Even a veteran player can screw up sometimes.

[Jester Joe]

I don't even trust pet pathing. Blizzard supposedly "fixed" it a while ago by having your pet dismiss itself or teleport to your location if you jump from certain heights, but it doesn't always happen consistently.

Since BC I always dismissed my pet, even if it's a DPS loss during an encounter. I would rather be be lower on the meters than wipe the group.

This is the real issue in my opinion.

Sometimes pets will path right into a mob and nothing will happen, other times it pulls.

It's just confusing and makes no sense.

I mean, shadowmoon burial grounds is a good example, I did it with WoD time walking and never dismissed it yet it never pulled more, even after jumping down near the start

[Jargathnan]

That cuts both ways though, dude.

New and experienced-but-overconfident-or-just-stupid, or worst of all, totally impatient DPS will often engage shit when a LOS pull makes perfect sense. This is particularly bad if you're leveling, and playing a tank class that isn't one of the stronger ones (Monk pre-78, for example, especially at the lower levels).

This can leave mobs all over the place and even give the healer a heart attack, depending on what exactly happens, where the LOS pull would have very neatly stacked the mobs for AOE.

I do take your general point though - it can be pretty funny to see what some tanks insist on.

Absolutely true. My point wasn’t that DPS are infallible. Just that I have frequently seen inexperienced, or slow in general, tanks do this type of pulling in all walks of the game, even when it’s entirely unnecessary. And that, if I was in the OP’s shoes, I wouldn’t have accidentally taunted, but purposefully, if it meant keeping the ball rolling efficiently.

Without knowing the facts, I can’t comment on whether the OP was in a situation where an LOS pull was best or not. If they were, then shame on the other DPS that rushed the pull.

[unbound]

I just said out loud, "Fuck, dude..." I've been around since November of 2006 and I played like a newbie. I've never been a hardcore raider or even gotten that far into any recent expansion, but I'm usually better than that.

Er, unless you haven't played a class with a pet before, it is rather astounding for you to not know about pet pathing issues. It has been a bit of an issue for the entire life of the game for any pet class jumping down. Heck, it was one of the ways to wipe a group in Gnomeregan starting with Cata jumping down to Viscous Fallout as your pet dragged dozens of mobs to the group.

Even worse, in WoD most noticeably, the pet pathing early in Iron Docks was completely wonky (looked like the pet would run for no reason, pick up a few mobs, and drag them back to the party...entirely due to some invisible barrier affecting only the pet just before the first boss).

[Alvito]

I just said out loud, "Fuck, dude..." I've been around since November of 2006 and I played like a newbie. I've never been a hardcore raider or even gotten that far into any recent expansion, but I'm usually better than that.

TLDR version/Final Thought: Nobody is perfect. It might be a new player, or some people may be trying out a new role or a new class- in my case, a warlock. Within reason (obviously there's a point where you need to be prepared), try to teach. Rather than resort to insults, help them. You might be nurturing the mythic raider of tomorrow and you'll never know it. You might be helping a veteran player find a new path in the game. You never know.

People shouldn't be mean and it can be nice if they offer up advice, it certainly isn't there job to do so though and it shouldn't be expected. Even if you are trying a new spec/class if you have been playing as long as you have than pet aggro/pathing should be common knowledge. Since you did it twice people are going to assume you are trolling the group. Another issue with people giving advice is they get shit on for doing it a lot. Sometimes it is because they don't do it well or it might come off as an insult or elitist. Just as some don't want to have to or be expected to coach and council people others don't want to be told what to do or are convinced they are doing it correctly. One thing everybody should expect in pugs is anything to happen. When you let a game group you up with random people, random things will occur.

- - - Updated - - -

This is the real issue in my opinion.

Sometimes pets will path right into a mob and nothing will happen, other times it pulls.

It's just confusing and makes no sense.

I mean, shadowmoon burial grounds is a good example, I did it with WoD time walking and never dismissed it yet it never pulled more, even after jumping down near the start

A big factor in the pet just zipping by safely or not is if the character performs any actions while the pet is zooming to them. Even some passive things like a heal aura or something like that will trigger combat. How pets work is a constant issue though, one they doubled down with Hati for BM in Legion too.

[Lochton]

I've had plenty of bad dungeon runs in my nearly 13 years of playing WoW, but yesterday I realized just how much I don't know about this game.

I caused two wipes in a row in Maraudon... As I was informed, when you jump from the waterfall or any long distance, your pet doesn't exactly follow you. It paths back and will pull anything it aggroes with it- in my case, everything. First wipe, the tank just said, "Your fucking pet." to which I was incredibly confused- my imp was out and it didn't have a taunt or anything of the sort.

It happened again, still no explanation why. Group is pissed and bails on me. After some /r prodding and an apology the tank finally explains what happened. We have a short but civil and polite conversation about it, but I still feel like a moron...

I just said out loud, "Fuck, dude..." I've been around since November of 2006 and I played like a newbie. I've never been a hardcore raider or even gotten that far into any recent expansion, but I'm usually better than that.

TLDR version/Final Thought: Nobody is perfect. It might be a new player, or some people may be trying out a new role or a new class- in my case, a warlock. Within reason (obviously there's a point where you need to be prepared), try to teach. Rather than resort to insults, help them. You might be nurturing the mythic raider of tomorrow and you'll never know it. You might be helping a veteran player find a new path in the game. You never know.

Oh, don't worry. I've seen this happen thousands of times. You laugh and carry on (unless it happens more than 3 times).

