Aggravated (Claws of the Wild) and armor?

Corebook also has the Brujah Bloodline, they have vigor, resilience and protean as clan disciplines...

And all things being equal (or at least XP being equal), the Daeva spent less to get Vigor and Celerity, Nosferatu spent less to get Vigor, Nightmare, or Obfuscate (all excellent combat powers, actually), the Mekhet spent less to get Celerity and Obfuscate, and the Ventrue spent less to get Dominate.  All of those powers are more effective combat tools than Protean. 

Protean is a weak combat discipline, it is only a great conflict avoidance discipline.

Since we were talking about the relative effectiveness in combat of various clans (and yes, I probably should have only talked about disciplines and not clans), the best way to judge that is in regards to what disciplines various clans get cheaper access to and how their weaknesses impact combat (which none of them do to any special degree).  If you'd like to expand it to include the bonus physical dot in the calculation, then they are in slightly better shape because their stats are better for fighting than Ventrue, but Dominate 1 still trumps the combat potential of Protean 3.

So, yes, I consider the Gangrel to be a combat disadvantage, if they can't dissuade their opponents from fighting in the first place.  Of course a Gangrel can buy Vigor or any other discipline to kill people with, but in that case, being Gangrel had absolutley nothing to do with the fight.

mplindustries:

And all things being equal (or at least XP being equal), the Daeva spent less to get Vigor and Celerity, Nosferatu spent less to get Vigor, Nightmare, or Obfuscate (all excellent combat powers, actually), the Mekhet spent less to get Celerity and Obfuscate, and the Ventrue spent less to get Dominate.  All of those powers are more effective combat tools than Protean. 

Protean is a weak combat discipline, it is only a great conflict avoidance discipline.

Agreed. Whenever I run into a kindred that suddenly sprouts claws, I wisely try to keep my distance. Aggrevate is a bitch to heal. Especially when you have to hunt for five vitea every two days with half your face missing...

Also, it's one of the few effective ways to deal with powerful older kindred. They heal everything else in the blink of an eye, but not aggrevate.

It is certainly a useful power, both because of the fear-factor and the 'can't be healed'-damage. But on it's own, point-for-point in experience, it's not one of the more powerful combat disciplines.