Activation time
From Guild Wars Wiki
Activation time is the length of time it takes for a skill to 'prepare' before it can initiate. The activation time begins as soon as the player activates the skill, and ends after that time has passed. Once the activation time has 'successfully' completed, then that skill can be initiated. Activation time is denoted by the icon 
. This term is also referred to as the casting time in reference to spells. After the activation time there is usually an aftercast delay.
Note that activation of the skill occurs on the game server, therefore before activation of any skill there is always a short activation lag during which the skill icon indicates that the skill is activating, however, the status bar of the activating skill is missing and the activation of the skill has not started yet. The activation lag is determined by your actual ping to the game server, typically 0.1-0.4s.
There are certain effects and skills that can change a creature's activation time or casting time. The Mesmers Fast Casting primary attribute has the ability to reduce the casting time of spells, while Conditions such as Dazed and hexes such as Migraine can increase casting time.
Activation time can be considered as the vital weakness of every skill, because unless that activation time can initiate successfully, that skill will be unable to operate. Therefore, using any direct influences such as Knockdown, Skill Disabling, and Interruption can be used to prevent a skill from activating. Also, Skill Failure is a self-counter against activation time, (See Gale for an example of skill failure). Generally, the longer the skill's activation is, the more prone that skill is in being unsuccessful in activating.
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[edit] Skill queuing
If you attempt to activate a skill while in the middle of another action, that skill will generally be queued, which is indicated by the skill icon "rippling" exactly like the icon of a skill which is being activated, the skill will be activated as soon as that action completes. Only one skill can be queued at a time, attempting to activate another skill will overwrite the queue. Attempting to activate a targeted skill while the target is out of range will cause you to follow the target, as well as queuing the skill to activate as soon as you are within range.
The activation lag is zero for queued skills, they activate as soon as the previous skill in the queue activated (and the aftercast delay for that skill passed).
[edit] Skills with unspecified activation times
[edit] Attack skills
Most attack skills do not have an activation time listed. Instead, they will take effect the next time that player character attacks. This is because attacks are paced by the weapon's swinging or re-fire rate. Therefore if a character is under the an effect that influences attack speed, that character's attack skills will have a shorter or longer activation time. Certain attack skills have cast times; most of these are skills designed as interrupts with a cast time which is shorter than a weapon's attack speed, allowing them to trigger earlier than a regular attack would.
In the case of normal attack skills, the damage is taken by the foe in the middle of the attack animation (for example if the weapon is a shortbow, which has a re-fire rate of 2.0s, the arrow will be fired after 1.0s). If the character is on auto-attack or another attack skill is queued, the swinging sequence is finished by returning to the initial state. This recovery movement also takes half of the time of the attack sequence (in the case of the shortbow, it is 1.0s). However, if a non-attack skill is queued after the attack skill (spell, signet), the finishing movement does not take place and the activation of the non-attack skill starts immediately.
[edit] Shouts, stances and skills without subtypes
Shouts, Stances and skills with no subtype without activation time (such as Ritual Lord) can be activated while in the middle of other actions, and while knocked down, these skills completely bypass the queue.
