claw/wp will be a never-ending flurry of devastation once you get most all your toggles.
the basic must-have pools n such for a /wp brute are
-the the fight pool
-combat jumping(few extra def points for almost no end and easy lotg 7.5)
nifty but not needed
-leadership
nice thing about claws is that it takes very little recharge to fill up your attack chain even for low lvls. which also works well for /wp since it has zero use for rech. this means you can spend more looking for bonuses towards boosting TYPED(so smash/lethal/energy/etc..not melee/range/aoe) defenses..regen..and hp.
claws is ok for holding aggro is you can keep things in range of spin..but wp is very poor at holding aggro since it lacks a dmg aura.
good call with spiritual alpha..extra hp and regen ftw
@Injenius~Virtue
Stonefather - 50 Stone/WP/Soul brute
Sable Affliction - Earth/Dark/Fire Dom
Wild Cipher - Beast/Time MM
Yeah I was thinking the same thing on recharge levels. Maybe a few lotgs and whatever %5 bonuses happen to fall on sets would be sufficent, along with the alpha slot. Don't think going the perma hasten route on this guy would benefit it that much, although I've read a while back that a follow-up, slash, focus chain was possible. Although, what I assume is a purple heavy build would be more than I'm wanting to spend.
As far as set bonuses go, I was thinking of slotting for regen and hp before defense. I'm hoping that slotting all the heal powers to the cap, or close to it, then having the alpha on top of that, would really add a lot to survivability in the regen department.
I've played a few tanks before, but not really any brutes to high lvl content. Most of my time is scrappin, with a lil defendin peppered in there. I had a claws/regen scrap several years ago that was fun, but the clicky nature of /regen is what turned me away from it. I tried revisiting it several times, even after all mog changes, and still couldn't get into all the clickies.
I'm at 19 now, about to get outta preat, and RttC is definatly noticable, but spin is killin my end. I'm sure after 22, recovery (not sure of name) at 20, and some SOs it will be more than manageable.
I plan on taking taunt and using it liberally when I'm in the tanking role. I would like to be able to tank on most teams, and about all teams with some support. I have a stone/ice tank I can bust out if needed for STF. He is the best meat shield out there if you ask me, but needs 7 other ppl killing stuff because he won't be doing it. But he can hold aggro and has a lot of mitigation in /ice. I'm hoping this brute will be able to fill that tank role and still be able to kill plenty as well, so I don't feel like a aggro magnet and nothing more.
slotting to soft cap your S/L defense will go further in helping you more so than slotting for Hp/Regen. Layering the S/L on top of your already nice regen (not to mention getting HP bonuses already out of most of the S/L sets) is going to serve better.
I have a Claws/WP that I love more so than my Fire/Invul brute (also S/L capped).
(and hell, if you're on Pinnacle, I'd be happy to show you just what it can do and what you have to look forward to 
)
Just rolled a new brute last night. Mainly scrap, but wanted something different with aoe taunt to tank on tfs and such.
Anyway, i see this combo working well with the spiritual ( the rech and +heal) alpha later on, and being a fun ride to 50.
Does anybody have one they can share tips on? Once he gets outta preat I figure I'll start looking at regen bonuses, and recharge to get follow-up goin good. Figure a cheap set to throw in it for the ride to 50.