since whip and flail is the same spec, that the reason my whips are leaving concaved chests, bludgeoned corpses and what not? or ?

Early bird gets the worm, Second mouse gets the cheese!

Just by damage type. So the flail or skill you were using to kill them was a bludgeoning sort of damage instead of a slashing or whatever sort of damage. If you have a particular whip or skill that you think should be doing a different kind of damage, let us know.