List of words and abbreviations that you will most often see in your exchanges with ff14 players. This list should help you in your communication with the teammates you meet.
A
Adds : Additional enemies that spawn during boss fight.
AFK : Away From Keyboard, the player is absent and is not behind the screen.
Aggro : Drawing the attention of enemies. Typically used to signal to tanks that a player has enemies attacking them.
Akh Morn : A multi-hit split damage AoE that requires the party to stack and heal through the damage.
Alt : Alternate, the player's character or job different from their main character/job.
AoE : Area of Effect, Abilities that do damage or inflict debuffs to multiple enemies.
ATM : At the moment.
Auto : Auto-attack, melee attack made by a monster.
B
B4 : Before.
Backstab : Attack behind the enemy's back.
Bait : The fact that a player attracts an attack or a monster to a specific location.
BBL : Be back later.
Bio : Bio break, real life biological needs (getting snacks, going to the bathroom, ...).
BiS : Best in Slot, the single best item for a specific job to use in a specific gear slot.
Blind : Participate in a fight without having watched a guide previously.
Blist/BL : blacklist
Body check : A mechanic type in high-end duties in which all players must be alive at the start of the mechanic and must perform their individual role in the mechanic correctly. Failing either will lead to a wipe.
Bonus : Shorthand for "first-time clear" since adventurers new to a duty grant the party a bonus for first-time completion.
Bot : A character that is controlled by a programmed script instead of a human player.
BR : Boss Relative. Refers to positioning for mechanics based on where the boss is facing.
BRT : Be Right There.
Braindead : Usually refers to a strategy for certain mechanics that reduces the amount of decision-making needed by players to increase ease of execution.
BRB : Be Right Back, when a player must be absent.
Breakpoint : The numerical threshold at which certain stats result in meaningful stats or beneficial effects.
BTW : By the way.
Buff : A temporary enhancement to a target (player, monster, equipment, etc.). Typically cast as a spell or the effect of consuming food.
Burn : To focus attacks on a particular target while ignoring other tasks.
C
Cast : casting a spell.
CC : Crowd Control, abilities that disable or immobile enemies such as Sleep.
CD : Countdown or cooldown of abilities.
Chariot : An enemy attack type consisting of a point-blank circular AoE, requiring players to be outside of the hitbox or further away from the enemy. Name originates from Iron Chariot in Raid The Second Coil of Bahamut - Turn 4.
Cheese : To greatly simplify an encounter mechanic using a specific strategy or action usage.
Clip : (1) A loss of effectiveness of a continuous process due to delays or other issues. Example: to delay the global cooldown (GCD), usually from "weaving" too many abilities or from not pressing the next GCD action in time. Example 2: To refresh a damage-over-time action (DoT) early, which will usually lead to a potency loss due to not obtaining the full effect of the DoT. (2) To be barely hit by an AoE attack that the player thought they were safe from.
Clock spots : A common position assignment in high-end duties in which each player is assigned a cardinal or intercardinal compass position (North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, Northwest) to handle certain mechanics.
Color pairs / partners : A position assignment in which a tank/healer will partner with a DPS based on the color of the waymark at each player's clock spot, e.g., the players assigned to the red waymarks 1 and A will be partners for some mechanics.
Compo : Composition, the job makeup of a party.
CS : cutscene.
Crit : Critical Hit.
CCW : Counter Clockwise.
CW : Clockwise.
CWLS : Cross-world Linkshell.
D
D1/D2/D3/D4 : Designates the DPS roles in a full party and used for mechanic positioning assignments. See also: M1/M2 and R1/R2 for acting melee and acting ranged DPS roles.
DD : Damage Dealer, a job that focuses on dealing damage, or Damage Down, a debuff that is given in many savage and ultimate raids for failing mechanics.
DE : Deutsch The German word for German.
DEF : Defense.
DH : Direct Hit Rate. Affects the rate of slightly higher damage hits.
