Damaging area effect clouds inflict knockback away from their centers

When an instant damage area effect cloud applies its effect to an entity, the entity is knocked away from the center of the cloud. (This also applies to undead mobs in instant health clouds.)

To reproduce

1. /effect give @s minecraft:resistance 30 4 true

2. Go into survival mode

3. (Optional) Enable hitbox rendering with F3+B

4. Either:

   1. /summon minecraft:dragon_fireball ~ ~ ~ {Motion:[0d,-0.3d,0d]}

   2. /give @s minecraft:lingering_potion[minecraft:potion_contents={potion:"minecraft:harming"}] and throw it at your feet

❌ You are knocked away from the center of the area effect cloud

Should this be considered intentional?

No, for several reasons:

• While splash potions of harming have a sort of “magical impact force”, area effect clouds are more like danger zones which will damage the player when entered and it is unexpected that they would also mess up the player’s pathing.

• The point the player is being knocked away from is easily visible with splash potions due to their particles, but this is not the case for area effect clouds, especially larger ones- this is one of the only instances in the game where the player understands that they will take damage but can’t be sure which direction they will be knocked in (the only other related instance I can think of, MC-105770, is a valid bug.)

• Poison clouds do not have this issue.

How should this be fixed?

Change the instant damage and instant health effects (and, if MC-299395 is fixed by adding a new effect, that effect as well) to not apply knockback to damaged entities if their source entity is an area effect cloud.