Sure you can avoid lag issues by starting to move before the ability goes off - but that is just crap game design. Getting hit by an aoe attack when your screen shows that you are well out of range is extremely frustrating and not fun. Yoshi P. has mentioned the "fun" factor in many of his design decisions. It's time he looked into these timing issues to bring fun back into these encounters. Timing for AOE hits should be determined client side, taking all of the two way lag out of the equation.