Why are there no positionals in PvP?

[Jin-]

No collision detection. Railroad combat with only set in stone way to play. Slow server tick rate. And many other issues in general.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

In pvp you want to catch people off guard, being predictable is the last thing you want to do.

Melees needs their positionals? I’ll just spin like beyblade and they’ll likely miss all of those.
That SGE wants to Repose you so they can pointblank shot you with their Pneuma? Yeah let’s bait them, mark them, and gang them.
That NIN has an ‘opener’? Yeah let them exhaust their big guns then we’ll mow them down once they’re out of kits.

[Rhysati]

No collision detection. Railroad combat with only set in stone way to play. Slow server tick rate. And many other issues in general.

Collision detection is irrelevant. Most good mmo pvp systems don't have it.

The real problem is the terrible servers as you also pointed out. If you've ever done dungeons, you'll see that it often looks like players are standing in the middle of enemy attacks before sliding their way to freedom after the attack goes off, having not taken any damage.

Because the server hasn't yet updated you client for where the person is. Same where sometimes you die to a boss mechanic but your body is laying outside of where the attack went off. The tickrate and lag is so bad on the server that you can't tell where people actually are. Which means positionals on players is just not a thing that'll work. It doesn't even work on npcs if your tank is pulling them away from you. It looks like you are close enough to poke the enemy but none of your attacks will go off because the server doesn't think you are close enough.