Cone of Fire peculiarities & ability cooldown burning

I recently discovered a peculiarity with Cone of Fire requirements: if you are running away from your target, then try to fire an instant ability by jumping and facing your target in mid-air, it will not fire. Instead, you will get the error: "TARGET OUTSIDE CONE OF FIRE". Additionally, if the ability has a cooldown, the ability will be placed on cooldown, as if it fired.

Observe this in the following video (and excuse me for being half-naked --- I had a little to drink and Lylia persuaded me to go for a "Lucha Libre" look):



None of my abilities managed to fire, except for one Aethyric Shock at point-blank range. Weird that I never noticed this before.