AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Astral Seal CAN produce more damage in certain cases. RB however has the advantage in any kind of pivotal situation. It doesn't actually generate more damage, you haven't considered all aspects of the math. You can go take a look at the workup that Keterys did on this WAY back when. At that time, pre-debuff, AS was marginally better all around. This is no longer the case. You have to factor in things like excess damage, wasted conditions, and action economy considerations. On the whole RB actually outperforms AS.
Anyway, we can continue to argue for 100 more pages about this. My point was pretty clear, the OP asked about melee leaders. I pointed to the STR cleric. Another poster came back with the usual rote misfactual "STR clerics are crap" and I replied that in fact it is in no way shape or form an inferior choice. I stand by that statement. Again, I'm not really trying to compare the whole class build to all other leaders and state that it 'the best'. It is QUITE a bit better than you're making it out to be though. Remember, as a melee oriented character you have access to ALL of the vast array of benefits available to weapon users and some good solid weapon keyword powers to use them with. The same can be said for PPs and EDs, etc.
Anyway, we can continue to argue for 100 more pages about this. My point was pretty clear, the OP asked about melee leaders. I pointed to the STR cleric. Another poster came back with the usual rote misfactual "STR clerics are crap" and I replied that in fact it is in no way shape or form an inferior choice. I stand by that statement. Again, I'm not really trying to compare the whole class build to all other leaders and state that it 'the best'. It is QUITE a bit better than you're making it out to be though. Remember, as a melee oriented character you have access to ALL of the vast array of benefits available to weapon users and some good solid weapon keyword powers to use them with. The same can be said for PPs and EDs, etc.