It was changed to tactical during one of the larger LM updates we had this year, but it was never put in the patch notes; quite a few LM changes this year went completely under the radar.
Well thats good thank you, the damage is just pitiful, doesn't seem much higher, sweep is 4500-5800 and staff strike is 4100-5300, meanwhile wizards fire has no cooldown, hits 3 targets and does 6000-7300(this is all at level 87 on my red spec LM). It really is only worth using them for the buffs, maybe I just like melee too much
Overall coming back to my Red LM after the update has been wild, along with the LI rework. The red damage seems worthy of coming into a group just as damage, almost every one of my abilities one shots most mobs. I even spec'd into the cracked earth damage and tracery, and that pretty much 1 shots a group of mobs around your level.