[Texan Penguin]

Er, unless you haven't played a class with a pet before, it is rather astounding for you to not know about pet pathing issues. It has been a bit of an issue for the entire life of the game for any pet class jumping down. Heck, it was one of the ways to wipe a group in Gnomeregan starting with Cata jumping down to Viscous Fallout as your pet dragged dozens of mobs to the group.

Even worse, in WoD most noticeably, the pet pathing early in Iron Docks was completely wonky (looked like the pet would run for no reason, pick up a few mobs, and drag them back to the party...entirely due to some invisible barrier affecting only the pet just before the first boss).

I have dabbled with a hunter before, but this is honestly the first time I have experienced the pet pathing issue because the few times I ran Gnomeregan/Mara were with non-pet classes.

[cparle87]

Something tells me you skipped WoD (cant blame you), or at least didnt enter Shadowmoon Burial Grounds with character that has pets.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. I actually made a macro that I would hit several times at the beginning of the dungeon if I saw a pet class. It amused me to no end when hunters and warlocks would rage at me that they knew what to do, only to forget to do it anyway.

[salate]

There are alotta stuff like dis will happen, the difference between good and bad player is to understand and accept mistakes.
As a hunter I always jumped down to the water without any problem (to Hyrdas, right?), did Mara back in the days... quite often.

You're not really a veteran if you're playing a class you've never played before. You're a semi-noob.

I dunno, if he plays 15 years he's somewhat veteran of this game (by gametime), but well, If I dont play a warlock and dont know anything bout warlocks but sit on warrior for 15 years straight, doest it make me a noob? In a way yes, but it doesnt change the fact I've been playing wow for 15 years and know every little gossip in barrens chat and did alotta a-jokes in trade, veteran by game time is a thing I guess

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

This has been true since Vanilla, I don't know how you weren't aware?

[Lollis]

Shit happens, sometimes you just forget (and sometimes pets teleport with you) other times the pet doesn't get dismissed properly.

[ID811717]

I caused two wipes in a row in Maraudon... As I was informed, when you jump from the waterfall or any long distance, your pet doesn't exactly follow you. It paths back and will pull anything it aggroes with it- in my case, everything.

Your pet won't behave in this way if you jump while being mounted up. Not exactly applicable to Classic Beta (not even sure it worked that way in Classic tbh). But you quickly learn to remember that if you play with pet classes in M+.

[MatadorMedia]

Yeah, you always dismiss pets before jumping. But in this case you could have just activated Phase Shift on your Imp and he wouldn't pull even if he runs around all crazy.

[WurstKaeseSzenario]

Two things I've learned as Frostmage and why I'm thankful for Lonely Winter.
1. Have to resummon pet if it gets further away than 50ish meters while trying to find a route.
2. Everything it aggroed before despawning will still be aggroed.

No idea if those are still true, and no interest in playing with an elemental because I assume the AI is still as bugged and useless as it always has been.

[WintersLegion]

for me that happened leveling my hunter in Wailing Cavern in Cata.

[Ange]

Sadly I did a lot of maraudon runs (GOLD RUNS IN VANILLA, 500+) and know every pathing bug, pet spots to stay to keep the boss kiting/DPS maximized etc. but I would still jump carelessly with my pet down any ramp.

Pet AI is so random, what your hunter pet does, is not the same what your WL or DK pet does. Sometimes I just dont care anymore and if a groups choice is to ignore pet classes in the group and force multiple PetDimiss() for no reason, I might just "forget" to dismiss my pet sometimes.

I was multiclassing since vanilla, so range/melee/heal/tank was never a big unknown for me and I had no major fails with ingame or class mechanics.
But I liked to make my gaming easier with macros, macros I used for PvP and PvE and sometimes I put here and there a random taunt ability inside a macro and I forgot about that till I found myself in groups/raids with never seen aggro issues. :>

[WintersLegion]

To this day I still don't know why it happened but during Cata was doing Zul'aman and we were at the dragonhawk boss but weren't ready to pull I was standing with everyone else didn't even have the boss targeted when all of a sudden my pet just runs in and starts attacking the boss.

[prwraith]

I can top that. I was once kicked from a group as a hunter because my pet back pulled.

I was running the lone wolf talent >.<

[Zafire]

Note that I spend most of my time in WoW doing BGs.

I was playing a Warlock in a WoD dungeon. This tank was not holding agro for shit. I was even giving him several seconds before I would start using my DoT's after he pulled. He started getting grumpy and telling me to wait, at which point I told him I was, and that he should use Consecration more. He was wearing heirlooms and everything, couldn't really understand it. I started waiting FIVE SECONDS after he'd pull because it was just that bad. At one point all five of his enemies switched agro to me, and I used Howl of Terror because it's kind of an instinctual impulse. It wiped the group due to the feared enemies pulling other enemies. The group then kicked me. I should've just let them kill me, it was my bad, but still. >.>

I'm glad you had a mostly positive experience with people taking the time to explain to you.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

A pretty small scale issue, but still should help serve as a sobering moment for any player out there.
You can always get better.
Everyone.

You should thirst for improving, at a pace that is right for you, every day you wake up.
This is the #1 thing I have learned and loved from my years in WoW, that there is always a sobering moment waiting around every corner and there is ALWAYS another way you can improve.

Seek these things out and learn from them.
This experience will reward you IRL as much as it does in game.

[hulkgor]

Yea, i wouldn't call myself a 'veteran player' if playing for so long you don't know how pets behave in the game.

Even if you didn't play a pet class, you most certainly played alongside a hunter or warlock before, and this is a very, very typical issue when dealing with jumps and skips, ever since vanilla.

That said, who cares if you caused a wipe. shit happens, move on, apologize to the party if you feel it's warranted.