Erratic1

You are correct, Scrappers and Stalkers can pull that off but not Brutes. Well in that case Claws/EA vs Claws/Bio...given the OP's dislike of Bio I'd say go Claws/EA.

3 clicks (4 if you like to change stances--I don't but some do) of which 2 are purely, "Oh shit!!" situational and one which is best practice used (if you just ran into a large group). FWIW, I'd suggest Claws/Stone though certainly Claws/Bio and Claws/EA would both be awesome.

The danger is you will start making characters and want to play them all. Make them in game first then use Mids to decide a path for them.

If you knock them all down with Lightning Rod first the animation time doesn't matter because they aren't going anywhere or doing anything. Of course on a brute you don't really care too much because what are they going to do to you during animation...kill you? When Lightning Rod isn't up I teleport into a group with Thunder Strike queued up on the target I'm teleporting to.

Just remember to skip Proton Sweep (personally I'd dump Devastating blow too but some disagree). Cross Punch provides a nice substitute.

Rad Melee has its own slower, deliberate pace. It is not for everyone. I tried multiple times to make an Elec Melee character and none ever gelled properly until my most recent go on an Elec/Stone (brute). Even so, Jacob's Ladder and Thunder Strike are just barely on the edge of tolerable.

Your guy does not have Hover or a means of flight.... Aren't you generally on the ground?

Unless Clobber is going to one-hit kill the target and you are not going to be making any other attacks, what you open up with is immaterial. Add too the stated criteria for judging was, "...looking at the damage numbers in-game and especially the animation times...." In game the damage boost will be there from the second attack onward and damage per animation time while Clobber is fantastic every other attack in WM is on par with unmodified Claws (barring Whirling Mace which is woefully behind).

Did you factor in Follow-Up granting a 37.5% boost to damage and that the buff can be stacked twice?

Upthread I posted a costume for my Energy Melee/Shield stalker Super Chilled. Somewhere along the way I grew disenchanted with the cold aspect of his concept and reimagined him more in line with his underlying Energy Melee powerset as a super energized hero. One rename and bio update later and Super Chilled became Empowered. Now I have gotten around to giving him an updated costume:

You definitely need to share more often. Liked them all but really felt Northbound and Coin Miner were outstanding.

Radiation Melee is supposed to trigger the splash too but it also consumes the Contaminated effect. You know, I never tested it but presumably if other splash-qualifying attacks do not consume the effect then presumably you can hit the same target again for splash damage for the duration of the Contaminated effect. I know it lasts long enough on my Tanker that he can apply Contaminated with Radiation Siphon and have it still there to be consumed by his next use of Radiation Siphon, which he has recharging in 4 seconds.

Since my Rad Melee is a Tanker I was more focused on the heal, but the mechanic splashes damage when you hit a Contaminated foe with a Rad Melee attack. Is there any way to abuse that for fun and killing?

I am shocked and saddened to hear this. I only knew Heraclea through thoughtful, inviting, and informative forum posts. My sincere condolences to friends and family.

Yes, Inexhaustible boosts Regen like Health but unlike Health it also boosts Recovery and may be slotted with either Healing/Absorb or Endurance Modification enhancements. So you might look at it as a replacement for both Health and Stamina with the choice left to you on how much its base boost to both Regen and Recovery should be further improved. In my experience (playing an SS/Bio brute) Recovery does not need the help Recovery in excess of what you need to sustain your attack routines is getting you nothing beyond padding in case you face Recovery debuffs or drain--and you have other tools to assist with Recovery in DNA Siphon, Parasitic Aura, and Efficient Adaptation. The same could be said for Regen but the game far more focused on dropping your health than your endurance.

I am blaming @brasilgringo and hence @Player2 for driving my thoughts down a road which brought to mind a certain recently seen movie (on a fictional group I've long enjoyed): I do not even have intentions to make the character, though just for the costume I am greatly tempted.

On my previous best DM character (DM/Elec brute back on live) I tended to look at Siphon Life as a damage dealing ability with a healing perk. Both the damage and healing become more useful with high global recharge.

Rather than go for a total makeover my first thought was to stay in the neighborhood of the original:

😁 Perhaps the better word would have been Iconic.

One man's bad is another man's epic. 🙂 It looks like I'm struggling in some sort of cosmic battle...and I look GREAT!

All sentinel ranges are shorter. Arcs are sometimes different (e.g., Archery Fistful of Arrows). Sometimes entire powers are different (Sentinel Dark Blast: Dark Obliteration vs Blaster Dark Blast: Tenebrous Tentacles or Sentinel: Beam Rifle not getting a snipe power where Blaster Beam Rifle does). It does not look like just using a formulaic procedure to decide the changes. As for Seismic Blast not being a fringe set...by definition it was a new set, utterly unrepresented in use previously. Given the abovementioned differences between sets (which was skimming some examples and in no way an attempt to be exhaustive) I can see there being a bit more involved than you seem to indicate. If you want to believe the developers are evilly trying to deny people who enjoy playing sentinels enjoyment for however long it takes for Sentinel port to arrive for unclear, nefarious purposes that is a choice I will not attempt to dissuade you from.

Maybe the OP will avail themselves of it.

I uninstalled and reinstalled 3 times last week with no issues regarding files disappearing. But if the issue is tied to the version being uninstalled it may be that I never had that version installed to begin with.

Seems to me that when you are playing a melee class, seeing things is often not the easiest regardless of powerset. I am not going to suggest that Seismic does not add its own distinctive extras to the pile of things which obscure vision but rather note that in terms of being particularly noteworthy... ...well... ....I'll just drop this screenshot from the Khan TF I just got out of: Can you tell what I am hitting? Can you tell how many enemies there are? Can you even tell what powers are being used? Its Reichsman btw and somewhere off to a side is Gyrfalcon (I kinda had my hands full with Reichsy). Frankly I'll take a little bit of uplifted earth every now and then. Beats staring at demon a@# all the time.

Just got out of a Synapse with a Sentinel (character level 44 with set IOs) was doing an impressive job of tanking despite the lowered level of Synapse. She mentioned something about needing to pick up Taunt. At one point my basic IO slotted Stalker went to try to help her out of what looked like a tight situation. Yeah....she was fine. I was too after she finished everything up and I picked myself up off the floor with an awaken.