Return of Reckoning

ST skills in general have high Damage Bonus scaling (usually 1.5) while AOE skills normally have lower multipliers.
Specifically for Mara/WL AOE channels are notorious for having very low DB multipliers (just 0.38).

This means that a build that is based around Weapon Skill and armor penetration at the cost of Strength, as is usual for AOE mdps builds, will do a lot better on skills where the DB (Strength) boost is just a smaller part of the total damage.

Additionally, enemies that have decent amounts of Toughness will have higher mitigation% vs skills with high DB multipliers (when examining everything under the same WS and pen%).

Using the same build for ST abilities is usually not optimal (you'd have to slot STR talismans for example and probably use Brute Force tactic). It's only fair to compare abilities using the optimal setups for each (playstyle).

Play both classes, rr80+ BiS. Yes it hits for 1k + each channel on 75% armor targets, more on squishiest . It’s over tuned atm on both classes.

When playing Mara I can channel 9 people and do twice the dmg then if I choose to channel 1 target. Ev n worse for Wls , 1,2k hits are normal in wb.

Tbh it’s silly. Aoe should never outdps st, any skill or channel.

Looking at most WLs running aoe specc in scs and very much over performing with more or less 0 debuffs.