clamour of souls(Elite)

Can someone explain this one to me.
Desc: One target takes 10-94 lightning damage for each ally in the area. Does it mean allies by the target or by you. I can't seem to get it to do more then 94. I have tried casting when my tanks are attacking and when I am surrounded and the target is not. This seems like it could be a potentially powerful spell.

Thks

Clamor of Souls, 10e 1 12s
"Elite Spell. For each nearby ally, one nearby foe is struck for 10...94 lightning damage."

IE, a single hit on many targets. The same foe cannot be hit by Clamor twice. This is an AOE spell, not a massive spike. And it should be counting allies near you, and hitting enemies near the target.

If you have 4 enemies and 4 allies next to you and you use it, all 4 enemies get hit for 94 damage. I don't think this is a targetable spell? I thought it was hitting foes near you, kinda like PBAoE with ward range. At least that's how I understood it, so correct me if I'm wrong.

You understood it right, with 8 players with this you can do to 7 nearby enemies 94x7 damage, so it can be a very powerful AoE spike.

Or, just take Star Burst and skip the conditional. Or Flame Burst, for that matter. This spell needs a little improvement.

Clamour of souls has a slightly wider AoE than Star burst and especially flame burst

Quote:

this is true... flame burst is actually better, lol... because it hits everybody around you, whereas clamour of souls only goes off when you have a spirit or body around you

anet could definitely change this... in fact i think it calls for a petition for a change, this is a weak elite, lol

It's definitely a weak elite.

However, there's no reason that a Ritualist damage spell should be as good as an Elementalist damage spell. Elementalists are the king of direct damage spells, after all.

However, that's all a little irrelevant anyway. Flame burst costs 50% more mana but doesn't do 50% more damage (maybe 5% more damage), which is a big deal. Inferno is close, but only adjacent enemies. So I don't see a good straight up comparison.

Each has their use, but it's not entirely clear that one is just superior.

I agree with JoDiamonds.
It is normal a ritualist AoE to be weaker than the Ele's, especially when the attrib. which have this spell can be used for many other non dmg skills, thus allowing the Rt to be complex...maybe that is why it is Elite.

*Topic Rez*

This was mentioned in a recent interview with Izzy on the Weapon of Choice thing.

The question was "Why is Clamour of Souls basically a weaker Flame Burst?"

Where Izzy admitted that Clamour of Souls sucks right now. It basically got changed so much in balance before Factions came out - that it basically became useless.

This is from the mouth of the guy that balances the skills..not me.