If you put a skill queue on the combat it wouldn't be much different than WoW. The reason why the old type of combat works is because it doesn't require good ping. Action combat is supposed to be instant hence the need for good ping.
Unfortunately this is just what you get with this type of game, there's no way to avoid it so if you have high ping you will always be at a disadvantage in pve and pvp. Anything above 150ms I don't even consider playing. Playing at 230ms is just pointless.