All the skills are motion captured unlike XI, so maybe that might take a little longer than usual to implement (i'm not sure since I dont know how much work goes into organizing mocap sessions),
Iirc the way they handled it in XI was by dividing the character model into upper and lower section, so that while the upper section would perform an animation like hitting the monster, the lower section would be free to move around normally.

I don't know if it works here- but if it does, they should do it. While it may require some work to make it look natural, at least not a complete rework is necessary.

As for the quantity of animations, I have no problem with that, and would like to have less but smoother and better quality animations than tons of animations that are halfbaked and rushed. Particle effects can be as cool as they can get though. Actually, a different animation for white and black magic (as well as other forms of magic later on) wouldn't be too much asked, I think.

But imo getting the technical side up to the standards is most important right now.