Party Strategy Guide

[Kevin]

In the damage dealing section, it should not be the puller who calls for the AoE to start, but the tank.  The tank will know better than the puller when he/she has locked down aggro on multiple mobs.  Just because you are going to get multiple "trash" mobs on a pull, does not mean it's best for the group to start with AoE right off the bat.  If you allow the tank to call for AoE to be used, there is less chance of your AoErs getting swarmed so hard that the healer can't keep up the healing on them.  The puller can say "be ready to AoE after the pull", but the actual call to AoE should come from the tank.
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I agree here. A good warrior can hold 2 and sometimes 3 mobs through full on AoE from 2 mages if given a little prep time. The hardest part for the warrior is if there are people who aren't doing AoE and still doing focus fire on a mob you want to stick around, that mob can often get pulled due to the extra attention the other mobs need to not go to the AoE'r. If there are some mobs that you don't want hitting the AoE'r letting the tank call for the AoE or at least set the guildlines for it if they know the pulls well is generally going to work out better.

There are plenty of times you can AoE without the caster of the AoE getting touched and doing this can greatly speed up the pulls. The tank will generally have no chance of getting a mob back and holding another one if one gets pulled from AoE and that is what will happen if the AoE is too early. It is also possible and effective to do slow AoE. It's the same idea as the healer aggro, the tank just has to stay ahead of the curve. This too, if done right, can result in higher DPS for the AoE'rs the mobs dying faster than if you focus fire, and the healer healing less. I will admit that these tactics are generally not considered basic and may not be the best thing to try with people you aren't used to playing with. They are also higher risk than other methods and while they are generally higher reward too you have to decide if that reward is better than the risk. :)