What's with all these people single-targetting during big pulls in dungeons?

[RiceisNice]

I can tell you why I don't spam AoEs as a samurai: I would actually like to be able to attack. Fuga -> Mangetsu/Oka is a combo that flows pretty well, but it's such a massive drain on my TP for not nearly as effective damage l, because of falloff, as, say, my bard, who can just put up Mage's Balled, throw out some DoTs, and have unlimited Rain of Death. Now, of course I use Kyuten and Tenka Goken when available, but without a TP generating ability, just spamming my AoE combo means I last for about 20 seconds.

Trash packs designated to be AoE'd (and really mass pulls in general) shouldn't last longer than 20-40 seconds to begin with.

Or, as is the case with Samurai, your AoE combo just isn't that effective. The only two attacks that don't have damage falloff for samurai is Kyuten, which requires Kenki to use, and Fuga, which hits like a wet noodle.

Damage fallout isn't a good argument for poor aoe dps since most classes deal with that anyway (and in the case of BRD, RoD refresh is limited to 30 seconds via ballad). You also shouldn't have shifu up for samurai AoE either. That aside, SAM AoE is pretty solid for a full minute provided you don't use shifu and have invigorate. Anecdotal, but I frequently surpass BLMs and BRDs in AoE during the period where I can, only time where I start to fall behind is due to TP sustain. BRD's rain of death spam is only really accessible for 30 seconds during ballad, and otherwise their quick nock is generally weaker in terms of raw damage when you look at SAM having jinpu up and overall higher damage.

Just to compare, the weakest Mangestu/Oka can be is 150 potency on the 5th+ target...most aoe weaponskills don't surpass 110, and the highest otherwise is generally 130 potency. Fuga>Mangetsu/Oka is also more kenki per GCD spent compared to Hakaze>(Shi/Jin)pu>Gekko/Kasha, so your only real constraint here is TP.