Skill animations and 'Dodging'

Without an active dodge, if you want to have something similar, you need a skill to do it, like shield rush or teleport. Are these skills basically mandatory in higher difficulty where you may have to move out of an affect to avoid being quickly killed ?

I’m also finding that some skills such as fireball with the embers node, have quite a long animation cast, and if you time it wrong, you can’t even move before you’re hit by something you’re trying to ‘dodge’ because the fireballs are still being cast.

I’m guessing in this scenario, its just a case of getting more cast speed ?