Why do non-caster DPS do this...?

The enemy is almost dead!

Everyone switches to the thing with way more health and LET'S THE ALMOST DEAD THING LIVE.

I don't get it. If you've got a cast time, okay, that I understand. Don't want your long cast times going to waste. Got it. On that page.

SO WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE'S EXCUSE.

This is one of those "bothers me more than it probably should" sort of things that makes no sense to me.

Switches?

You mean there's more than one target and people aren't AoEing?

Wut

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Switches?

You mean there's more than one target and people aren't AoEing?

Wut

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Also yes...

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Switches?

You mean there's more than one target and people aren't AoEing?

Wut

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Means people switch before the first target dies. Makes sense on caster since you could sit there casting and have your cast go to waste because the target dies before it goes off. But melee don't really have to deal with that yet still switch (perhaps to not clip their gcd but it's dumb if said target doesn't die). True thing.

Well umm... I caught myself doing that when leveling melee simply because it is a habit by now. :X

Technically it's not an issue though, the mob dies in the passive AoE of tanks and healers anyway.

I am not wasting my Midare Setsugekka, my Tsubame, or my 3 meditation stack Shoha on an add with less than 10% health left.

I've done this before. When an AOE group is down to two mobs and one is losing health fast and dropping to 5%. My thought process at the time was "ok this thing is going to be dead before my instant attack leaves the buffer queue, so I'll switch to single target rotation on the one remaining mob to be more efficient since 90% of the attack would be wasted anyways". Especially true if there are jobs in the party with dots.

And then after the fact you realize every other player had the same thought. Doh.

Maybe to make optimal use of dots?

Because of skills like

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Delivers an attack to target and all enemies nearby it with a potency of 600 for the first enemy, and 50% less for all remaining enemies.

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I miss aero 3.

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Switches?

You mean there's more than one target and people aren't AoEing?

Wut

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You never did stumble on one of these tanks who keeps mobs so far from each other that you are indeed better be single targeting rather than aoeing ? XD

I usually switch targets cause usually a skill in my rotation has AOE damage attached to it(Foul/Bioblaster/Auto Crossbow) and I know it'll die to that.

In some situations (like a boss fight), it might be wiser to switch to the adds with full (but still has lower hp) than the nearly dead (but still has higher HP). And sometimes you just want to kill something ASAP, so single target might be preferable to AOE.

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Switches?

You mean there's more than one target and people aren't AoEing?

Wut

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Some classes don't get their AoE abilities until the mid-30s. Some classes need at least three targets for their AoEs to be cost effective (this depends on level too). Sometimes the targets need to be kept apart so AoEs can't be used.

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Originally Posted by tdb

Some classes don't get their AoE abilities until the mid-30s. Some classes need at least three targets for their AoEs to be cost effective (this depends on level too). Sometimes the targets need to be kept apart so AoEs can't be used.

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Or some jobs have AoE that still needs a target. If target dies, you just sit there with the Invalid Target message.

Dots normally can kill the enemie once it reachs 5% so I'll switch to another so I can fully focus on it if it has Dots on it.

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Originally Posted by MoofiaBossVal

I am not wasting my Midare Setsugekka, my Tsubame, or my 3 meditation stack Shoha on an add with less than 10% health left.

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Pretty much this for me as well. If I know the other DPS in the party has better AoE than I do and the tank is likely to continue AoEing, or there's a DoT on the almost dead enemy, or there's a WHM who is Holy casting. I've been running a lot of SAM recently and I'm not going to blow my cooldowns on something that's going to die in seconds from what the other party members are doing better than I can anyway.

And yet I will sit there and watch the almost dead thing die last most times.

Because I'm not wasting my Life surge'd FT on a mob with sub 5% hp, start whacking that mob tanks.

Killing enemies is a DPS loss

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Originally Posted by EaMett

Means people switch before the first target dies. Makes sense on caster since you could sit there casting and have your cast go to waste because the target dies before it goes off. But melee don't really have to deal with that yet still switch (perhaps to not clip their gcd but it's dumb if said target doesn't die). True thing.

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Usually because they have a big hitting GCD that will do more damage than the mob has HP. So it's better to put that extra damage on something else instead of it going to waste. That, plus if it dies before their animation registers, it'll cancel.

