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

[Noshpan]

When it comes to certain DPS roles "The spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised."

It seems that certain folks don't realize (or more accurately, care) that certain DPS are not ideally suited to AOE zerg-fests. And, frankly, on 3 or less mobs, I'm not going to blow through my TP, plus my Invigorate, just because you're Crendor's GOGOGO Shaman. Want DPS that can AOE burn through 2+ packs, pray you get a class more efficiently suited to it.

In fact, I've only encountered ONE tank, ONE FREAKING AWESOME TANK, who realized that they were in a group with a MNK & DRG for dps and adjusted tactics accordingly. Most others would complain about it taking too long.

[Pluvia]

http://dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/...as-ninja-guide
there all the math you need for ninja aoe and how terrible it is

[aesteval]

Someone please explain to me why, i really don't understand.

3 mobs is an insufficient quantity of mobs to make burning through TP for AoE moves efficient. Go figure...some classes / jobs are intended to be single target damage dealers and aren't as effective with AoE. That said, give me Blood Bath and Ring of Thorns on 8+ mobs any day. At that point the damage being done will actually be worth it. However, I'm still going to run out of TP very fast.

[StouterTaru]

Because SE gave BLM a bad assed set of solo target skill and weaken BLM's AOE skills back in 3.0

BLM AoE is still more dps than single target on 3 mobs, by quite a bit.

[Pomelo]

Monk AoE is really good so it annoys me when people don't do it as a Monk. You don't have to use arm of the destroyer, just keep dk and twin snakes up, rockbreaker on the 3rd attack, weave your buffs and OCD's, you have two tp regaining skills as well...

Crit Rockbreaker, Elixir Field, and Howling Fist is really good damage <3

[Ykronix]

Considering the refresh rate of Elixir Field, Blood for Blood and Internal Release, I don't mind AoEing whenever available, even on three mobs. Two full AoE rotations then back to single targeting and the mobs should be pretty close to gone even before popping Invigorate. The only time I don't bother is if its a mob before a boss fight, otherwise there's no real benefit to not using it, as the time between mobs is usually long enough for the TP to regenerate and most cooldowns.

[Malzian]

Let us also not forget that, while it's not typically true on every single pull, there are pulls where there is a single mob that is the main cause of damage to the tank while the rest are much more minimal. Killing that mob faster means increasing tank survivability thus taking stress off of the healers which then may also allow the healer to DPS more on the remaining mobs and increase the rate at which the pull can be downed. Alternately, you can try and quick burn the smaller adds if they have low HP values and are quick kills leaving you to deal with that singular mob in a much more controlled manner.

Really, the thing to remember is that not every pull is the same and needs to be handled the same way. While a majority of trash pulls can be burned through quickly with decent AoE, the real key to progressing through any content quickly is adapting to the situation at hand with the party composition you currently have, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of these particular jobs/classes at hand and aligning your tactics to best suit the composition you're working with.

[Alistaire]

Someone please explain to me why, i really don't understand.

Because they're bad. Or out of tp, which if they're not, they're bad thinking it's important for some reason to stay @ 900 ish.

[Waeksyn]

Wanderer's Minuet has really helped BRD for AOE. WM keeps the damage up while the cast time provides more time for TP regeneration. Coupled with Invigorate, I can usually handle any trash mob pulls through to the next boss, only going single target if I get down too low. Even when on single target, I will usually use Rain of Death instead of Bloodletter when it procs if there are 2 or more mobs still up.

I use Quick Nock over Wide Volley most of the time, except for chaotic times when the grouping of mobs sucks. 140 TP vs 160 for the same dmg. I keep my target on whatever has lowest health unless that screws up the pattern for the conal AOE. I use key single target skills when they are available, weaving around the AOEs.

I will often AOE at even 2 mobs left. 110 dmg Quick Nock (or Wide Volly) AOE for 2 mobs = 220 total, versus 150 for a Heavy Shot. Can't argue about 46% increase in overall damage.

[SpookyGhost]

http://dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/...as-ninja-guide
there all the math you need for ninja aoe and how terrible it is

Conclusion: AoE spam is better on 4+ mobs if TP is not an issue. Once you hit 0 TP from AoE spam, if there are still 7+ mobs, continue to AoE. If there are less than 7 mobs, it's better to rotate DoTs on targets & single target.

So NIN's AOE is the worst in the game, yet still better than single target @ 4+ mobs.

Also @ the idea that single targeting allows the healer to DPS more: It doesn't. If there are only 3 mobs, the healer won't even be healing. If there are enough for the healer to AOE then you're going to gain more group DPS by AOEing and letting the healer DPS whenever they're able to.