Is blade arc/ laceration with clean sweep the best bleed skill in the game by far or is there other good options too ?
There’s devouring swarm, circle of slaughter and even grasping vines has a small bleed component. Blade trap too but that of course fails against bosses because of their trap immunity.
And bloody pox.
Blade arc is the most damaging bleed skill in the game with the transmutor, but there are plenty of other good options too. Shaman is always taken in a bleed build. Nightblade has Circle of Slaughter while occultist has -50% bleed resist with Curse of Frailty. The main question is: Do you want to be a Warder, Trickster, or Conjurer?
Blade arc w/ clean sweep is almost tied by Blade Spirit from nightblade actually. 2 strongest bleed options are likely Warder with blade arc + heavy fighting form cadence or trickster with phantasmal blades and blade spirit being your main forms of bleed. With lots of procs in both cases and devouring swarm in both cases to decimate enemy bleed resistance.
There are also other devotions that are pretty powerful bleeds i.e Rend and Falcon Swoop. I’m pretty sure there was an amazing bleed build on the forums.
Extensive discussion of bleed generally:
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32837
Dev Swarm with Rend attached is truly delicious.