Contradictory humbuggery on spell description(s)

[DhAkael]

Cosmic Ray is an odd one; they say duration is instant, THEN go on to say "xDy+Z points direct to Hit Point per melee to most living beings." As a GM, I am [CENSORED] confuesd here because it states the duration is "instant" but then gives a "per melee" for the dice damage.

So what IS it?! a single hit / single damage roll, or damage over duration based on level?
(Yet again another case of the editor being asleep at the wheel over at PBooks central office.)

[Nightmartree]

Obviously the spell does no damage because it lasts for an instant but takes a melee to do damage

On a more serious note, does it look good as a one shot or like it needs a duration?

[eliakon]

It looks like the original spell was a DoT spell.
That was deemed overpowered, so it was turned into an instant spell, and in the usual Palladium editing, the previous DoT text was not removed.
The spell is insanely good as written, so there is no need to make it even more powerful (in my opinion at least).