Ok, but what is a "pull"?
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Ok, but what is a "pull"?
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There's a big spawn ahead of the team, attacking it head-on may cause losses in the team.
Someone with a taunt or ranged attack goes a little ahead of the group and taunts/shoots a single or a small number of enemies. If the pull succeeds, only a few enemies will follow the puller away from the otherwise way too powerful spawn.
The few enemies that followed back are easily decimated by the team.
In other words... Divide and conquer!
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In general Pulling is done by aggroing a mob, with a ranged attack or by proximity, then breaking line of sight so that the mob leaves where it is and comes to you.
Pulling can be used to move a spawn from a bad place to fight it, like right next to another spawn or on a narrow bridge.
Pulling can be used to make mobs bunch up by making them come around a corner. This makes AE Debuffs and Damage more effective.
Pulling can be used to move mobs into areas that have been prepared for a fight with Location based powers like Tripmines, Caltrops or Tarpits.
I think something many people, myself included at times, forget is that many CoH/V players are first time MMO players and simply saying Lets Pull doesnt really give any information about what is going to happen.
If you want people to understand you then you need to say things to them in a way that gives them enough information to get your meaning.
Regards, Screwloose.
I am not young enough to know everything.
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The OP's suggestion of using humor is a good one. I think my favorite groups have been where each player tries to "one-up" the others. We quickly no longer care about XP, and care more about Comi-D.
When playing lower level characters with newbies, I usually try to set up a series of macros to explain important things to Pick-up groups, like how some of my powers work, or some suggested strategies. I bury these in higher level power bars, so I only pull them out when needed before the mission or during a brief break in the fighting. It seems to work pretty well.
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I think something many people, myself included at times, forget is that many CoH/V players are first time MMO players and simply saying Lets Pull doesnt really give any information about what is going to happen.
If you want people to understand you then you need to say things to them in a way that gives them enough information to get your meaning.
Regards, Screwloose.
I am not young enough to know everything.
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I would point out that in my original post I specified that I was referring specifically to when straight-forward explanations don't work. On many occassions, I have explained pulling to people- in much the same words you used here- only to have it apparently go in one ear and out the other. I'm generally patient with people (I explained to one guy who is Quebecois and only had a mediocre grasp of English how to change the chat channed he was speaking on...it took almost 10 minutes for him to understand what I meant by "the tiny buttons above where you enter text"...). I've just found that the humor route seems to really "take"- I've seen people pick up the pulling concept much, much faster by the "I'm bringing takeout!" method than by the "pulling is a process wherein..." route.
Life - a sexually transmitted terminal condition.
It has occurred to me that a lot of players get confused in game when you tell them you're pulling a "mob." It took me a few mishes to realize that meant one guy, not a "mob." I think the terminology is a little misleading.
Agreed- it is not a term I use in-game, but I do use here in the forums. I usually say "bad guys".
Life - a sexually transmitted terminal condition.
Ah yes, MOB (short for mobile), the old holdover from MUD terminology. I try not to use it in game but sometimes do.
I sometimes have to remind people of Rule 1 of Pulling: No pulling with AoEs. Though in the past I was a fan of the Irradiate "pull" with my defender, dunno how I managed to survive as many of those as I did.
That's funny because just two nights ago I was playing with a defender who face-planted twice in five minutes doing the exact same thing. Finally, I convinced him to let my tank pull with Taunt. My health bar gotten beaten to to about half, which was a lot better than face planting. He let me pull for the rest of the mission.
Life - a sexually transmitted terminal condition.
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I usually say "bad guys"
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I say "baddies"
If that is even a word.
I'll patent that!! 
I wanted to start this thread for the simple reason that I haven't seen one devoted specifically for this situation:
Let's say you're in a group and there are one or more players who simply don't know how to play their AT and apparently don't care to learn- even though their actions indirectly lead to team deaths or even wipes. Say you don't want to kick the person for whatever reason: you like their toon, they say lots of funny things, you're trying to keep the rest of the team happy, whatever...
Since I don't schedule my play times (I can't- I share my computer), I quite often do PUGs and have found at least ONE way of manipulating bad players into being...well, better.
Since I would estimate that 95% of COH players apparently do not understand how to do pulls- nor can they extrapolate what a pull entails from the common definition of the word (to draw something towards you), that's the piece I will cover. Too often in the past, I have told people I'll pull, then I pull, and then they immediately rush towards the mobs thereby negating the pull. A not small segment of the gaming population apparently think pulling means to rush into the heart of enemy mobs. Again, I wonder at their ability to interprete the meaning of "pull", but that's neither here nor there.
The handy little tool I have discovered in the past few days is this: humor and fun! Basically, I've said to my team: "Hey guys, wait here! I'm bringing take out!" Generally, they're curious enough to actually do what I say, I go within Taunt range, pull a chunk of mobs and then run back, and my team goes to town on a managable sized group. The difference in actual results I have gotten as opposed to simply trying to explain what the rest of the team should do when a pull happens is extraordinary. I like to keep the joke going- the next group I pull, I'll run back saying "Dinner!". My team responds with smileys and "gee I'm stuffed".
But the important thing is, they don't ruin the pull...
Life - a sexually transmitted terminal condition.