Lacus Litore

CM = Castrum Meridianum; The penultimate dungeon of the 2.0 storyline quests.

CNJ = Conjurer

Coil = The Binding Coil of Bahamut; The game's first 8-man raid instance. The raid is split into 13 parts called "Turns", with turns 6 to 9 known as the Second Coil of Bahamut and 10 to 13 as the Final Coil of Bahamut.

Crit = Critical Hit (formerly Critical Hit Rate)

CRP = Carpenter

CT = Crystal Tower

CUL = Culinarian

CCW = Counter Clockwise

CW = Clockwise

CWLS = Cross-world Linkshell

DAL = The Dalriada

DD = Damage Dealer, a job that focuses on dealing damage, or Damage Down, a debuff that is given in many high-end duties for failing mechanics

DEF = Defense

DEX = Dexterity

DF = Duty Finder; A system implemented to automatically create parties of players that are wishing to enter a specific duty or instance.

DH = Direct Hit Rate; Replaced Accuracy as a stat. All gear that had Accuracy now has Direct Hit Rate in the same amount. Affects the rate of slightly higher damage hits.

DL = Darklight; An iLvl 70 gear set obtained from some level 50 dungeons. Was the original set of uncapped tome gear.

DNC = Dancer

DoH = Disciples of Hand; Classes that utilize crafting materials to create various items and gear (ALC, ARM, BSM, CLN, CRP, GSM, LTW, WVR).

DoL = Disciples of Land; Classes that gather raw materials from the Eorzea (BTN, FSH, MNR).

DoM = Disciples of Magic; Combat Jobs that output primarily magic damage (BLM, RDM, SMN, WHM, SCH, AST, SGE).

DoT = Damage over Time; An ability that deals consistent damage over a given amount of time to a target.

DoW = Disciples of War; Combat Jobs that output primarily physical damage (PLD, WAR, DRK, GNB, MNK, DRG, SAM, NIN, RPR, BRD, MCH, DNC).

DPS = Damage Per Second or a job that focuses on dealing damage.

DR = Either Duty Roulette or Delubrum Reginae depending on context.

DRS = Delubrum Reginae (Savage)

DRG = Dragoon

DRK = Dark Knight

DSR =  Dragonsong's Reprise (Ultimate), an ultimate-difficulty 8-player raid

E# = Eden raids, with the number indicating the "floor". Eden's Gate represents E1-E4, Eden's Verse represents E5-E8, and Eden's Promise represents E9-E12. Also commonly used with N or S to indicate normal or Savage mode (e.g. E9S refers to Eden's Promise: Umbra (Savage)).

EN = English: English speaking players

EM/EX = Extreme Mode. A third difficulty level for trials, above NM (Normal Mode) and HM (Hard Mode).

ESO = Elder Scrolls Online, a competing MMORPG

EW = Endwalker, the fourth expansion, considered version 6.0 of the game.

FATE = Full Active Time Event

FC = Free Company; The FFXIV iteration of a guild. A large collection of players that can communicate together. A Free Company can use company-wide bonuses such as EXP gain and reduced teleportation rates.

FCoB = Final Coil of Bahamut

FFXIV = Final Fantasy XIV

FPS = Frames per second

FR = French: French speaking players

FSH = Fisher

GC = Grand Company; The 3 main military forces of Eorzea (The Immortal Flames, The Maelstrom, and The Order of the Twin Adder). You may join one of these forces and climb the ranks of the company after defeating Ifrit in the main story arc (lvl 20).

GCD = Global Cooldown - cooldown shared by multiple abilities, spells, or weaponskills.

GG = Good Game.

GH = Guildhest

GL = Guildleve, good luck

GM = Game Master, a moderator who enforces penalties against rules-breaking players.

GNB = Gunbreaker

GLA = Gladiator

GSM = Goldsmith

GW2 = Guild Wars 2, a competing MMORPG

HM = Hard Mode Trials or Dungeons; A variation of a duty that is attainable at level 50. Hard mode variations are, as implied, increased difficulty and include more complex boss mechanics.

HoH = Heaven-on-High

HoT = Heal over Time; An ability that consistently heals a target over a given amount of time.

HP = HP

HQ = High Quality ; A higher quality version of a craftable item or gear that will give higher stats than it's Normal Quality (NQ) counterpart. It is required that a crafter attain enough quality points in the crafting process to produce a High Quality item.

HW = Heavensward, the first expansion, considered version 3.0 of the game.

iLvl, IL = Item Level; A property of a piece of gear that denotes the approximate effectiveness of the item. This is not the level required to equip the item. Higher item level gear is released in nearly every patch.

INC = Incoming: warning for incoming enemies

INT = Intelligence

IRL = In Real Life

JP = Japanese: Japanese speaking players.

KFF = Kill For Friend. Often advertised in party finder. Basically experienced players helping single individual with beating encounter.

