Depends. Most, if not all, of the Scrapper secondaries do more single-target damage than Spines. Broadsword, Dark Melee, and Fire Melee being the heaviest hitters.
However, when you talk about AoE damage, Spines is far and away the most damaging primary. Quills, Spine Burst, Throw Spines, and Ripper all do AoE damage (Ripper has the smallest cone, but it's still an awesome power, and Throw Spines is a cone but a huge one).
I have 2 very differing builds for my main Scrappers: Spines/WP and Fire/Regen.
My Spines/WP is built for taking on hordes of minions and lieutenants. Spines is AoE heavy, and Willpower thrives off of having a lot of enemies around you. He can destroy a large group of enemies in seconds. But when I get down to the boss, I have trouble taking him down.
On the other hand, my Fire/Regen is my PvP'er and doesn't even have his only AoE in the build that I run. Fire is a supreme single target set with one very good AoE (Fire Sword Circle, which I don't have). Regen can't take on too many opponents like other sets can, but one super-tough opponent is no big deal at all. Now, I don't have trouble going through big mobs with my Fire/Regen, but he's all IO'd out, and my Spines/WP has SO's. However, it takes me probably 2 times longer for a minion or lieutenant mob on my Fire/Regen compared to my Spines/WP. But when a boss rolls around, he's going down easily.
Bottom line is that Spines might be weaker in taking down hard targets, but it excells in taking down multiple targets. It's the most unique Scrapper set, in my opinion (although that might go to DM). I know that for agriculture (AE agriculture, can't say the forbidden word!), Spines is great.
Don't feel bad that you don't help to kill a boss as much as your Broadsword friend did. You're the reason they even cleared a path to the boss.
My 50 is a spines/regen. With regen, I've never had a tough time with big mobs. In fact, sometimes I solo 6 person spawns on unyielding(more baddies than invincible). Bosses and avs can take a long time with spines though. All in all, spines does amazing damage, but lack in the ST department.
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Bottom line is that Spines might be weaker in taking down hard targets, but it excells in taking down multiple targets.
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O rly?
Seeing as a level 50 AV gives 67000 influence (or 33500 influence and X prestige, as it's a 50/50 split), seeing as your level 52 AV gave you 30000 influence and 300 prestige, I think it's safe to assume someone else did a significant part of the damage, be it an AE ally or rogue mob.
That, and I don't think it's mathematically possible for Spines to do the minimum ~200-210 DPS it should do to beat a level 52 LR (between his 50% res and regen) without outside help.
Regardless, being able to kill an AV is irrelevant to Spizzie's point. You can be the weakest at taking down hard targets and still be able to kill AVs. It just means others will kill AVs faster.
It took me a good 3 years before I bothered giving the "ugly" Spines/ a try, and it was because of a similar "revelation" that the OP had.
While running team missions, I was teamed with a Spines/Invul who just shredded spawns, tearing through large groups like crazy. I had run a DM/Regen to 50 and loved the single target uberness of it, but I quit using it because large spawns took forever and a day to take down.
Even hunting low level spawns for badges gave me migraines because it was bap bap bap, turn, bap bap bap, turn, rinse and repeat. Over and over, the single target would die quickly but it would take so long to do groups that it drove me nuts.
Then the Spines/Invul came into my life. I'd watch as he launched himself into spawn after spawn and just clean house.
So I rolled a Spines/WP, and it was by far the most fun I'd ever had with any of my toons.
Okay, so that out of the way, I think Spines/ is a bit underrated for single target goodness, but I agree it can't compete one on one with the heavy hitting single target primaries.
This takes you back to playstyle. Do you want to be the guy on the team that wipes out all of the minions and LT.'s, or the guy that goes right for the Boss/EB/AV while the rest of the team handles the spawn?
As for solo, can you handle wiping out the minions and LT.'s quickly but having to take more time with the Bosses/EB's/AV's? I wouldn't vouch for AV effectiveness solo, because I rarely soloed at high levels and can't recall taking one down one on one.
Anyways, its all about flavor, baby.
I haven't been able to roll another Scrapper that specializes in single target goodness since that Spines/ walked into my life. Oh and the secondary effects are kick butt too. You have Slows, -Fly (in Impale) which is a GREAT power to have, a damage aura that is great for the last sliver of health a bad guy might have, and -Recharge, which is just AMAZING for single target foes.
If you've fought enemies with lots of Slow and -Recharge powers, you know just how tough it can be watching those powers...slowly...slowly...creep towards being available.
I throw in a Chance for Slow into Quills (Pacing of the Turtle, I think) for even more fun. Its for the set bonus, plus I love keeping the skittery critters in range, like War Wolves, which seem to have had a few thousand gallons of Red Bull before each battle. It dovetails nicely with /WP and keeping bad guys huddled around me.
Let's get something straight: there is no -weak- Scrapper primaries. They all do a lot of damage compared to other AT's (Blasters rival them, though). It's just that in the context of Scrappers, it's one of the weaker single-target sets out there.
Spines/WP works so well together. Great synergy.
Is spine's damage lower then some of the other sets (ie katana, dark melee)? When teaming with other scrappers they seem to do more damage then me.