Originally Posted by
Lonnbeimnech
What kind of a qstaff are you using?
If it's a proper melee weapon, it doesn't have spell power or spell lore, find a combustion of fire lore stick then try out your fireball.
if it's a caster stick then it isn't a real melee weapon (holy of undead bane for necro quests for example)
did you put points into ek to help out the melee? moving those points into fire savant to increase the caster level of your spells, and your fire spell power and crit chance would make a noticeable difference in the damage of your fire spells (same would be true if you went with another element)