Pull

Pull, pulling, etc. Generally used to refer to the act of starting combat, normally with the aim to single out one (or as few as possible) mob(s) from a group. When the pull target is a safe distance from all other mobs, it can be attacked and killed without aggroing the others.

Skilled pulling is an art form, in many cases success or failure of a battle are determined by the pull. The question which class should pull is hotly contested, and probably has no correct answer. The bottom line is that who pulls should be decided by player experience, group composition and the situation at hand. There are situations where Mages (or Priests) should pull with sheep (or shackle), sometimes it's more efficient if the tank pulls, sometimes a hunter or rogue offer the highest security.

Pulling techniques

Standard ranged pull

A standard and fast method of pulling is having the main tank do the job. For this type of pull the tank should move ahead, but not farther than 20 yards. This keeps him inside healer and totem range (if a shaman is in the group), and will put the mobs into effective range of the damage dealers after the pull. This is the most common form of pulling, and it offers several advantages:

• The tank gains initial aggro from all pulled mobs. This means they will all hit him first, helping to build rage
• Quick and easy to perform, no fancy manoeuvering or delays while people move to certain positions
• A warrior will use Taunt or a ranged weapon.
• A paladin will normally use [Avenger's Shield], but [Hand of Reckoning] and [Exorcism] also work.
• A druid will use Feral Faerie Fire or [Growl].
• A death knight will use [Icy Touch], [Death Grip], [Dark Command] or [Death Coil].

The disadvantages are:

• If the mob group contains ranged damage dealers, they will not by themselves move closer to the group to get killed (unless silenced by [Avenger's Shield] or moved directly by [Death Grip].
• CC and AoE effects are mutually exclusive - one can be applied, not both
• Low margin of error - if the pull goes wrong, a wipe is highly probable

In summary, this is a simple and fast method for pulling, but a rather risky one.

Safety pull

In some cases (particularly when several patrols meet in complex patterns) a high amount of safety is required. The puller should then move further ahead of the party, at least 30 yards. This gives him enough room to abort the pull if something went wrong. See Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety for a complete discussion.

Body pulling

Whenever a fight is started by a player moving into the aggro radius of a mob, this is called a body pull. In many cases, body pulls are not intentional. In situations where nothing can go wrong, warriors like to pull by charging the mob. This gives them a good amount of rage to start with. If there's more than one mob, they also will stay close together, minimizing problems with ranged damage dealers.

A more subtle form of the body pull makes use of the fact that for many mobs the range at which they will detect damage is larger than the range at which they will aggro. Thus, entering the aggro radius of one mob will aggro that one for sure. His friends though may stay behind if the first mob does not take damage, whereas they may join the fray if the pull is done with damage. Using non-damaging abilities like [Faerie Fire] also makes use of these different ranges.

This is the fastest method (except for a death knight Death Gripping a solo mob, which is faster still), and standard on a low-danger pull (such as most pulls in heroics). It is risky if additional packs are nearby.

Crowd-control pulling

In some situations, crowd control is the most important aspect of the fight, and the pull is conducted using some CC ability (like [Polymorph] or [Shackle Undead]). In such cases, the tank must immediately draw aggro from the puller. See Crowd Control for details.

LOS pull / Corner pull

When the mob group contains ranged damage dealers, very frequently the "round the corner" pull is used. After drawing aggro, the puller runs around a corner or behind some obstacle, so that the mobs can't see him any more. They will follow and thus come close enough for the party to attack them. In this situation it is imperative that the party keeps strict discipline and does nothing to aggro any mobs while they are still moving. While waiting for the mobs to reach him/her, it is also common that the tank lays down some kind of temporary AoE-effect (such as [Consecration] or Death and Decay) which will immediately generate more aggro on the mobs when they round the corner and step onto the AoE.

Be aware with any strategy that involves line of sight that healers need line of sight to their tanks to heal - if the healer is in the wrong place, the LOS pull can put the puller out of the healer's LOS too. This can easily be avoided with proper positioning - as long as the healer can see where the puller is pulling to (rather than where they are actually conducting the pull), there should be no poblem.

Split pull

This is a very advanced pulling method. It's difficult, but very well possible to split some mob groups with precisely timed [Feign Death]/ [Vanish]. This is achieved by having the hunter or rogue in question [Feign Death]/ [Vanish] when one part of the mob group is close enough to another player to aggro him, while the rest of the mobs are not yet close enough, and thus returns to their original positions. Some highly artificial forms of split pulling have been declared bannable offense by Blizzard, but in the meantime most of these methods have been made impossible by patches. The standard form (as described here) is not bannable under any circumstances.

Hunters

If there is a class designed for the pulling job, it's the Hunter class. Tracking helps a lot when evaluating patrol patterns, Hunters have ranged instant pulls, they can integrate CC into the pull (with their traps), they can transfer aggro with [Misdirection], and can easily abort with [Feign Death]. An experienced Hunter pulling is a great asset for every group, especially in complex situations. Since good pulling is an ability which requires lots of practise, it is a good idea to let the hunter do most of the pulling, even if this makes things a little slower sometimes (when misdirection is on CD and the tank needs a little extra effort to transfer aggro).