What is R8, R9, Q10, etc?

I see a lot of these abbreviations around when referring to armor and weapons generally. What do they mean?

they are just reffering to the required attribute level to be able to wield a weapon fully. R9 Sword is a Sword the requires 9 in sword attribute to be able to do full damage when attacking with it. both R and Q stand for Requirement. ;-)

As said above, it is talking about the weapon's requirement of say swordsmanship attribute points for example.

This may also help explain things a bit - Wiki Requirement.

Things like shields usually have different armor ratings - 16 being max.

thanks folks.

yeah, the abbreviations just make it easier to put more info into the trade window ;-) easier to type too (the purpose of abbreviations, doh!) np ;-)

This is what you need to know honestly...

Simple as that!

Dont forget also that also Rx can refer to rank eg r12 luxon or r3 survivor but as others have said when dealing with armor / weapons.
I could never myself work out how "Q" was ever used - used to confuse the hell out of me when i first started gw till somone told me what it stood for.

Heh. Ditto. Though it took me longer to work out "el" tonics. I thought it was just Spanish speakers posting the ad.

Surprisingly, neither "R#," "Q#," nor "EL" are in Guru's Common GW Terms sticky (though admittedly I didn't skim every follow-up post).

Just stick with "req x/xx". I hate "Q" with a flaming passion. -_-; REQUIREMENT does not start with a Q. People really need to understand that. :\


If anything, saying "r" can be somewhat misleading or look weird in its own. The reason being: "r" is widely/mostly used when refering to hero rank. "He is r10" or "he is r7" for example.


Stick to "req" imo.

req takes too long to type and takes up too much space! i mean c'mon, it is two letters longer than r and q!

/sarcasm ;-)

lol xD

I think a lot of people here have some finger illness for playing too much, that's why we have all those abbreviations.

Really, when I started playing I took a look at forums to understand something but it only makes you more confused, reading a GW forum for a newbye is like reading advanced mathematic formulas for a kid.

"Q" generally only stands for "requirement". "R" can stand for requirement, or PvP rank, or rank in some title. And to help those who can't understand why people would use "q" instead of "req" - when you are trying to buy or sell things in a town, those who know what they are doing will use the "Search" function (from the Party box) to post and/or look for items. The search box has a limited number of characters, so in order to properly display your item in the box, you often need to use as few characters as possible, and every extra letter counts. Using "q" for this is more specific than using "r".

It's particularly amusing (to me) to see someone type something like:
"WTS >>>>>>>>>> req 10 Vampiric Elemental Sword!!!! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<"
in the trade chat - which ends up as "WTS >>>>>>>> req 10 vampiric El" in the search box.
Whereas "WTS q10 Vamp Ele Sword" might fit.

Also, for those who complain that requirement starts with an "r" and not a "q" - keep in mind that "Eight cylinder internal combustion engine" doesn't start with "V8" and "pound" doesn't start with "lb" either. (Nor does "number" start with "#", etc.)

@Jonnie: what Quaker said .

Also, sounding it out, q9 sounds cooler than r9 .

And this is why you NEVER use car analogies... the V in V8 has nothing to do with it being an "Eight cylinder internal combustion engine" and everything to do with the engine configuration... the pistons arranged in two angled banks forming a V pattern, used to differentiate from an inline or other configuration.

The V refers to the engine configuration, the 8 refers to the cylinders... just like an R8 weapon would have a requirement of 8... or do merchants in Spamadan somehow get confused and think weapons can earn titles in PvP now?

As for lb = pound... the unit of measurement descended from the Roman libra.


TL: DR Your analogy proved the exact opposite of the point you were trying to make.

Like, duh, Sparky - except "Pistons arranged in two angled banks forming a V pattern" doesn't start with "V" either.

I'm aware of that too. But, none the less, "pound" doesn't start with "l" or even contain "lb"

But you seem to have completely missed the point(s) - which are:
1. There is no strict rule in the English language that says an abbreviation has to begin with the first letter of the full (or even English) word. "Lb" is one example. (Many elements on the periodic table would be more examples - "Ag" for silver, etc.)

However, you could debate the meaning of "abbreviation", which leads to:
2. There is nothing that says that a symbol representing a word or phrase - whether you consider that an abbreviation or not - needs to even exist in a word. "#", and "@" for example.

So, the bottom line is - "Q" is just a symbol that some GW players use to represent the word "requirement" - it does not need to be the first letter of the word, or an abbreviation, just like "#" can represent "number" or V6, V8, and flat-4 can represent types of engines.

Get over it!

V configuration of eight cylinders...

V8

Fail less with your analogies and move on.

I wasn't going top bother with your 'elements' comment, because you can't be that stupid, and I assume you're just being deliberately obtuse...

Ag Argentum... Ar was already taken by Argon, obviously... Ag not pick some random letters from the middle of the word like Gt = Argentum. Ag...

Stop with your bad analogies that keep proving you wrong.

LOL! You're a funny guy. There were no analogies in my last post. Maybe you don't know the meaning of the word "analogy". (There were "examples" but no "analogies".)

And, the bottom line is still as I said in the last post - "Q" is a symbol that some people use to represent "requirement". It doesn't matter whether or not it's the first letter in the word. You can even say it's not an abbreviation, if you insist - but, it doesn't have to be an abbreviation.

P.s. - no analogies in this post either, but consider this - Christmas doesn't start with X either, but "xmas" is a common abbreviation for it. And, yes, I know all about "X" standing for the "cross", but that just proves my point.

Oh I'm sorry, I thought your "Pistons arranged in two angled banks forming a V pattern" doesn't start with "V" either" was a continuation of your BAD car analogy, my mistake... your examples were flawed, continue to be flawed as you fail at making new ones...

Yes, I understand your point about symbols, and yet I disagree with using a symbol in this point as an abbreviation performs the intended task (to clearly convey information, albeit in a shorter, more concise form) better than a random symbol.

But keep going, more examples where you cite something that proves your point, only to discover that your example proves the OPPOSITE of your point, they are amusing.

From wiki... while the "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as "Christ". Seriously, fail less, and go Google Chi Rho if you want more evidence of your faulty 'examples'.

So far we've had Fail Hard, Fail Hard 2 and now Fail Hard with a vengeance... maybe you'll get it right next time?

R is better than Q, Rq is better than Q and Req is better than Q, you haven't cited how Q serves better than R in this regard, unless we're to assume that someone, somewhere is stupid enough to assume weapons can earn PvP titles of their own.

Have fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_engine