Minecraft wiki entry for Things_not_to_do, associated text: This is important for people who are purposely hunting for ender pearls. Fire Aspect casts the enderman on fire and make it teleport repeatedly, which means the player might never see that enderman ever again. Also, do not fight them near water, lava, or fire. This makes it easier for them to get distracted and teleport away, as all of those things make endermen teleport away. On the other hand, if the player does not want to fight an enderman and they've accidentally looked at it, they could go into water or rain, or use Fire Aspect on it.