Punishing Strike - Redundant?

[Augmental]

Take a look at the 23rd-level cleric power Haunting Strike (Player's Handbook, page 71). Now, on the same page, look at the 27th level Punishing Strike. You should see that, aside from fluff, the only difference between the two is that Haunting Strike buffs your next attack against the target in addition to dealing damage - and it's 4 levels lower! Am I missing anything that could make Punishing Strike better in certain circumstances, or is it basically useless and a huge brain fart on the part of Wizards of the Coast?

[DrBurr]

Take a look at the 23rd-level cleric power Haunting Strike (Player's Handbook, page 71). Now, on the same page, look at the 27th level Punishing Strike. You should see that, aside from fluff, the only difference between the two is that Haunting Strike buffs your next attack against the target in addition to dealing damage - and it's 4 levels lower! Am I missing anything that could make Punishing Strike better in certain circumstances, or is it basically useless and a huge brain fart on the part of Wizards of the Coast?

Based solely off of the PH yes Punishing Strike is weaker then Haunting Strike. But I just pulled up my old copy of CB and it seems Punishing Strike was changed from Str+2 vs AC to a Str+4 vs AC. So its slightly more accurate than Haunting Strike. Likely this was a typo

[Kurald Galain]

Given the amount of powers 4E has, this just happens from time to time. There are a number of low-level powers that are way, way better than most higher-level powers, the most famous ones being Flame Spiral (sorcerer/3) and Sleep (wizard/1).