Divebomb : A mechanic type in which an enemy on the outside of the arena will use a wide line AoE through the arena. The AoE location may be fixed or may be baited by players.
DM : Doesn't Matter.
Door boss : A boss in a trial or raid that is the first of two boss encounters. Defeating the first boss will not reward loot but will give the party a checkpoint that they will restart from if they wipe to the second boss. Exiting the instance and re-entering will require defeating the door boss again.
DoT : Damage over Time, an ability that deals consistent damage over a given amount of time to a target.
Downtime : Time during a fight in which the party or certain jobs cannot damage the boss due to mechanics.
DPS : Damage Per Second or a job that focuses on dealing damage.
Drop : treasure that is gained by killing a monster.
DW : don't worry / no worries.
Dynamo : An enemy attack type consisting of a large circular AoE with a circular safe spot inside the hitbox of the enemy. Name originates from Lunar Dynamo in Raid The Second Coil of Bahamut - Turn 4.
E
eHP : Effective Health Pool, the sum of your HP and damage reduction values.
EN : English, english speaking players.
Enrage : An ability used by bosses in high-end duties (e.g. extreme trials, savage/ultimate raids) that will wipe the party, requiring the boss to be defeated within a certain time limit.
Enum : Enumeration, a mechanic type in which a specific number of players must stack with another player having a numerical marker.
ET : Eorzean Time.
Exaflare : An enemy attack consisting of circular AoEs that will travel across the arena in the direction of the arrow telegraph. Name originates from Ultimate Raid The Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate).
F
Fake melee : A scenario in which a ranged DPS must assume positions/responsibilities for mechanics intended for melee DPS in a high-end duty, due to there being three ranged DPS in the party.
Farm : To repeatedly kill an enemy or complete a duty for a specific purpose, usually to obtain loot.
FATE : Full Active Time Event.
FC : Free Company.
FFA : Free-for-all. Usually refers to player-created loot rules in which each member of the party may roll Need on each piece of loot.
Fish : To repeat an action until it randomly activates a desired effect, e.g. a proc.
Flare : A player will be targeted by an enemy attack that will inflict proximity damage to those nearby, requiring others to move away from the target player. A flare marker consists of three outwards blue arrows.
FPS : Frames per second.
FR : French, French speaking players.
FYI : For Your Information.
G
G1/G2 : Light party groups within a full party, used for mechanic positioning assignments.
Gaol : A mechanic type in which one player is imprisoned and must be freed, usually by destroying the prison object.
Gapcloser/Gap closer : A movement action that reduces the distance between a user and a target (usually an enemy) to bring the user within melee range to the target.
Gaze : An enemy attack that requires players to look away to avoid. Often telegraphed by a purple eye icon, but may be untelegraphed in high-end duties.
GC : Grand Company.
GCD : Global Cooldown - cooldown shared by multiple actions, spells, or weaponskills.
GG : Good Game.
Ghost : When a player action is used on a target but does not register and therefore provides no effect.
GJ : Good Job, frequently seen as "gj everyone" after a group effort.
GL : Good luck.
GM : Game Master.
GN : Good Night.
Glam : Glamour.
Grats/gz : Congratulations.
Greed : To attempt to optimize damage dealt by performing a risky maneuver. Example: Moving out of an enemy AoE attack at the last possible moment as to finish a cast.
Grind : A long and tedious process with an end goal in mind.
GTG : (I've) got to go / gotta go.
H
H1/H2 : Designates the healer roles in a full party and used for mechanic positioning assignments.
Hardcast : To cast a spell with a cast bar.
HF : Have Fun.
HoT : Heal over Time, an ability that consistently heals a target over a given amount of time.
HP : Hit Points.
HQ : High Quality.
I
IDC : I Don't Care.
IG : In Game.
IGN : In-game name.
iLvl : 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.
IMHO : In My Humble Opinion.
IMO : In My Opinion.
