Straight or Sweep? (Patreon)

I'm building some spells out now, and one of the spells I've built is a fire breath spell.  

This spell will cause Meridiana to shoot flames out in a cylinder in front of her.  Setting anything she hits on fire, and maybe doing damage while they are in range.

I also plan to have some sort of beam attack, that would cover a cylinder in front of Meridiana, but with more range and power.  

I don't want to overlap these abilities and make one useless, so should I shorten the range a bit and make the flames sweep in front of her?  If I didn't , the beam attack would be the one I change.