How do you handle puddles of death?

I'm having a hard time with encounters that have what I've always dubbed "puddles of death" (PoD)...

For instance the 2nd boss in Maw of Souls has purple PoDs that land underneath the party. I've tried several methods:

1. Stack team; Strafe Left/Right out of puddle;
   
   • This seems to work ok... UNLESS the puddle damage has an instant damage component. In which case, my team take a lot of AOE damage that I'm frantically trying to heal after I move.
   
   
2. Spread team out in a line; Move everyone forward out of puddle;
   
   • This also works on some fights (like Hymdal) but I lose DPS from people moving when they don't need to. Also, if they are not lined up 'perfectly' then I get issues of running into things.
   
   
3. Spread team out in star formation; Strafe Left/Right out of puddle;
   
   • This one gets tricky and I don't tend to use it because it just is hard to keep track of people.
   
   
4. Team follows Tank; Drags team away from puddle;
   
   • I tend to use this on fights where it gets pretty chaotic (not sure if that's the best idea or not yet) -- like Frost Lord Ahune -- so that I can keep my toons pointed in the right direction but still get them out of the puddles. But if the ticks of the puddle are fast and I don't realize what's going on quick enough I tend to take a lot of AOE damage.
   
   
5. Stand and Nuke + Pop Defensive CDs
   
   • This tends to work if I know it's going to be a short spike of AOE damage but in general, I don't have the DPS to just stand and burn.

So I guess I was curious about what you all do to avoid / deal with PoDs?

Thanks!

I strafe and then try to heal (4 ele shams), my mate does the tanking. PoDs are why I only 4 box with shams lol, they are too squishy. Prot pally team just moves a bit and self heals, 5x warlocks just stand in them and outheal the dmg with drain soul.