Melee cleric's paragon path

[Shadeus]

I'm starting up a melee-based cleric next week and I'm trying to decide on the paragon path. He's a dwarf wielding a greataxe with an 18 Str, 18 Wis. The easy choice is war priest. Throw some points in Con, go full plate and there you go. None of that paragon path's powers are really melee based though. I was also considering pit fighter. I have to invest in student of the sword, but I have feats to spare.

In my mind, here's how they match up:

• Same: extra damage on action pt, +1 AC bonus

• Warpriest wins: Warpriest strategy (re-roll a 1 is nice), Battle pyres does huge damage (7d10+ double Wis on 2 hits + 5d10 +Wis every round on a failed save), encounter power (Battle Cry) is a close burst vs. Fort + healing

• Pit Fighter wins: Dirty Fighting (with a potential Wis 22, that's +6 to all melee dmg!), a utility power that is useful more than 5% of the time (warpriest utility is powerful, but only kicks in on a 20), Lion of Battle can do 6d12 + Str + Wis dmg

What I like about "dirty fighting" is I can use it for Righteous Brand doing 1d12+ Str + Wis or (assuming a +3 greataxe) about 1d12 + 17 around level 16 on every attack. Warpriest marking is very good as well (because it uses OAs instead of basic attacks), but it pales to the usefulness of Dirty Fighting. Battle Pyres is also very powerful, but it's once per day.

I'd like to hear other's thoughts. Is there a good paragon path for a Str-based cleric? Is there another one that I'm just missing? Thanks for the help!

 

[rbingham2000]

The other major choice of paragon path for a Strength based cleric is the Angelic Avenger. Though it comes with your choice of heavy blade weapon training, you don't necessarily have to use a heavy blade in order to benefit, since none of its powers require one like paths such as the Swordmaster generally do.