Pull (WoW)  

A pull refers to the opening act of combat when mobs are pulled from their location to the character or group. Not all fights start with a pull, but it can be very helpful in instances and in certain crowded areas. The point of a pull is to move mobs, and therefore the fight itself, to a safer location away from other mobs. This is extremely useful when you are fighting mobs that run when they get low on health. If you pull those mobs away from surrounding ones, you have more time to kill it before it goes and gets its friends.

Pulling is done by a class with a ranged ability. In instances, the tank will often pull simply so that they have the initial aggro of all of the mobs that will be pulled. In instances mobs are almost always linked so this gives the rest of the party time to apply Crowd Control without having to worry about the mob beating on them. At level 70 hunters get a spell called Misdirection that makes pulling and setting the aggro on the tank very easy.

While regular pulling is always done by a ranged class, there is a concept called body pulling that paladins, who have no innate ranged pulling ability (in general, Blood Elves can pull mobs with a mana bar), employ. What this refers to is the act of running up to a mob or group of mobs just to the point of aggro, gaining aggro (usually by judging a seal) and then backing up slowly to drag the mobs to a safer area. In most cases this isn't the ideal method but it can work well.

World of Warcraft Wikibase™