Why do people still single target mobs when there are 3 or more?

[Moonleg]

The faster one or two mobs in the group get killed, the sooner it may be safe for the healer to join in with DPS.

[MihaelB]

The faster one or two mobs in the group get killed, the sooner it may be safe for the healer to join in with DPS.

I'd be interested if this is actually more efficient or not. AOE attacks by a DPS I'd imagine would outweigh a healer in cleric stance considering the potential need for switch backs/ negative trait removals.

[Moonleg]

Freeing up a WHM to do Cleric Stance -> Assize -> Holy -> Holy -> Holy -> Out of Cleric Stance to start healing again is going to outweigh the difference in DPS single-target and AoE pretty heavily.

[ruskie]

Dot 3, spam rain of death procs, reapply dots - just to easy to do as bard, maybe throw quick knock in there as well - but that generally only if 4+ targets - otherwise not really TP efficient. On monk rockbreaker all teh things...

[StrejdaTom]

Last time I multidotted in Dzamael as a BRD, tank let me take the agro, healer didn't heal me and then they laughed.
So here is your answer. )

[AskaRay]

Last time I multidotted in Dzamael as a BRD, tank let me take the agro, healer didn't heal me and then they laughed.
So here is your answer. )

Even after Quelling?

Shoulda punched them in the nads.

[StrejdaTom]

Even after Quelling?

Shoulda punched them in the nads.

Quelling doesn't help you if tank marks one mob as 1 and doesn't care about other 2. For me mark 1 means main target, but definitely not single target.

[Shurrikhan]

and a DRG should never, under any circumstance ever use Ring of Thorns if they AOE.

A proc'ed Ring of Thorns following Heavy Thrust, when leading ST rotational alignment and BotD needs by 1 GCD, would beg to differ, even if this means losing 17 potency on the HT reapplication... In a true AoE spam, all the more so. Saving 40 TP is worth the one GCD per 24s.

@OP

The AoE dps of too many jobs just don't really see noticable gains compared to Single-target to warrant the tank/healer burden diminishing slower. Killing 1, reducing raid damage taken by a ~third (and then another for half), allowing the tank to drop tank stance and/or healer to throw in more filler damage / perfect DoT uptime, can often have quicker clear times. In intense cases, it can also allow the tank and/or healer to save CDs. (Note, this is rarely the case or at least rarely a requirement, as most CDs needs can simply be made up for by healers healing a higher percentage of the time / lost raid DPS elsewhere...) Many will multi-DoT (in a casual pull if the Bard doesn't multi-DoT after acquiring the River of Blood trait, that's nearly a licence to kick), but true AoE spamming when TP reserves would clearly run out before the mob group even hits half health is rarely worth it at 3 mobs.

[Tinibou]

Until now, as a DRG I was never using Ring of Thornes because it dealt too low damage and it's too complicated to make it deal decent damage when in the middle of a big pack of mobs (target one mob of the pack, align correctly, first skill then proc'ed AOE... and repeat). But recently, I noticed that with my current stuff, I was doing a lot of critical hits with that skill so now, I'm using it sometimes. Only sometimes, most of the time I stick with my rotation and single-target mobs. That's still far more efficient.

[ElHeggunte]

Depends. It's not always worth melee dps slipping into an AoE rotation when it's only three mobs. It's very TP inefficient and in my experience, tends to go slower than if you just burned them down normally one at a time. If there's a troublesome priority target among them I'll focus that down single-target too no matter how many more mobs are present.

I'd be interested if this is actually more efficient or not. AOE attacks by a DPS I'd imagine would outweigh a healer in cleric stance considering the potential need for switch backs/ negative trait removals.

As my Monk, my "AoE Rotation" is only shoehorning Rockbreaker into my rotation and that's pretty lackluster for the amount of TP is costs, especially on only three targets.