As of I7, at least, according to Castle:
Some folks took one of my posts to mean that Claws sets for Heroes and Villains were being reduced in DPS. This is not true! The statement was along the lines of “My changes made it TOO good, so I have to tone them down a bit.”
Here are the major changes coming in I7:
Swipe: Changed animation to a Two Hit swipe. Cast Time reduced to 1.5
Strike: New Animation, basically a stab to the midsection. Cast Time is 1.17 seconds.
Slash: Uses Strike’s old animation. Cast Time 1.33 seconds.
Better times and no more face-scratching animation. Excellent. I would create a new claws scrapper — except that I suspect everyone else will, too.