First timer here, lots of questions..

First of all i saw from the fanfest that PS4 will have full support for 2 more years, until 8.3, meaning the new seasons will be 6 months apart, and the game is also on the nintendo gameboy now.

Ive already spent hours in this games pvp, i used to find it fun. I have about 170 wins in quickplay and i got my gloria airship and all 3 makai ponies, yaaay. Then i tried ranked. First time around i played a few days before the season ends and got stuck in a winstreak lose streak loop at platinum, got bored and called it quits. Tried ranked again day 1 of season XX, the big 1. Ill go for crystal i told myself. Idk why, every monk cosmetic was ugly AF and i own everything else including hundreds of ventures. Basically im grinding ranked for no rewards now and my motivation is zero. I get a bronze match winstreak, then get a streak of losses. Im at bronze 2 asking myself why i have to play harder to advance than when i had lobbies full of plat teammates. I just recorded a clip on an 8 kill streak at enemy spawn while my 4 teammates huddle together on the crystal at mid, unreal right? What human is not chasing kills in bronze? Lost the next match with 6-2 because my team kept losing their 4v3s at mid while im fighting the heal and gunner at their spawn. Somehow it keeps happening, so i stay mid thinking ill peel for our backline. Theres no saving them, they didnt keybind heal or guard. I give up and assume its fortnite bots or something.

But something bothered me badly. As a monk main i dont do cast bars, but every time i used an elixir it would cancel it self as if i never stopped running. I would take damage from arrows or bullets 5 seconds after getting behind cover as if im standing in the open. Half my pvp experience was mashing the heal button behind a wall because i accidentally chose a melee character in Ranged Macro Mashers: The Game. I would use cleanse instantly but the game would not let me heal or guard.

So i do the google and find hundreds of forums about "server tick rate" and "snapshotting". I see forums recommend things like "use guard before they use it" or "in ultimate raids you have to move into position before the attack signal on the floors appear" etc.

Am i to understand that the only way to properly play FF14 since they refuse to update to a modern server speed, is to have done everything so many times that you can usually do it before anyone using their eyes and visual cues will do it? I have to play a raid boss enough to know its moveset through memorization because anyone following directions on screen will die and get booted? I have to know every opponents combo to use my skills 2 seconds in advance to satisfy the server, because if i use my defensive reactively the moment i should, its already too late because im already CCd and dead server side when im only CCd and full hp on screen mashing unresponsive skills?

Yeah, I have the same issue that I click a button and it does not react and then I have to click it multiple times, but the PvP itself is very random if you win or lose. It depends if you sync with your team or not, because some people do not play well together and they lose, even if they can play. Just play it for the achievements or mounts, pets. It also happened very often to me, when I moved out of an attacking circle, I still get hit one or two seconds later and my mind is like ??? even tough my internet works fine. I am a new player too and these things bothered me as well

That is unfortunately the netcode for you. Happens to many people, specially if ping goes high at that moment. It forces you to press potion several times before it starts to fill. Sometimes you can just fill potion to the 2/3rd of the cast bar and just start moving and it will fill and get you HP. It's so ridiculous. Sometimes even taking potions on the ground are triggered by latency and you can come to potions 2 seconds before an enemy but it won't trigger for you and will give them instead.