With the constant barrage of flashy animations and lights going off it gives the illusion that it's fast-paced and frenetic. Of course it's not in part because of the 3 second GCD.
Tho not fully true. Youre still able to pull off more WS attacks in the same amount of time than in 1.0. And you skip the "build up" phase all together by not waiting 5-6 attack rounds just for 1000 tp to do anything.