KF1 = Kill For One. Similar to KFF

Kite = To attack a monster while running away often done by ranged attackers to deal damage while avoiding taking damage though it makes it difficult for the tank to pull the monster off.

LB = Limit Break; A powerful party ability in Final Fantasy that must be charged up prior to use and has varying effects depending on the job it is used by.

LC = Limit Cut, a mechanic in which each player is marked 1-8, indicating the order they will take an attack. First appeared in  Alexander - The Heart of the Creator (Savage) but related number mechanics in newer duties are generally referred to as "Limit Cut".

LF = Looking for; A common term used when searching for things or people. Variations include LFG, LFM and LFP being Looking For Group, Looking For More, and Looking For Party.

LNC = Lancer

LoS = Line of Sight

LoV = Lord of Verminion

LoVM = Lord of Verminion

LS = Link Shell; A permanent chat channel in which a collection of players can communicate together. Often formed to find players of similar interests with which you can play with together.

LTW = Leatherworker

MB = Market Board

MCH = Machinist

MIN = Miner

MINE = Minimum Ilvl No Echo. These are Duty Finder settings for enabling the maximum challenge out of an older duty; by silencing The Echo buff and reducing gear Item Level to the minimum allowed. Note that this isn't an "original" or "intended" difficulty setting due to years of Job changes and the availability of better-than-minimum gear even at content release.

Mit = mitigation action, i.e. actions that reduce damage taken

MGP = Manderville Gold Saucer Points

MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

MND = Mind

MNK = Monk

Mob = Monster

MP = MP

MRD = Marauder

MSQ = Main Scenario Quests

MT = 1) Miss Tell, sending a whisper/tell to the wrong person. A previously sent message was sent to the wrong recipient or chat room. 2) Main Tank, the tank responsible for handling the main/hardest hitting enemy in a fight.

Myth = Obsolete. Allagan Tomestones of Mythology; A currency used to purchase end-game gear and crafting materials. This currency is no longer obtainable.

Nexus = The fourth upgrade step in the Zodiac series of weapons. Nexus weapons are iLvl 115.

NIN = Ninja

NN = Novice Network

Novus = the third upgrade step in the Zodiac series of weapons. Novus weapons are iLvl 110.

NPC = Non-Player Character

NQ = Normal Quality

O# = Omega raids, with the number indicating the "floor". Deltascape represents O1-O4. Also commonly used with N or S to indicate normal or Savage mode (e.g. O4S refers to Deltascape V4.0 (Savage)). Also denoted as V#.

oGCD = "Off Global Cooldown" - An ability which has its own cooldown timer and can generally be used in-between global cooldown (GCD) abilities, spells or weapon skills.

OHKO = One Hit Knock Out

OMW = On My Way

OOM = Out Of Mana/MP; Used to announce to allies that you are very low or completely out of MP.

OT = Off-tank, referring to the second tank in 8-player content whose main responsibility does not include being the enemy's primary aggro target from the start.

P# = Pandaemonium raids, with the number indicating the "floor" of the raid. Asphodelos represents P1-P4. Abyssos represents P5-P6. Also commonly used with N or S to indicate normal or Savage mode (e.g. P8S refers to Abyssos: The Eighth Circle (Savage)). May also indicate the phase of an encounter, e.g., P2 = phase 2.

PC = Player Character

PF = Party Finder

PGL = Pugilist

PIE = Piety; A healer-only stat that increases MP regeneration rate. Only 'enough' is desirable, too much hurts damage output.

Pike = To stand and do nothing while in a dungeon.

Philo = Obsolete. Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy; A currency once used to purchase end-game gear and crafting materials. This currency is no longer obtainable.

PLD = Paladin

Poe = Allagan Tomestones of Poetics; A currency used to purchase item level 130/270/400 former end-game gear and crafting materials.

Pot = Potion OR any attribute-enhancing consumable used for quick burst damage (during high-end raids) OR Potency: the abstracted power of an attack, ability, or spell.

Prae = The Praetorium; The final dungeon of the 2.0 storyline quests featuring several boss battles and unskippable cutscenes.

Prog = progression, most commonly in higher-end duties (e.g., prog from X mechanic onwards)

Protean = A mechanic type that involves handling multiple conal AoEs originating from a boss or other actor.

PotD = Palace of the Dead

PST = Please Send Tell; Used when asking replying parties to send a message via tell. Also onomatopoeia for a whisper; whispering is another terminology for sending a private in-game message used commonly in games.

PT = Party; Pull Time (most commonly used in S-rank hunts)

PUG = Pick Up Group; Used to refer to a group of players that are found via /shout chat or even duty finder. Generally any group that wasn't already previously associated with each other. Often confused as Pugilist (PGL).

Pull = To acquire the aggro of a specified monster to attract it to the party or on to the tank and off of a party member.

PvE = Player vs. Environment - PvE activities are dungeons, trials, FATEs etc.

PvP = Player vs. Player - PvP activities are The Wolves' Den, Crystalline Conflict, Frontline, and Rival Wings.

