Never tried claws, but have heard they are not the most powerful, i recomend ninja blade or spines
ive tried out ninja blade, and it seems great at PvE, and not so great at PvP
Claws are cool in my opinion, they don't drain end half as much as any other primary and their damage might be inferior but only marginally.
I've tried claws and this is my opinion.
Bad animation time on some attacks
ACC seems awfull
Damage isn't that high
only S/L .. buts so is ninja blade but that seems to do better damage wise.
The first 3 attacks are appalling
Defiant's GoEH/MILITIS METUS
has a ranged attack but no immob like spines
S/L is highly resisted as opposed to nrg and toxic
would be lowest on my pick of primary powers, if you want pvp ranged attack take spines otherwise nrg is most powerful
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My claws/ninjutsu stalker is now 26 and I'm having a blast playing him.
Don't forget that it has recently been suggested that claws will be getting some love in a future release/patch.
That said, here's my current thoughts on the set based on practical use alongside Ninjutsu :
1) Swipe - didn't take it, to be avoided and not needed - long animation time, poor damage
2) Strike - fast, ok damage, a chain filler
3) Slash - slow animation, ok damage, defense debuff that I can't say I notice. I'm thinking of slotting this one for accuracy and defense debuffs to see if it will make a difference. Failing that, if they don't change this one with the Claws love that's on the horizon, I'll probably drop it. You need it early on to make a chain up, but once I have the top three claws attacks, I don't think I'll need it, but then I do run Hasten which helps.
4) Build Up - needed to drop lieuts with AC and generally just a great power.
5) Assassin's Claw - a must have obviously. Interestingly, and I'm sure I'm wrong, but I teamed with a ninja blade stalker and I could've sworn that their AS had a faster animation time. However, the AC animation looks fantastic.
6) Placate - a must have. I'm not convinced you need it as soon as its available, I delayed it to get a travel power, and flew through those levels so didn't really notice not having it. I wouldn't leave it any later than 16 tho', but this is true for any stalker primary.
7) Focus - a brilliant power, I love this one. Its basically a short to mid range (50 yards give or take), very fast, high damage, 100% knockdown power. It does knockback, but only to blues and lower and I'm sure it only ever fails to knockdown when that enemy has knockdow resistance. With build up and placate, this will one shot a white minion - ok that's no big deal, but it is bloody useful when soloing and as a follow up after ACing. The real beauty of this power, and don't tell the devs, is that with Hasten running, it recharges fast enough to keep an enemy on the floor. You can't ask for more than that. And here's something no numbers will tell you, its brilliant in a big team or one with a couple of MM's. As we all know sometimes you just can't get to an enemy, but with Hasten running I can turn into a mini blaster if I need to, keeping out of the melee AoE's whilst keeping the enemy on his bum. And sometimes a stalker just doesn't want to be in the middle of the mob scrapping like he's forgotten which AT he is 
, I think this power is probably much more useful to Stalkers than Scrappers.
8) Eviscerate - I've just got this power, so the jury is still out as I haven't got it fully slotted yet. The animation is a tad long, not in the Flurry league and possibly a tad quicker than MA's Eagle Claw. I think the extra crit is maybe 10-20% of the time, but again this one recharges fast and I think when fully slotted I'll be enjoying this despite the animation time. The cone seems very short and/or narrow, but then not generating huge aggro can be useful.
9) Shockwave - looking forward to this, not got it yet.
Sorry this isn't a fully comprehensive list. I think claws is a great looking set and not readily appreciated due to some early crappy powers. But for a stalker, Focus is a great power, recharge times are great with Hasten, its a good set and hopefully soon to get better.
very nice.. thx for the info ^^
There may be a considerable buff coming to claws in Issue 7, but so far there are no facts as to what it is. People have suspected shortening of the animations which would make claws take a leap in DPS comparisons.. Then again, Im not an expert.
just wondering about the pros and cons of claws as a hole, if anyone got them at the high lvls ? ^^