My experience is limited, but here's my 2 cents:
With claws having an 8 foot radius on spin - same as burn - you have a decent synergy there. You burn, spin, re-burn as new mobs move in to take the place of the ones you just roasted. It seems like it would work well. However..
With SS, you will have a much happier time against the enemies that feel the need to stand 9 feet away and laugh at your burn patch while they plunk you with their ranged attacks.
I have an Axe/ brute and there is a lot of frustration in knowing that I could kill this pile of bad guys 4 times faster if they'd just come 2 feet closer.
This is one of the main reasons why I chose SS for my latest brute. A 15' AoE makes my life much simpler. Also, its not a cone. Cones are nice - unless something decides that it really wants to be behind you... or the pile you have lined up in front of you decides that they want to spread out more... or you accidentally hit the cone as something dies, you target Bob the bad guy standing out in left field all by himself with no one around him.
My suggestion is SS. Burn the close ones, stomp the far away ones and giggle with glee as they all fall down.
Well, it kinda depends on how you want to level, and how much you want the *best* farmer.
SS/Fire is the best for farming, due to late game Footstomp+Burn+Patron AoE. It kills stuff dead really really fast. But it takes a while to get to there.
Claws/Fire blooms alot earlier. Rather then waiting till lvl 32 for its AoE, it gets Spin at 8, then another AoE, Shockwave, at 32. Yes, Shockwave is not ideal for farming, due to the knockback, but it is still a fantastic power, especially for normal missions, due to the extra damage mitigation it brings.
In addition, Claws require alot less investment for amazing payoffs. Even with the consume changes, SS/Fire is an EXTREME end hog. It burns through the blue bar like nothing else. Claws on the other hand, is very friendly to the end bar, and doesn't really *need* IO investment to make it into a buzzsaw of death. Mind you, IOing out Claws still brings back plenty bang for your buck, but it's not as needed as SS/Fire.
So in summary.... For a late game build, that is absolute top notch at farming, especially if you plan on investing a chunk in IO's, SS/Fire would be the best.
But for general gameplay, and normal leveling, Claws/Fire would take the cake.
::edit:: Should note, Claws/Fire isn't bad for farming by any means, it still farms quite well. But SS/Fire is better for farming.
I have a fire/sr scrapper sitting at lv 44. With IO sets he is softcapped to all positions and can run a good fire attack chain (around 180 dps). The problem is I can not see how I can improve him noticably with the expensive sets and therefore can not motivate myself to work to improve him with working for end game purple IO's. Also SR seems totally overshadowed by /shield when IO's come in to play. DDR can be slotted almost as high with /shield while being softcapped and having a damage aura (as well as a taunt aura for reducing straying mobs) and of course shield charge and higher HP and resists on top of it all. I am not so interested in /SD for concept reasons so I am not rolling one of those. Have a SS/SD tank at lv 37 that i just don't like very much even though he is effective.
So I am rolling brutes now, trying to find a combination that is most effective at damage as well as being survivable enough (not tanking survivable, just for solo play). I really like /fire both from concept and because of it being an active secondary. I have narrowed down primaries to Claws or SS and have played up toons to the 20s. Now it's time to stick with one of them to 50.
I know /fire profits a lot from -recharge and +hp. I am thinking -recharge goes really well with getting a rapid footstomp-burn-fireball combo down as well as for the slow recharging SS attacks (like KO) in general. Also the KD effect from SS seems to synergise well with the squishiness of /fire by letting me fire off fast recharging heal while the mob is downed and reducing alpha damage. I have a good concept character for this powercombo.
Claws has an early amasing AOE attack: Spin. It does great damage and recharges fast. It seems to have a very small radius however. I took eviscerate and hated it. Silly animation and troublesome getting more than 2-3 mobs in. I have not gotten the last cone yet, but have heard mixed opinions about it. Claws has a lot less mitigation than SS. I have a good concept for Claws/fire: An outcast freakshow tank swiper.
What I am wondering is what would be best for allround game play as well as farming while levelling up. A good thing going for SS for brutes is getting FS at lv 32. Now with the fury changes, the advantage of the fast recharging and animating attacks in Claws do not seem so important for gaining and keeping fury up any longer. The advantage of claws may be more AOE attacks, but I am not sure if this is counterbalanced by Burn being enhanced by rage as well as FS-Burn-Fireball on fast recharge not requiring more attacks as fillers with regards to AOE output. End game what kind of recharge can I expect on this attack combo? Will running claws AOE attacks combined with Burn and fireball crank out higher AOE dmg end game? I may choose Gloom and Dark obliteration instead of fireball for SS as I see Gloom being a nice ST attack while running Rage.
As you may see I am leaning toward SS before Claws but I have not made my mind up yet. Any thoughts on my choise dilemma?