My current Melee character is level 10 with Chance's knife being his best weapon, and a Rebar Club for high DT enemies (Radscorpions. Legion Assassins) and he uses explosives as back up.
His special is

S. 9
P. 5
E. 9
C. 1
I. 5
A. 6
L. 5

He has the heavy handed trait so I don't care much for relying on Crits. He has 55 melee and 50 explosives at the moment.

I am wondering what perks are almost mandatory for a him. I now have super slam and stone wall, and toughness, and plan to get piercing strike, and slayer (Agility implant to cover requirement) but I am wondering what else is necessary. Also I was wondering how soon I should reach 75 melee, and then 100. I invested points to get lockpick, repair, and science up to 50 with survival, speech, and medicine at around 35 to give a rough idea of what I have so far.

At level 8 after getting chance's knife I stumbled upon some deathclaws. I took out a young one with several rounds from my grenade rifle, and then used up my remaining rounds on an advlt (only had like 20 rounds to start) and then laid several mines until those ran out, and then finished it with a few throwing spears. I got away with only attracting the attention of those two luckilly.

At what point and with what equipment / stats can I start meleeing deathclaws? Also any advice or strategies for dealing with them with this type of character would be much appreciated.

Any general strategies would be helpful as well, and also any recommendations for companions would be nice. (currently have Boone and ED-E and use Project New Vegas which flags companions as essential)

my best strategy: play the game and see what happens; apply that knowledge to your future endeavours

Screw That!

Get:
Toughness X2
Unstoppable Force
Stonewall
Ninja

Ninja is bugged btw, also dont forget the Sub-Dermal Implant :spotted owl:

I really enjoyed my Melee/explosives character, it is a very fun time!

Try using sneak with your explosives :turtle: