The samurai is an alright melee, giving me a few tricks and some nifty abilities, but I haven't been using my intimidate as much as I'd like. Note that it'll change once I grab ronin, which is either next level or two levels from now.
So far, I like it better than fighter, if that makes you feel better, and it's definitely a tad stronger... though not a whole lot.... I know you alluded to changes to it in the thread, so I'm also waiting to see what that entails.