whats with aoe hit markers

[Mordermi]

Dragon breath has a short cast time, so you have to start moving out of it right away. However, it can also be stunned, so there is that option.

Sidestepping out of AoE seems to get people hit a lot. It's just a bad way to get hit by everything. My healer friend was getting hit a lot in Titan HM. She was sidestepping. After she started running forward out of attacks, she stopped getting hit.

PLD holds hate pretty well. Rage of Halone is your friend. One tip, especially if you lose hate early, is to pop Fight Or Flight at the start of the fight before spamming your hate combo. Also, Shield Bash does not generate hate. If you meant Shield Lob, it does generate hate, but not a lot. If you lose hate, hit it with Provoke, and then Shield Lob, and then get right on that Rage of Halone.

[TouchandFeel]

As Mordemi stated above, Fight or Flight is a great way to build up that initial hate on a boss.
I often pop Fight or Flight and Rampart as I'm running to the boss, get in a shield lob once I'm in range, followed with a full RoH combo and then I dump Spirits and Circle of Scorn so I can get those in while FoF is still up.

That should give you a good initial lead and as long as you keep up with your RoH combo nobody should be grabbing hate from you.