I reallllly want to play this, but losing a blink and having a similar CD as shimmer just doesn’t make it make sense to me. Given the dual purpose of shimmer, I really wish these weren’t on the same node. I get why they are, but Ice Floes needs a much shorter recharge time if it’s going to compete with Shimmer.
I love the on demand aspect of the ability and the potential for play making with it. I’m sure that could get quickly over powered in PvP, but maybe there is a happy middle ground in there somewhere.
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Which is precisely why what you’re asking for isn’t happening.
As anyone who has played games from Blizzard knows very well, there is no such thing in their minds. All-in for one extreme or the other, but no middle.
Time for… PVE only talents. Just like the PvP talents. 
Again, not happening. Not because it’s a bad idea (it’s something that should have been in-game since day 1), but because the Blizz devs (especially the current ones) are lazy and don’t want to bother.
It’s just been terrible in general: for me, it never seemed to register fast enough to take advantage of it. Did they fix it? My experience has been if i immediately move after popping it, i still lose my cast.
Has been fine for me. I’d guess it’s pretty latency and system dependent. Ever so often I do get a “can’t cast while moving” warning while I’m not moving, but not with Ice Floes so far. 
There absolutely is a small delay between casting the spell and actually receiving the buff. I wanted to macro it into Shifting Power so that I wouldn’t accidentally interrupt it, but the delay is too much for that to work.
I wound up making a weakaura that just turns a big portion of my screen blueish when I have the buff so I know when it’s safe to move. It’s a little janky, but it works.
Personally, I like Ice Floes better anyway. I much prefer the ability to stutter-step while casting over going long distances quickly. I can’t think of any fights (at least right now) that absolutely REQUIRE me to be 20 or 40 yards away from my current location instantaneously.
I also have a feeling a lot of players see the guides say to take shimmer and select it once and never look back. To me it’s a “player preference” talent that, once you’ve made your selection, you’ll find it difficult to switch. I know that I have a hard time with shimmer, but I’ve actively avoided it because I’m not good at using it…
I think that one of the other challenges is that Ice Floes decreases in usefulness as haste increases. The shorter your casts, the shorter your distance travelled. If you’re really looking for suggestions, maybe decreasing the cooldown based on haste would be someplace to start.
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I was curious and just tested it. I have essentially 0 delay. Not denying what you’re saying on your end, but I’m not experiencing that at all. Tried with multiple spells. If I hit both basically in succession with essentially no delay, I can get the error, but we are talking .05s maybe. My ms is 40 home/world.
I think it’s hard to justify floes as it currently stands. Given the duel use of shimmer and recharge time, you’re getting multiple ways to avoid damage and an ability to cast while changing your position.
I just like the play making aspect of ice floes. Being able to hit a key, cast, and the thought process that goes into it from a difficulty stand point is fun.
On frost mage I still take ice floes. I constantly use all 3 charges. Glacial spike is such a long cast that you lose so much dps having to stop and restart the cast constantly…and frost mage needs as much damage as they can get. In a pinch I’ll burn AT for a blink charge if I desperately need it…I’m also talking about m+, not sure about raid…and I would never take ice floes on fire or arcane.
The only issue with Ice Floes is that it isn’t Shimmer which makes it feel awful when you’re forced to pick it for a fight/dungeon/match. However, it absolutely does not need to be buffed. It just feels bad to not play Shimmer in general.
Yeah I actually find it to be a pretty fair choice node, and love Ice Floes (despite missing double blink). Having to shimmer out of something bad to keep my cast going can easily make things go awry (e.g. blinking into something worse, accidentally pulling, group soaks/knockups, etc) when a simple micro-movement works just fine and maintains your positioning. (Shimmering on something like M Sprocket would more than likely cause an insta-wipe, for example). Love it for Shifting Power and SKB.
Regular blink also has a shorter base cooldown at 15s, and being able to blink out of roots/stuns is incredible in a ton of situations. Also if you play FF Fire (which I know isn’t optimal but is way more fun), Floes has a 30% faster recharge rate so you basically never run out of charges (not that you really would anyway, but you can use it super liberally).