Prime example of "Bystander Syndrome" aka someone else will do it. I (job in question) don't want to waste MY big number on something that will die to a lesser ability.

muh parrrsseeee

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Originally Posted by Malmstrom

The enemy is almost dead!

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I asked my 14 kid, his reply:
It is because my deeeps will show low numbers if I hit 500 with my 2500 skill! After all, someone else will kill that, right? If it doesn't, I just can blame someone else for not AOE-ing so I'm safe.

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Originally Posted by MoofiaBossVal

I am not wasting my Midare Setsugekka, my Tsubame, or my 3 meditation stack Shoha on an add with less than 10% health left.

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Same, more or less xD And then once I use up my stronger procs on a higher HP enemy, I go back to the lower hp enemy and take it down with a couple of normal shots.

Depends on a lot. Switching is more about not wasting actions.
If you are doing AoE on a higher hp mob, it is less likely the mob will die on you and waste an action. Many AoE do more damage to their primary target.
If the mob group is about done, it might be better dps to hit with single target. Typically 3 or more targets = AoE. 1 or 2 = single target. (Ymmv depending on job/ability)
Also also, DoTs, non gcd abilities or tank hate AoE can easily finish off stragglers.

Its just a matter of efficieny and using your brain, especially if you have aoe heavy dos in group and one that is not aoe heavy, but single target heavy and due to that alot more efficient against that to bring down targets with high health quick down to low health so that everything with low health can then be cleaved to death by aoes


Its just the smarter way of playing, unless the low health target is top priority to kill asap
Smart players do always use their most potent attacks against targets that have high health, because using them against targets eith like 5-10% left would be wasted potency

As a machinist you will quickly learn to constantly switch your targets and between priorizi g single target rotation over using aoes, because you are more effective with single target skills, if there are less than 4 targets sniping one down after another, than to use aoes that are weaker and when you know, the aoes of say for example the dancer in the group will kill anyways near desd targets, so its better for you to focus then on high health targets

Honestly my only issue is consistency lmfao. As a caster I feel like I can't trust my team to not shank the enemy before I can blast it to giblets, so I switch. But when I switch, they switch... and then when I switch back, they switch back. It's like when you try to pass someone and you both shift in the same direction, then shift back.

All that said, personally I'd like the ability to be able to attack a corpse with the cast I was aiming at them when they were very recently not-corpse. Think feathers from Weapon's Refrain; they were nice like that. A lot of casters get goodies for landing casts, like Dualcast or a refresh on Astral Fire.

As a melee DPS myself, the only time I ever do this is during low level dungeons, where I don't even have Doom Spike yet.

It's because I hate the idea of one enemy being "ignored."

Let's say you have a mob of, say, 5 enemies. When spamming AoE, they would all go down around the same time, or close to it. But when nobody has AoE, their HP is all over the place - 20%, 1%, 90%, 50%, etc. I want to replicate that dungeon flow that occurs with constant AoE. I try to equalize their health. I go for the one who has 90% health.

Sue me.

Because as Bard, it takes approx 6 seconds to apply DoTs on a target. The server tick is at 3 seconds. To get the most effective use on Shadowbite OR Sidewinder, I'm gonna need to go to a mob with higher health

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Originally Posted by Selova

Because I'm not wasting my Life surge'd FT on a mob with sub 5% hp, start whacking that mob tanks.

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This.

And I say this as a tank.

Seriously, don't waste your spike damage on a mob with a sliver of health left. Let the tank finish it off.

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Originally Posted by Reinha

Because of skills like

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This, but how many jobs actually have that that aren't casters or whm? Also dunno why my quote cut half your post off, unintentional x

Because every time a Caster DPS uses an LB3 on a single target boss, I vow to switch targets when one is nearly dead.

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Originally Posted by Malmstrom

Don't want your long cast times going to waste.

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That's one of the specific reasons why I switch targets: so that I don't kill it while the caster is mid-spell and waste their time.
Also mentioned are things like using stronger abilities where they won't be wasted... I'm not going to use a Finish on a trash mob that's at 5% HP, that's just wasteful and slowing us down.

It's about efficiency.

Unless the tank is in immediate danger of dying there's no reason to stress what will die anyway in a couple more GCDs of AoE.

I'll usually switch to a higher health target for heavy hitters like Midare and then switch back if the low health target didn't already die. No point in over killing one mob when a Hakaze will do the job 2 seconds later. This only happens when there's two targets, though. 3 or more means AoE.