Flame Clench deals less direct damage than Shock Clench?

ArchMikem · June 11

I have a Pyromancer MagDK, has a fetcher ton of Flame Dmg abilities, but when I took her into a normal Dungeon I was hitting like a wet noodle. When I was looking thru my skills and gear I noticed fully buffed, my Flame Clench didn't even reach 6k Dmg in the tooltip. My DK fully buffed has 5,390 Spell Dmg with nearly 40k Max Magic, and yet for comparison, my MagSorc's Shock Clench, with under 4k Spell Dmg and 42k Max Magic has a 9k+ Dmg tooltip. What's going on with that difference here? Even if her Max Magic is a little lower that much base Spell Damage should offset, so why is the tooltip lower?

Aside from that all of my abilities, save for Heavy Attacks, felt really subpar, did something change since I paid close attention to my DK last?

tsaescishoeshiner · June 12

I'm curious--on your Sorc, does Shock Clench deal comparable damage to Impulse? The morph of Destructive Clench says "Shock Clench converts the attack into an area of effect explosion." I believe what this means is that it increases the damage to match an AoE direct damage skill, as opposed to Flame Clench which should deal the same direct damage as the un-morphed Destructive Touch.

Similarly, I'd expect Shock Touch (the un-morphed one) to deal reduced damage. So even Shock Clench on your DK would deal more than Flame Clench on your sorc.

You'd have to slot them on your bars and hover over your skill bar, not the skill menu. I believe this was adjusted years ago when they standardized abilities. Flame Clench has never really been a hard hitting spammable. Force Pulse will deal more, and even Flames of Oblivion.

yadibroz · June 12

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

I'm curious--on your Sorc, does Shock Clench deal comparable damage to Impulse? The morph of Destructive Clench says "Shock Clench converts the attack into an area of effect explosion." I believe what this means is that it increases the damage to match an AoE direct damage skill, as opposed to Flame Clench which should deal the same direct damage as the un-morphed Destructive Touch.

Similarly, I'd expect Shock Touch (the un-morphed one) to deal reduced damage. So even Shock Clench on your DK would deal more than Flame Clench on your sorc.

You'd have to slot them on your bars and hover over your skill bar, not the skill menu. I believe this was adjusted years ago when they standardized abilities. Flame Clench has never really been a hard hitting spammable. Force Pulse will deal more, and even Flames of Oblivion.

Ice beat both of them elements

yadibroz · June 12

ArchMikem wrote: »

I have a Pyromancer MagDK, has a fetcher ton of Flame Dmg abilities, but when I took her into a normal Dungeon I was hitting like a wet noodle. When I was looking thru my skills and gear I noticed fully buffed, my Flame Clench didn't even reach 6k Dmg in the tooltip. My DK fully buffed has 5,390 Spell Dmg with nearly 40k Max Magic, and yet for comparison, my MagSorc's Shock Clench, with under 4k Spell Dmg and 42k Max Magic has a 9k+ Dmg tooltip. What's going on with that difference here? Even if her Max Magic is a little lower that much base Spell Damage should offset, so why is the tooltip lower?

Aside from that all of my abilities, save for Heavy Attacks, felt really subpar, did something change since I paid close attention to my DK last?

Because of ice

Yudo · June 12

Yes, Energized passive (sorc) will give +5% to shock damage.
Additionally, Ancient knowledge passive (staff) will give +12% to direct damage.

CaptainVenom · June 12

Destructive Clench isn't meant to be a spammable. It's an utility skill that deals area damage, knockbacks or taunts. So far only Destructive Reach is a spammable, and only Frost version.

kringled_1 · June 12

It's been a long while, but there was a deliberate rescaling that was intended to reflect that fire and frost clench both carry a significant cc element, and that skills with cc should not do damage comparable to skills without cc.
I think you can make a strong argument that shock clench is intended to be used as an area spammable, but not the other 2.