Beginner’s Guide to Terminology in Path of Exile

New players that are looking to better understand what the heck are people saying in chat or forums might find it useful to have a glossary of most commonly used terms, acronyms and abbreviations in Path of Exile. Feel free to ask anything or add your own in the comments below.

Passive skill tree

• RT – Resolute Technique (keystone passive found near the Marauder starting area which gives you 100% hit chance but you are unable to critically strike)
• CI – Chaos Inoculation (passive in between Witch and Shadow tree, your health is 1 but you are immune to Chaos damage)
• IR – Iron Reflexes (bottom right side of the Duelist tree, converts all of your Evasion into Armor)
• BM – Blood Magic (bottom left part of the passive skill tree, you have no mana and your abilities use health instead as resource); also used for support gem that has the same effect
• EE – Elemental Equilibrium (enemies you hit with a certain elemental damage gain resistances to it but lose resistances to other elemental damage types)
• US – Unwavering Stance (you can’t be stunned)
• PA – Pain Attunement (30% more spell damage when on low life)
• VP – Vaal Pact (your life leech applies instantly)
• EB – Eldritch Battery (converts all of your energy shield into mana)
• GR – Ghost Reaver (life leech applies to energy shield)
• MoM – Mind Over Matter (30% of damage is taken from mana before life)

Skills and gems

• CS – Culling Strike
• LMP/GMP – Lesser and Greater Multiple Projectiles, two support gems that add additional projectiles to a particular ranged ability
• EK – Ethereal Knives
• FP – Freezing Pulse
• 20/20 – signifies a level 20 gem with 20% +quality
• EA – Explosive Arrow
• LA – Lightning Arrow
• RoA – Rain of Arrows

Currency

• Ex – Exalted Orb
• CH – Chaos Orb
• GCP – Gemcutter’s Prism
• Alt – Orb of Alteration
• Fus – Orb of Fusing

See currency exchange rates for a better understanding of trading ratios.

General

• GG (items) – frequently used term to describe “godly gear” items, high-end valuable equipment with often maxed attribute rolls
• Spork – name for a very popular dual Spark totem build (Spark + Fork)
• C/O & B/O – “Current offer” and “Buyout“, often used by players selling items
• PST/PM – “please send tell” and “private message“, usually used by players who want you to message them for whatever reason
• AoE – “area of effect“, used to describe skills and abilities that can affect multiple targets at once (examples being Cleave, Firestorm, various curses etc.)
• WTB/WTS/WTT – “Want to buy“, “Want to sell” and “Want to trade“
• RNG – literally “Random Number Generator“, stands for the randomness of something in the game
• 6S/6L – referring to an item with “six sockets” or “six linked sockets”; can also be 6S/5L, 5L, 4L, etc.
• iLvl – item level: every item in the game has a specific iLvl depending on the level of the area you are in (for example if monsters in the area are level 30 items will be iLvl 30 as well). You can check iLvl by picking up and holding an item from your inventory and typing /itemlevel in chat. In essence iLvl determines how high the stats on an item can be.
• MTX – Microtransaction
• Legacy – legacy items are pre-nerfed versions of items which retained their old, typically higher values. Example includes Kaom’s Heart: only +500 health version can drop now, but +1000 health Kaom’s Hearts are legacy and extremely expensive due to limited supply.

Character

• STR, DEX, INT – Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence
• IIQ/IIR – Increased Item Quantity and Increased Item Rarity (see: How IIQ & IIR works)
  
• MF – Diablo term which stands for “Magic Find“, combined stats that increase your chances to get more rare equipment
• IAS/AS – Increased Attack Speed
• ES/AR/EV – Energy Shield, Armor, Evasion
  
• Res – Resistance

Unique Items

List of most frequently mentioned and most sought after unique items.

• Astramentis – amulet giving you around +100 to all base attributes
• Shavronne’s Wrappings – chest armor used by mages that prevents Chaos damage from penetrating your Energy Shield
• Kaom’s Heart – chest armor with +1000 health and no gem sockets
• Lioneye’s Glare – best physical damage bow
• Andvarius – ring with up to 85% increased item rarity
• Dream Fragments – ring with cold resistance, increased mana pool and regeneration, and you are immune to freezing effects)
• Soul Mantle – chest armor enabling you to summon 1 additional totem
• Tabula Rasa – chest armor with no stats but has 6 linked gem sockets
• Aurseize – gloves with 40-50% increased rarity of items found
• The Bringer of Rain – helmet with lots of increased life and built-in 3 support gems (Melee Physical Damage, Faster Attacks, Blind), but disables the use of chest armor
• Soul Taker – strong physical damage one-handed Axe
• Quill Rain – low level bow with extremely high attack speed, used by some gimmicky builds
• Void Battery – possibly the best wand for casters
• Voltaxic Rift – endgame elemental damage bow

If you have any other terms that need adding or explaining feel free to post them below!