I agree with all of the points made, and would also like to point out the following:

The timing of the animations versus when actions "actually" take place (referencing the battle log and the action bar) is quite out of sync. By smoothing up the animations, hopefully the player's attention can re-focus on the action, instead of watching the action bar for the next time to execute an action.

I've also noticed that in group play, if I land the killing blow, the animation often never seems to execute at all, particularly with some of my Lancer weaponskills. I'll end up going and looking at the battle log to see if my action even executed, only to find that I landed the killing blow, but in a particularly lackluster-looking fashion.