Combat will be what kills this game [end of days! redeem! blah blah!]

[WhoIsTheGuest]

Here's the thing. Cure spells have a cast time, as do nukes. You will always finish waving your staff before your target is healed.

Know Benediction?
Ever use Swiftcast + Raise or anything other spell?

You are simply wrong. I raise a person. They get up, hp appears, I start to cast a cure and the cure is deflected to me, and yet my pet can heal them before I can.

A "raising" player is select-able but no action is applicable: damage and heal included, which is why you won't ever see a player dies DURING the "raising" itself. They only die because the timing they are DONE raising coincides with boss's aoe damage skill, they do not have enough time to move out of range with little hp left.
I play both WHM and SCH, my pet ALWAYS heal before me, because it's AI and AI will act on the exact moment when the target can be healed, while my human timing might be slower. Nothing wrong with that.
If other players have no problem timing heals after raise but you can't, then practice your timing. There is a hint when you did it right: Your character will turn to face the target. If you don't see that happen, then you are too early and the heal is going to yourself.

And what the heck is this?

I just want you to know that you're saying "SE, please don't give players responsive and reliable combat that other mmos had 6, 10 years ago."

Combat is responsive and reliable enough outside of the network lag. You are making totally absurd comparisons.
Likewise, I could say something as absurd to you as this:
I just want you to know that you're saying "SE, please remove all graphic and animation, just make a screen of numbers and everything is instant."
See?

Anyway, this is heading nowhere.

EDIT:

You want more evidence of the silly lag? Fine.

Cast stoneskin on a target, watch them gain the buff in their short 5-icon bar, they take damage (as in, their hp goes down), and they still have stoneskin.

Some people's blind stammering defense of this just baffles me. Yeah, there's a dozen people in this thread saying it's fine and good, because the people that truly dislike it will quit. They'll go back to other mmos where combat functions smoothly, because you have the right to expect that.

This is a case of network lag, everyone's mileage is different. It seems to impact you, but not everyone is experiencing it as severely. To this, I can only say it's most unfortunate, I hope your lag resolved soon.
Yes, you have the right to expect fluid combat, provided that there's no network lag.
But as you yourself said, this thread is not about network lag, so don't bring it in.

It has really becoming a trend, that if somebody is not agreeing with a "problem", then they must be "blindly defend" or a "white knight".
Whatever floats your boat.

Seriously, this is heading nowhere...