INC : Incoming, warning for incoming enemies.
IDK : I Don't Know.
Invite(inv) : A request for an adventurer to join a party. The act of sending an invite.
Invuln : A Tank action that provides some form of invulnerability or death prevention.
IRL : In Real Life.
J
JK : Just Kidding.
JP : Japanese, Japanese speaking players.
K
KB : Knockback.
KFF : Kill For Friend. Often advertised in party finder. Basically experienced players helping single individual with beating encounter.
Kick : To be removed from a party or other social group by another person.
Kitchen sink : When a tank uses most, or all personal mitigation abilities, except for their invulnerability cooldown, in anticipation of a heavy-hitting tankbuster.
Kite : Stay at a distance and attack a monster from afar to avoid melee damage from it.
K.O. : Knocked Out. To be defeated in combat.
L
LB : Limit Break.
LC : Limit Cut, a mechanic in which each player is marked with a number (e.g. 1-8), indicating the order they will take an attack. First appeared in Raid 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 Members, and Looking For Party.
LMAO : Laughing My Ass Off.
Lockout : The timer of a duty. If it expires, the party will be removed from the instance. May also refer to loot that is limited weekly.
LoS : Line of Sight.
LS : Linkshell.
M
M1/M2 : Designates the acting melee DPS roles in a full party and used for mechanic positioning assignments. See also: D1/D2/D3/D4 and R1/R2 for overall DPS and acting ranged DPS roles.
MB : Market Board.
Melee : DPS that will stay in close combat with the enemy.
Meme : Excessive deaths or wipes to a mechanic that is usually before the advertised progression point of a party for the encounter.
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.
MMORPG : Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Mob : Monster.
MP : Mana Points.
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.
N
NP : No Problem.
NPC : Non-Player Character.
NQ : Normal Quality.
NVM : Never Mind.
O
o/ : Used as a greeting or farewell. Supposed to represent a person with their arm raised. Can be reversed: \o and sometimes a "salute" variant using the number seven is seen: o7
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. This is generally because of excessive deaths and the subsequent need to Resurrect too often.
Opener : A sequence of actions used at the start of an encounter designed to maximize damage and set up the job's rotation for the rest of the encounter. See also: rotation.
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. See also: MT, ST.
Overcap : To waste a numerical resource due to using an action that generates it when it is already at maximum.
P
PC : Player Character.
Pentameld : To fully affix a piece of equipment with five materia. Can be a costly process.
PF : Party Finder.
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.
Proc : Programmed random occurrence. Usually an effect that has a random, non-guaranteed chance of activating upon using a certain action.
Prog : progression, most commonly in higher-end duties (e.g., prog from X mechanic onwards).
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.
PUG : Pick Up Group; Used to refer to a group of players that are found via /shout chat, Duty Finder, or Party Finder. Generally any group that wasn't already previously associated with each other.
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, generally dungeons, trials, raids, fates...
PvP : Player vs. Player, as the Crystalline Conflict, Frontline, and Rival Wings.
Q
R
R/RDY : Ready.
R1/R2 : Designates the acting ranged DPS roles in a full party and used for mechanic positioning assignments. See also: D1/D2/D3/D4 and M1/M2 for overall DPS and acting melee DPS roles.
Raidwide : An enemy attack that damages the entire party.
Res/Rez : Resurrect.
RNG : Random Number Generator, a process that is determined by random event.
Rotation : A sequence of actions that optimizes a job's damage output. Can also refer to defensive and healing action usage orders.
S
Sac : Sacrifing party member/s in order to "resolve" a specific mechanic.
Shakies : Nervousness or anxiety towards the end of a lengthy encounter (usually in ultimate raids) that may contribute to mistakes.
Single pull : Pulling one group of enemies at a time in a Dungeon dungeon instead of multiple groups. Contrast to "wall-to-wall/W2W" pull.
