Just wanted to follow up on this:
So after some more playing I realized that spell effects issue wasn't just bot related, but happened with other players as well. And after a lot of searching and not a lot of information I finally came to the conclusion that the issue is client related.. I was using RoF2, and instead moved to an Underfoot client, and now everything is peachy, I can now see other players/bots nuke mobs and buff themselves.
So I'm just gonna leave this here if anyone else ever runs into this issue.