ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Skilled flameshock 5/5 according to skill description should do 180 damage, but is doing about 26. Is it only causing damage from burning and no initial damage? If, so, is that on purpose?

Good thing, 4 of those skill points were removable .

Also, it creates a 'burning shock' status effect instead of stun.

Yes, burning shock effect is both a stun & a fire DOT at once. And the damage is indeed fully a DOT, not initial damage.
And no it's not useless, at all :=)

Try stacking damage over time abilities and using Probability Travel to walk away.

I would give them stun + burning for consistency then and the skill description should be made clearer about no damage being up front. Also where did i say it's useless? It just got less priority without the up front damage for me