RickVigorous
First Post
I tend to think that bloodclaw wasn't exactly overpowered in terms of balance, but it was overpowered compared to the other choices. That is, given a melee combatant, I'd almost always take a bloodclaw (or reckless, for one-handed weapon users) weapon over any other alternative. But the improved damage output I got from my bloodclaw/reckless weapons never made a combat too easy or made a certain monster a cakewalk.I agree here that Reckless was indeed nerfed (even by my standards of the word ). Though that wasn't part of the earlier conversation.
Regardless, Bloodclaw is still decent. And again, this is coming from a player who's character uses one. Decent bonus damage upon a confirmed hit once per fight is nothing to sneeze at.
In fact, I now feel less dirty for having one.
In light of this, I think that bloodclaw and reckless needed to be toned down, but turning their powers into encounter powers wasn't the best way to do it. I'd have 1) made bloodclaw's bonus into a power bonus, 2) stipulated that both weapon powers only apply to the weapon in question, and 3) made bloodclaw deal +1 damage/hp lost and made reckless deal +1 damage/point of enhancement bonus.
All of this is moot, though, since the updates didn't take this approach. Bloodclaw and reckless are still perfectly decent but no longer must-haves; indeed, depending on your build, they're probably overshadowed by other alternatives. Which is good, but which could have happened without taking away a reliable at-will damage boost.