I am sorry that my example was not understandable. Sorry all I will try again.
One thing is that when you attack and hit your target. Ever attack point above your target's defend is damage. Then you add your weapon rating to the damage you have already done. Where as in something like D&D you have a attack rating to decide if you hit. Then a Damage rating to decide how much damage you do. What I am trying to say is if Murphy attacks someone with a pistol weapon rating 2. Her guns skill in Our World is Great:4. Now she roll and only gets 4. She gets no plus or minus to her skill from that roll. The defender rolls 1. Because Murphy's attack is 3 over the defender's defense she does 3 stress plus her pistol's weapon rating of 2 for a total of 5 stress. So a pistol can do more damage then say a M60 in the hands the of a of a skilled user or more to the point. A bullet to the head from a pistol kills and a bullet from a M60 to the foot hurts but may not kill you.
The other thing is in Your Story page 251. In the "what you can do with it " for evocation example. Harry attacks a red vampire. His player—Jim—decides he doesn’t want to mess around with this thing too much, so he chooses to summon up 8 shifts of power for the spell. Harry has a power specialization in fire magic, so his Conviction is treated as Fantastic (+6) for the purposes of the spell. That means that casting this spell will give him a 3-stress mental hit—one stress for everything up to 6, and then two more to get to 8.The difficulty to cast the spell is Legendary (+8). That’s high, but fortunately Harry’s blasting rod gives him a +1 to control, so Jim starts by rolling his Discipline at Great (+4). He gets a +2, for a total of Fantastic (+6), and invokes Harry’s Wizard Private Eye aspect to give him +2 more. This controls all the power necessary for the spell, and aims the spell at his target at +8. Harry yells “Fuego!” as he points his blasting rod, sending a column of flame at the vampire, an attack at Legendary rated at Weapon:8. The vampire rolls to defend against Harry’s roll of Legendary and gets a Great (+4), which means the blast strikes home and inflicts a 12-stress hit on him (4 for the attack, 8 for the weapon value). The vampire’s Inhuman Toughness reduces this to 11 stress, and the vampire takes a severe consequence of Extra Crispy and a 5-stress physical hit.
In above example. Harry's spell is an attack at 8 and Weapon is rated at 8. So the vampire rolls to defend against Harry’s attack of 8 and gets a Great (+4), which means the blast strikes home and inflicts a 12-stress hit on him (4 for the attack, 8 for the weapon value). The thing is to do that damage Harry took 3 mental stress to do it and spent a Fate point. Yes he may have taken down the red vampire one hit, one round (maybe) and yes stoping a attacker before they hit you is a good thing. But who is to say someone like Thomas could not do the same damage. Yes it would take a round or two longer but he would not need the fate point like Harry did and maybe even with out the 3 stress Harry took. Not saying Thomas may not spend a fate or take stress. Only saying you he
may not. So a wizard the may win in first, second, or even the third round of combat. But can anyone say a super like Thomas or even a mortal like Murphy can not do the same if only taking a round or to more to do it and with out the mental stress wizard takes to cast evocation spells. True Thomas or Murphy could get hit for stress but Harry took or maybe even more and maybe not. You never know how it will be. But to me wizards are not better or worse.
At least that is what I get from the rules.
Hope that was more understandable Sanctaphrax.