There's nothing cheap about it, it's in fact a very straight and honest way to do it.
The AoE indicates where the attack will land (most MMO's don't show you so clearly).
The casting bar indicates when the attack will be done done (and by the way, it can be interrupted).
When the casting bar is full, the attack launches and if you are in the AoE (red) zone at this time, you're hit.
Animations are just for show, the above is the actual mechanic. It's simple and straightforward. Most games just show you emote or speech that hint at an incoming AoE and then you have to have studied the boss videos on YouTube and ideally, you have to get such or such 3rd party AddOn program to tell you about those attacks and you have to know ahead of time where you must go for each attack and bleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaah it's a real PITA.
The only issue here is lag.
The AoE indicates where the attack will land (most MMO's don't show you so clearly).
The casting bar indicates when the attack will be done done (and by the way, it can be interrupted).
When the casting bar is full, the attack launches and if you are in the AoE (red) zone at this time, you're hit.
Animations are just for show, the above is the actual mechanic. It's simple and straightforward. Most games just show you emote or speech that hint at an incoming AoE and then you have to have studied the boss videos on YouTube and ideally, you have to get such or such 3rd party AddOn program to tell you about those attacks and you have to know ahead of time where you must go for each attack and bleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaah it's a real PITA.
The only issue here is lag.