pulsar afterburn is by far the worst execute in the game even with the minor mangle combo (requires target to be burning for proc, base damage of afterburn is only a fraction of the skill's damage). no reason to use it even if your class doesn't have an execute. it's still alright for spreading flame DoT around but it's simply more cost efficient to just run unstable fire wall instead.

storm pulsar is weird because it's constantly in competition with proximity detonation. on one hand, it can be constantly casted and has way higher base damage. on the other hand, proximity det has much higher scaling and will probably start doing more total damage after about maybe 5 or more enemies hit. the explosion is also slightly bigger by 2 meters, which is important if you're trying to tag as many targets as possible. prox can pull some absurd numbers in trial or pvp environments due to the higher enemy density, but storm pulsar may work better in dungeons or other content. it really just depends on what the encounter calls for.

if it's about choosing one or the other, i'd probably go with storm tbh.

thx thx good to know, I was using storm pulsar.