Guide to WvW Vocabulary

Introduction

This is a short guide to some of the common vocabulary used in WvW. It is not an exhaustive list, but instead covers the most common terms and callouts. Some servers, guilds, and commanders will have their own personal callouts, while other vocabulary that was once common is now rarely used. If you hear an unfamiliar term not covered here you can usually just ask for the meaning, either in a whisper or team chat, most WvW players would be happy to help.

Fight Callouts

• CCs - Short for Crowd Control. For WvW mainly refers to: Stun, Knockdown, Pull, Float, Immobilize
  • Immob - alternate call for Immobilize
  • Pulls – Skills that have Pull.
    • Temporal Curtain is the typical example
• Range Spike – Coordinated ranged damage at a location with short cooldown abilities. Often includes pulls
  • Phase Smash is a common example
• Shades/Shade Spike – A type of range spike using Manifest Sand Shade ⇒ Nefarious Favor + Sand Cascade + Garish Pillar + Desert Shroud from every scourge in the group at the same time
  • Should be assisted by high damage skills and CC skills from other professions
  • Often followed up by pushing into the enemy group to take advantage of ground control
• Bomb – Coordinated damage at a location
  • Sometimes used as a general call for damage at a location
• Wells/Well Bomb – A type of bomb using Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption from every necromancer in the group at the same time
  • Should be assisted by high damage skills and CC skills from other professions
  • Often followed up by pushing into the enemy group to take advantage of ground control
• Cleave (the downs/downies) – Call to focus on killing downstate enemies
• Kite/Peel – moving away from the enemy quickly.
  • Usually without attempting to do damage, but sometimes to make enemies follow through damage
• Small stab(ility) – Refers to skills that give small amounts of Stability, especially for range spikes.
• Big stab(ility) – "Stand Your Ground!"
• Empower/Stack might - Refers to Guardian Staff skill 4 - Empower
  • Also indicates the commander wants to stand still for a moment while casting Empower
• Breaches – Used to call for Ghastly Breach from every scourge in the group at the same time or to avoid enemies doing the same
• Traps - Procession of Blades and Test of Faith from every dragonhunter in the group at the same time
  • Often followed up by moving back to bait enemy groups into moving into the traps
• Bubble/Winds – Refers to Winds of Disenchantment, used to call for a single cast from one spellbreaker, or as a position to move relative to
• Veil - Refers to the mesmer skill Veil which can give Stealth to an unlimited number of allied players

General Callouts

• WvW = short form for World vs World
• Matchup/MU = World vs World is split into matchups which changes every week. During a matchup you will find yourself against two other servers. The reset time is every Friday at 20.00 (GMT+1)
• Team Chat
• EWP - Emergency Waypoint tactic

Maps

• EBG - Eternal Battlegrounds
• Alpine - Alpine Borderlands
• Desert - Desert Borderlands
• OS - Obsidian Sanctum
• EotM - Edge of the Mists

Objectives

• SM/SMC = short form for Stonemist Castle
• Garri - Garrison/Earth Keep
• Bay/Fire/WK - West Keep
• Hills/Air/EK - East Keep
• Inner - Outer: this only applies to keep and SM, both have two defensive layers, the first one you meet as an attacker is the outer, the second one is the inner.
• T = Tower, typically seen in callouts
• Camp = short form for Supply Camp
• WG = Water Gate
• Lord(s) - Short for Lord's Room, where the lord and capture point resides in every keep/tower.
• T1/T2/T3 - Upgrade level of an objective, 3 being highest. May also refer to matchup tiers.
• Paper - Any structure that hasn't upgraded past wooden walls.
  • Includes T1
• Doly/Yak - Dolyak

Siege

• AC - Arrow Cart
• Treb - Trebuchet
• Balli - Ballista
• Cata - Catapult
• Treb - Trebuchet
• Gen/Gennie - Shield Generator
• Omega/Alpha - Omega/Alpha Golem
• Oil - Burning Oil

Group Sizes

• Roamer/Roamers - Between 1-5 players that roam around maps looking for fights and flipping small objectives (sentries, camps, ruins)
• Havoc - A group of 5-10 players, usually focused on capturing objectives and pulling the attention of larger groups.
• Zerg - A group of 20 or more enemies.
• Blob/Map Blob - A group of 40 or more enemies, usually the only enemy force on a map or a combination of multiple zergs.

Server Names

Server names are often shorted or abbreviated

NA Servers

Server Name	Abbreviation
Anvil Rock	AR
Blackgate	BG
Borlis Pass	BP
Crystal Desert	CD
Darkhaven	DH
Devona's Rest	DR
Dragonbrand	DB
Ehmry Bay	EB
Eredon Terrace	ET
Ferguson's Crossing	FC
Fort Aspenwood	FA
Gate of Madness	GoM
Henge of Denravi	HoD
Isle of Janthir	IoJ
Jade Quarry	JQ
Kaineng	KN
Maguuma	Mag
Northern Shiverpeaks	NSP
Sanctum of Rall	SoR
Sea of Sorrows	SoS
Sorrow's Furnace	SF
Stormbluff Isle	SBI
Tarnished Coast	TC
Yak's Bend	YB

EU Servers

Server Name	Abbreviation
Auora Glade	AG
Blacktide	BT
Desolation	Deso
Far Shiverpeaks	FSP
Fissure of Woe	FoW
Gandara	none
Gunnar's Hold	GH
Piken Square	Piken
Ring of Fire	RoF
Ruins of Surmia	RoS
Seafarer's Rest	SFR
Underworld	UW
Vabbi	none
Whiteside Ridge	WSR
Arborstone	none
Augury Rock	AR
Fort Ranik	FR
Jade Sea	JS
Vizunah Square	Vizunah
Abaddon's Mouth	AM
Drakkar Lake	DL
Dzagonur	Dzag
Elona Reach	Elona/ER
Kodash	none
Miller's Sound	Millers/MS
Riverside	RS
Baruch Bay	BB