Aha, you're right. It was even more lame than I made it sound. I watch videos of fights from 1.0 and.. yeah. It looks like the casters aren't even involved. They stand there, completely idle, a lot of the time with their backs turned to the fight. They never move. Every so often they move a little bit and a spell goes off. It's... bizarre and looked really bad.
Admittedly, due to lore, it wouldn't work for Arcanists, Scholars, or Summoners, since their power comes from the geometric patterns and formulae in their books.
Cool and calm? It made you look like you were completely uninterested and not even involved or personally invested in the fight.
I do agree that the PLD casting animation could be more like the old one, but I like the glowing sword tip; it makes it seem that the Paladin is focusing their magic through their weapon.
