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

[alimdia]

A lot of the answers here make me cry.

[FoxyAreku]

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

Fire 2 does more damage than any of your single target spells when it is hitting 3+ enemies. ;p

[tymora]

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.

In which case (party setup), the tank should be making small pulls and be in dps mode.

[Celaine]

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

Because I pay attention to the tank. If I only see one Flash? If I see he is only focusing on one mob after a single Unleash? I know damned well that even with Quelling on, I will get in maybe two AOE attacks on bard or black before I rip hate on everything but the tank's main target. And frankly any tank that is that tunnel visioned about holding hate isn't going to be arsed to pull things off me. Thanks but no thanks.

[Kahnom]

Whenever I play Mnk or Goon,I always AOE if there are at least 3 mobs but I agree that Nin should not AOE unless there are at least 4 mobs.

[Alahra]

As others have noted, AoE on 3 targets is often somewhat inefficient for melee (less so for MNK) due to high TP costs, even if the potency per second is higher.

If the tank is doing large pulls at other sections in the dungeon, but we're on one of the forced smaller pulls, I'll usually only AoE until about half TP (plus using skills that don't cost TP, like Doton/Katon/Elixir Field/Howling Fist) on smaller groups, so that I can start the next pull at full TP with Invigorate, to maximize DPS for the larger pull.

[Akuryu]

3 mobs? I don't really care what the DPS does. The only way I'm pulling only 3 mobs is if the dungeon layout forces it. That changes at 5+ mobs. Nothing annoys me more than when I pull 2 or 3 groups together, then spot that DRG sitting on 90% TP, calmly going through his single-target rotation on one of them. I immediately know this is going to be a slow dungeon.

[Deathcharge]

3 mobs? I don't really care what the DPS does. The only way I'm pulling only 3 mobs is if the dungeon layout forces it. That changes at 5+ mobs. Nothing annoys me more than when I pull 2 or 3 groups together, then spot that DRG sitting on 90% TP, calmly going through his single-target rotation on one of them. I immediately know this is going to be a slow dungeon.

I was going to type the same thing. I mean when was the last time ANY tank pulled just 3 mobs at a time?

[Kai_Serenity]

ill aoe from 4 + even on mele groups will melt with mele aoe if done correctly if you think its slow and pointless ya just gotta get good

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

No physical job in game really has abilities suited for aoe unless you pull ten mobs or so, especially with the higher mob HP. Bard can multi dot and use aoe procs and machinist can also multi dot and drop a Bishop but otherwise the only GOOD aoe in this game comes from mage types.