Slidecast : Moving just before a cast bar fully fills. If timed properly, the cast will complete without interruption due to server latency. This is used to improve the movement of jobs with casting times during fights.
Snapshot : The time point when a player or enemy is determined to have been hit by an enemy attack or player action. Snapshots for enemy attacks often register upon when the attack cast bar fills and not with the attack animation. May be affected by server latency.
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.
Spam : To repeat an action many times, back-to-back.
Sprout : A player with a New Adventurer icon.
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.
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.
Strat : strategy.
T
Tankbuster : A strong attack that is intended to be taken by a tank with mitigation actions. May be telegraphed with a red marker, but often has no indicator in high-end duties.
Tank stance : Tank actions that can be toggled on/off and significantly increase enmity gained.
Tank swap : In duties with two tanks, tankbusters and other mechanics can require swapping which tank is currently holding enmity on the boss. To do this, the current off-tank will use Provoke followed by the former main tank using Shirk on the provoking player. This ensures the new tank has a strong enmity lead on the boss.
Taunt : Provoke.
Tax : A reduction in the damage dealt from a job compared to others of the same role that is perceived to exist due to an advantage in other areas (e.g., ability to buff the party, attacking from range, no cast times, ability to resurrect allies in combat).
Tether : A common fight mechanic in which a character is connected to another entity with a visible line, representing a certain interaction (e.g. the target of an upcoming attack). Some tethers can be broken or passed to another player. Others will change appearance based on proximity.
THMR (or other combinations of T, H, M, R) : Refers to the order in which tanks (T), healers (H), acting melee DPS (M), and acting ranged DPS (R) resolve a specific mechanic.
TN : True North, also may refer to true north positioning, which is positioning for mechanics based on absolute compass directions, regardless of where the boss is facing.
ToS : Terms of Service.
Tower : An AoE a player must stand in, or will deal high partywide damage if not taken in time.
TP : Teleport.
Train : A large group of players moving together with a specific goal. Most common is a hunt train, which will kill a series of Rank A Elite Marks hunts across multiple overworld zones from an expansion. Usually led by a player called a conductor, who will announce the coordinates of the next mark.
Trap : A premade party that is failing to reach the advertised progression point in an encounter.
Trash : Enemies found in dungeons and some older raids that comprise the majority of the enemies in the instance and are weaker than bosses. Do not reward experience or any notable loot.
TT : Triple Triad.
Twister : A mechanic originating from Raid 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 then dodge them.
TY : Thanks / Thank You
TYFP : Thank you for party. Usually said when a player is about to leave a party.
U
Unsynced : Unrestricted Party.
Uptime : Time during a fight that is spent damaging the boss. An uptime strat is a strategy for a mechanic that allows the party to handle mechanics while allowing more jobs to damage the boss during the mechanic (e.g., melees being within range or reduced movement for casters). See also: Downtime
V
Voke : Provoke.
W
Wall : (noun) A persistent AoE at the edge of an arena that will instantly kill or inflict high damage-over-time to anyone who steps in it. (verb) To walk into the arena wall, usually as an intentional suicide method when a pull is deemed unrecoverable, or to cleanse a potent Damage Down debuff.
Wall boss : A large boss that is located outside of the arena. Cannot be moved around by the highest enmity player. Has a large hitbox and no positional requirements.
WB : Welcome Back.
Weave : To use an ability between uses of weaponskills or spells, during which the global cooldown is active. If done properly, this will execute the ability without delaying the global cooldown. Usually up to two abilities can be weaved ("double weaving"), although there are several exceptions, such as abilities with a long animation lock, or if the prior action has a short global cooldown or a cast time allowing room for only one weave.
Wild charge : A line AoE that will deal significantly higher damage to the first player hit, requiring a tank to stand in front of the targeted player(s) to mitigate damage. Originates from Raid The Final Coil of Bahamut - Turn 1.
Wipe : A combat situation in which every member in a party is defeated.