heya all,

I am having this same problem too. I am at a very low level, but even in the first few dungeons and questing in the world I kept getting hit by aoe and I was way outside of the red circle. so now at least I understand why.
I wanted to point something out. I think (correct me if necessary) that the elephant relates to an American style joke (I am American). if there is a HUGE problem and everybody ignores it we kind of say, 'it is like the elephant in the room'. because everybody will know if there is an elephant in the room, and they can try to ignore it all they can, but it is very obvious.
in a similar way, as I think the elephant joke person was trying to point out, SE can try to ignore this problem all they want, but it is huge and game breaking. aoe damage stuff is an integral part of the current game, and not being able to dodge it because of poor game coding/design is gonna drive people away.