RDM = Red Mage

Relic = Relic Weapon; A powerful, iconic weapon that is attained through a considerably long quest chain that takes you through end-game dungeons and boss fights. A Zodiac weapon can be upgraded, first to a Zodiac Zenith and then to a Zodiac Atma, Animus, Novus and Nexus (see Zodiac Weapons). Each expansion has its own, separate relic quest line.

Res/Rez = Resurrect

RF = Raid Finder; Merged with Duty Finder, a system implemented to automatically create parties of players that are wishing to enter a specific duty or instance, but used exclusively for the most recent (and most difficult) content, such as Ex Trials and Savage raids.

RNG = Random Number Generator

ROG = Rogue

RPR = Reaper

Sac = Sacrifing party member/s in order to "resolve" a specific mechanic.

SAM = Samurai

SCH = Scholar

SB = Stormblood, the second expansion, considered version 4.0 of the game. OR Spirit Bond, depending on context.

SCoB = The Second Coil of Bahamut; also know as Binding Coil of Bahamut turns 6 to 9.

SE = Square Enix; The company that made Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn.

SGE = Sage

ShB = Shadowbringers, the third expansion, considered version 5.0 of the game.

Soak = To deliberately stand in an enemy AoE, often required for certain boss attacks where failure to do so will cause massive group-wide damage.

Sol = See Sold.

Sold = Allagan Tomestones of Soldiery; A obsolete currency that was used to purchase item level 100 equipment and crafting materials.

SR = Speed Run; Appended to advertisements when arranging parties for instances, to indicate that you are looking to finish the dungeon as quickly as possible by taking shortcuts and skipping all possible enemies. Speed run groups often look for well-geared and experienced players to run through the dungeon even faster to maximize their gains by getting more dungeons completed.

ST = Syrcus Tower; the second raid in the Crystal Tower series.

Stack(s) (Noun) = The number of simultaneous applications of a given buff or debuff, indicated by a number on the icon.

Stack (Verb) = For multiple players to stand very close together, often required for boss fight mechanics.

Static = A group of players that meets at pre-scheduled times, usually to do high-end duties.

StB = Stormblood, to be less ambiguous than SB

STR = Strength

SWTOR = Star Wars: The Old Republic, a competing MMORPG

T# = Bahamut raids, with the number indicating the "floor" of the raid. The Binding Coil of Bahamut represents T1-T5, The Second Coil of Bahamut represents T6-T9, and The Final Coil of Bahamut represents T10-T13.

TEA =  The Epic of Alexander (Ultimate), an ultimate-difficulty 8-player raid

TEN = Tenacity; a tank-only stat that replaced Parry. Reduces damage taken and increases amount healed by a small amount. Generally considered a dump stat.

THM = Thaumaturge

Tomes = Allagan Tomestones

ToS = Terms of Service

Tower = An AoE a player must stand in, or will deal high partywide damage if not taken in time

TP = TP; Old resource similar to MP. Completely deprecated. TP can also stand for Teleport

TT = Triple Triad

Twister = A mechanic originating from  The Binding Coil of Bahamut - Turn 5 in which players must move at the end of a cast bar to dodge instant-kill AoEs that will spawn under their location. In newer duties, this more generally refers to mechanics in which players must bait invisible AoEs and dodge them.

TYFP = Thank you for party. Usually said when a player is about to leave a party.

UCoB =  The Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate), an ultimate-difficulty 8-player raid

UwU =  The Weapon's Refrain (Ultimate), an ultimate-difficulty 8-player raid. Stands for alternative name of Weapon's Refrain - Ultima Weapon (Ultimate).

V# = Omega raids, with the number indicating the "floor". Deltascape represents V1-V4. Also commonly used with N or S to indicate normal or Savage mode (e.g. V4S refers to Deltascape V4.0 (Savage)). Also denoted as O#.

VA = Void Ark

VIT = Vitality

W2W = Wall-to-wall pull in dungeons, in which the party engages every enemy group in until they reach a barrier that will prevent further progress until the enemies are defeated.

WAR = Warrior

WB = Welcome Back

WHM = White Mage

WoD = World of Darkness OR Warrior of Darkness depending on context

WoL = Warrior of Light, the player character

WoW = World of Warcraft, a competing MMORPG

WP = The Wanderer's Palace; Entry-level level 50 dungeon that drops iLvl 55 gear.

WR =  The Weapon's Refrain (Ultimate), an ultimate-difficulty 8-player raid. UwU (Ultima Weapon (Ultimate)) acronym is used more often

WS = Weaponskill

WT = Wondrous Tails

WTB = Wants to buy; Used when advertising that you are buying specific items or services from other players.

WTS = Wants to sell; Used when advertising that you are selling specific items or services from other players.

WVR = Weaver

WXHB = W Cross Hotbar, an optional expansion to the normal controller hotbar.

Y = Yalm, an unit of distance in FFXIV