You may be used to different types of games....

Example: FFXI the mobs individually were so nasty no one could solo them outside very few classes. You didn't use AoEs in that game because nothing did nearly enough damage to kill them before you were dead. So AoEs were useless, unless you were farming very very low level mobs for drops. There CC was extremely important because just ONE add could potentially wreck the entire party... So sleeping a single enemy was critical.



In FFXIV: None of the mobs, even those in dungeons can kill you in 2-4 hits the way they could in FFXI. Making actual AoE damage much more worthwhile. While the average damage percentage is about the same using AoEs in this game... the Tank can take multiple hits from multiple mobs and won't drop like a stone before the healer can heal him. And has better AoE agro control... the only way you could do this in the original FFXI was to Heal yourself, which is what allowed the Paladin in that game to hold agro so well. He had both a Provoke, and an AoE Agro Generator when he Healed himself. Other tanks didn't necessarily have that. Yeah they'd still kill him easy without a WHM there... but it was great for gaining agro in an AoE style fashion.

This game all tanks have pretty good AoE agro control, so instead of sleeping that one stray mob that could wipe the whole party... now entire packs can bang on the Tank while everyone else AoEs them down.

Different tactics as the mechanics in this game are different.