The problem with "Instant OFF GCD" abilities makes combat feel less rewarding.

[KogaDrake]

I'm fairly sure you don't play healing classes.

I dont, I play tank and DPS, but i am very close with my healers and we have discussed how this effects healing many of times, and i summarized our conclusions.

Please share with me a specific scenario where it's impossible to interrupt an ability with either an off GCD stun or Silence due to the animation lock. I'd love to hear it. And whatever you come up with (if anything) I can assure you I can give you advice on how to make it work.

Also share an example of RNG spike damage that's impossible to anticipate and results in a death purely because your benediction didn't go off the exact nano-second you pressed it and not because a tank didn't use a cool down or the ball was simply dropped healing wise somewhere.

^^ this exactly. EVERY fight is scripted, the order of abilities used is FIXES, and thus the healer AND tank know when big moves are coming and need to adjust accordingly. Need to stun, well the cast is long enough for the animation lock as it is factored in when deciding on cast times, and once again, scripted so you know when it is coming, so even if it was too short with animation lock you skip 1 or max 2 gcd to stun/silence (and any fight like this has no enrage timer, so there is no rush).

I think you misunderstood what I was getting at. Every skill performed takes effect after an animation of the skill being performed. That is, the enemy doesn't receive damage from an axe blow until after the axe visually is seen to hit the enemy. I just am not sure I understand why people equate having to wait for the blow to land in the first place before being able to trigger another, with a post-effect cooldown.

Not true, on ADS the second i hit blunt arrow the cast bar for high voltage stops, not stops when the animation is done. just because there is a delay to when you see the number (client side) and when you hit the skill, does not mean there is a delay on the server side. If it worked the way you say it does then there would be many more issues with stuns in game then there are.