I need a touch of help with clarity of magic

[Jaware]

I once more consult the collective for clarity on something that I see as obscure.

One of my pcs likes magic. I don't much care for it. It's just soooooo complicated. Since all of us are relatively new to the magic mechanics, we see things differently. And sometimes that leads to conflict and confusion and all around bogging the game down so we can look up the rules.

For instance, the fireball spell causes you to conjure a ball of fire in your hand. That I believe is your action.

Then you take an attack roll to throw it's some poor sap. So minimum of 2 turns. It feels balanced considering the damage it has the potential to deal.

Other spells like flame jet, or fire breath (or whatever the name)

Do they cast the turn they are concentrated? Can you attack with the them that turn? I know fire breath you can't persist, but my next question is how does that work in game terms of striking into close combat? The way I read it is like a dragons breath that would work similar to a flamethrower or something. But from what I can pick up from the rules it works just like a projectile.

The same way with the burning hand that ignores armor. I assume concentrate to cast, then brawling or unarmed skill to hit. Because just "4d burn armor doesn't protect" feels kind of dumb and unbalanced.

So can someone dumb it down for us? It'd make my life and the campaign run much smoother.