Wanting to tank narrows the options a bit.
Secondaries: Invuln, Shields, SR and WP are all tanks that scale well. None besides WP are really friendly early game.
Offense: Swords are the only tank-inclined offense because of the parry skill (in katana and broadsword) which is +15% melee/lethal defense, which scales to 24% when enhanced. IE: 2 parries and you're softcapped for defense.
As long as you have either one of the secondaries or a sword primary listed, you're well on your way to tanking. I tank a lot on my fire/sr, fire/invuln, broadsword/dark, kat/fire, and dm/invuln, so really it's just how you choose to build/spec it.
I'd try a katana / willpower, it's a very friendly starter. Fire/wp was mentioned below, and it's excellent.
What you want is a fire/wp. Make one and let the good times roll! Or should I say burn?
"All problems can be solved by throwing enough scrappers at it."
@Riez on Virtue, Protector, Champion, and Exalted server.
Welcome to the Forums!!! 
Well first off all Scrappers are good a soloing so you could pick any and do ok with. 
For you attack you said you want good ST damage and good AoE, I think the best for that would be Fire Melee. It as great ST damage and Fire Sword Cirlce is just awesome. Other are good too but Fire is one of my Fav.
Now for the secondary again any will do, some go better with others but still all are good. Now I thinking for lvling up with just SO I think /WP would be the best. /WP is a great set and easy to play. You don't need to put a lot in to it to be great.
If you looking to IO out your toon then /SR and /SD will be great for you then. /SD gets the most out of IOs IMO it can give you a great damage and gives you great Defense. /SR gets a lot but it is also a late bloomer. But with just SO /SR is the better of the 2.
So if you want to be great with SO I would go with Fire/WP, if you want to put some work in to your build I would go with Fire/SD.
Now like I said any secondary will do. Just play what you think looks fun to you.
"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time"- Chesty Puller US Marine Corps
I agree with Broken Prey.
Though I will add in that Fire/Invul with heavy IO slotting to boost S/L/E/N defenses is monstrous.
My personal preference these days is Fire Melee/Super Reflexes.
53 Bots/FF/Mace Mastermind | 53 NRG/FF/Electricity Defender | 50 Time/Dual Pistols/Soul Defender | 50 Demons/FF/Mace Mastermind | 51 Necro/Dark/Soul Mastermind | 50 Thugs/Time/Mace Mastermind | 50 Ice/Ice/Arctic Tanker | 50 Plant/Rad/Earth Controller | 50 Illusion/Trick Arrow Controller | 50 Gravity/Force Field Controller
Yes, I like Force Fields.
Katana i also a good set and yes fire is sweet as well
it has two aoe's to use in flashing and lotus fire is pure damage
and is not all lethal like swords but katana also has the advantage of DA and -defense when you hit the target making them easier to hit next time
Anyways pick what sounds good and run with it
Pinnacle
Langar Thurs-Katana/SR 50; Hejtmane-DM/DA 50
Rogue Spear-Spines/DA 50; Hypnosis-Ill/Rad 50
Sir Thomas Theroux-DM/SR 50; Melted Copper-Fire/Shield 50
Byzantine Warrior-DB/ELA 50;Blade Tempo-50 DB/EA
hi! this is my first post on the forums, so i am sorry if i seem kinda unusual
i play on the freedom server and have just recently got my 9 month veteran badge. after finally hitting lvl 50 on my ar/energy blaster and fully slotting him with IOs, i have decided to roll a new toon.
i tried a tanker, defender, controller, peacebringer, warshade and another blaster all to lvl 22 with stamina. but none of them seemed as much fun as i had before. so lastly, i rolled a scrapper, which i previously thought to have a boring experience with it
i tried a claws/regen and a broadsword/sr to lvl 14. i had more fun with them than i did on any other character!
however, i want to start a new scrapper. i want a scrapper that at 50 when fully slotted, it can herd and solo fast and easy. im mainly looking for a soloer, but something with a bit of aoe for teams will do. i also play a lot of non-farming arcs with the AE and most of the custom mobs are difficult, so i want something that can easily take them.
what is recommended? can anyone provide suggestions or each summarys of each poweset (seeing as im new to scrappers).
claws is quite fun, but i dont like the look of having them sticking outta my hand constantly
broadsword was not too bad, its just a set that i dont wanna use on my main to play with everyday for some reasons. mainly that its kinda slow.
i also have no idea on the pros and cons on each secondary. i also dont know which ones are good for soloing and which ones are good for tanking. i love tanking on scrappers
so remember that im only gonna solo and only team for when i do tfs
so? any replies would be awesome!