Game Guide - Glossary Heroes of the Storm Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

This glossary contains terms and acronyms used in both the guide and the game. Learning them makes team communication much easier and faster. You won't always have enough time to write full sentences. The glossary has been created alphabetically.

AA (Auto Attack) - The attack that the hero will perform after clicking RMB on the target.

AD (Attack Damage) - Damage that your character does with their attacks.

AFK (Away From Keyboard) - The term used while you have to stop playing for a moment. It also has a derogatory meaning when one of the players simply stops playing.

AoE (Area of Effect) - A skill that affects an area (e.g. Arthas's Frozen Tempest).

AS - Attack Speed

Aura - A bonus effect that often affects team members as well, e.g. Aura of attack speed bonus.

BD (Backdoor) - Sneaking (or teleporting) behind the enemies and acquiring an objective, e.g. destroying a tower.

BG (Bad Game) - Used after a game to express disappointment with it.

Bot - Bottom lane of the map.

BRB - Be right back.

Brush - Plants.

Buff - A bonus that changes character stats and lasts for a while.

Build - A skill set of a specific hero.

Burst - Doing a lot of damage as quickly as possible.

CC (Crowd Control) - Effects that limit control over a character - fear, stun, slowdown etc.

CD (Cooldown) - Time to reload a skill.

Champion - Hero.

Daily quest - Quests that you can do to get some gold. When you complete one, you'll get another in one day.

DC (Disconnect) - When a player disconnects.

DMG - Damage.

DoT - Damage over time.

Feeder - A player who feeds the opposite team by dying all the time. Fed - player with a lot of kills.

Gank - Helping the team to kill the enemy. If you tell someone to attack the enemy, you ask for a gank.

GG (Good Game) - Used after a game to thank the team and the enemies.

GJ - Good job.

GL - Good luck.

HF - Have fun.

Kiting - Keeping an enemy far enough so that they can't attack.

Leaver - A player who leaves the game and does not come back.

Harass - Continuously attacking an enemy to lower their morale and health.

Lane - One of three lanes on the map.

MIA (Miss in Action) - Someone is not on a specific lane.

MID - Middle lane.

MOUNT - Means of transport, horse.

MS - Movement speed.

Noob - An offensive, often overused term describing a player who can't behave properly and intentionally make the game worse. Often mistaken for Newbie.

Newbie - A new player in a game.

OOM - Out of Mana.

OP (Overpowered) - A character much stronger than the others that needs to be balanced.

Passive - Passive skill.

RE (Return) - Used after you lose an enemy from your view, when they return to their position.

Root - Negative effect that makes the player unable to move.

Seed - Seed used in Garden of Terror.

Silence - A negative effect that makes the player unable to use any skill.

Skillshot - An ability that requires some skills and manual targeting.

Skin - Character's skin that can be bought for real money.

SS - Abbreviation of "Miss", equal to MIA.

Stun - Effect that stuns the enemy and makes them unable to do anything.

Support - Heroes that support the team with additional effects: auras, healing etc.

Suppresion - A negative effect that makes the player unable to use skills.

Tank - A character that has to get most damage in order to make the game easier for the rest of the team.

TBH - To be honest.

TOP - Top lane.

TP - Teleporter.

Taunt - A negative effect that makes the enemy attack the hero who used it. Taunted enemies can't control their characters.

Ult - Ultimate, the last one of character's skills, usually hotkey R.