The "I was out of that!" I think is less of an excuse and more of a complaint against the software not recognizing player movement in the expected manner. Fights like Titan Ex are not tolerant of lag.

One trick that a FC mate taught me - and this goes along with your "growth" mindset - is that if you make a sharp right angle and run parallel to the landslide or WotL immediately after exiting the ground AOE area, it forces the server to update your position faster than if you keep running in a straight line. I don't know whether it's true or not, but I do know that if I have that half second to make the sharp turn, that meant I exited fast enough to escape the ground AOE.

The biggest flaw that the XIV community has is lack of communication. This really became evident in the number of times people have failed Steps of Faith. Some groups with good communication rolled in and beat it on the second or third try. Others took a dozen or more tries in Duty Finder to find a group capable of communicating properly. Having a growth mindset doesn't help you clear content when the other 7 people are in the fixed mindset and not able to understand your instructions....