Clarification on Sophia EX; Infusion mechanic

If anyone hasn't seen Mr. Happys video or attempted Sophia EX yet, during her add phase, the Paladin uses Infusion which is a line based AoE that follows the target, getting hit by the AoE seems to apply the zombie debuff. Now this is where I'm looking for clarification, it seems those who watch Mr. Happy, believe that the entire group needs to stack in the AoE, while what I have encountered in every group I've been in, we let the targeted player get hit by the AoE while the rest stand behind the Paladin.

What is the way this mechanic is handled? It's seems to have caused some stir among some learning parties as what is the proper way to go about this?

The intended way is to stand inside the purple line, HOWEVER, failing such mechanics is not punishing enough to justify people to actually do it the intended way, that's why people been just sacrificing the player with it, since the said player will only get a zombification debuff for getting killed during the said phase, which will basically time out during somewhere in the middle where u get knocked back and forth.

The thing with some parties not doing the "soaking it up" method is because the infusion attack hits rather hard without any shields from healers and risk more than 1 person getting zombification, which in turn can cause those zombified players to attack eachother and ultimately get themselves knocked off the platform when the boss uses ult.


On the other side, not soaking it will only cause that one player to become zombie and attack 1 other party member, which that member can guide that zombie to a safe spot before the knocking around. Which will leave both of them unharmed in the end of the ult attack.

So my thoughts would be, if you're farming with pugs that can't put up a shield before the soak, just sacrifice 1 person instead. It's safer that way, and not a mechanic that will like wipe ur whole raid. Otherwise, go ahead and soak it up, but in the end of the day both works fine really.

My group chose to do the not soak, I mean it'd be stupid not to use an easier method that also works, right...? I mean dodging an aoe is like second nature for everyone now, easier to get used to that than soaking something plus having a healer to put a shield up.

All the progression pug teams I was in just let that one guy get zombified; easier for puggers to understand since AOE rectangle->pls avoid mindset compared to the T10 strat

My server/data center mechanic is, they didn't go inside AoE.