Low Level Nukes.
 

Let me start by saying I've never played a cleric before.

I'm wondering if it makes sense to wait until 14 to buy my first DD spell. I know I'll be at a disadvantage when it comes to my evocation skill, but I just can't rationalize investing in Strike or Furor when I can essentially out-damage those spells with a good ole fashioned bash to the head.

Fizzle, fizzle, fizzle, in my future?

Buy Strike for ~1 gp and cast it once on every mob your group engages, until you've reached the max evocation skill for your level. That way, when you start using the higher level nukes you won't fizzle like crazy.

On Cleric it is imperative that you get your undead nukes. They are incredibly powerful and mana efficient. You shouldn't specialize evocation on Cleric but you must skill it, especially for stun. For a while using your live mob nuke on a fleeing mob is a better "deal" than stun is but later on when stun is a cheap spell mana wise its an indisposable tool for runners and caster mob interrupts. Don't skip live nukes and go get your undead nukes while you're at it

You probably won't use any of your non-undead nukes very often, but as others have said it's super important to keep your Evocation skill up for stuns (especially vs. casters) and undead nukes. I appreciate your concern about "investing in" spells, but level 1 and 5 spells cost basically nothing anyway; it's at 9 that they become expensive for a non-twinked character. Also, the level 1 nuke is handy for pulling mobs to you rather than having to run up and melee/body aggro everything.

I have my level 1 and level 5 nukes. Level 1 is very nice for pulling. Level 5 is nice for runners - it's about half the cost as a stun, and with certain groups (last night I was in a group that was a ROG, a CLR (me) and 4 SHM. Yes I'm gonna nuke, we need the dps) you will need to add some damage.

Plus you need to max evocation for when it's time to stun and when it's time to fight the undead. The undead nukes are amazing.

If the mob's close to running, nuke it and see if you can push it over the edge into running away and save a few hits on your tank.

The later cleric generic DDs are not all that great, imo - but they have their uses.

The stuns and undead nukes are absolutely worth it.