1. Depends entirely on what you farm and your settings. At +0/x8 you probably don't need to be capped even on melee and range. 40%+ would be more than enough. Also, you can constantly chug purples. At higher difficulties, it will matter more.
I farmed Freakshow at +2/x8 with a cheaply built Electric/Shield brute which only had 40% AoE (though capped melee/range) and that was more than adequate until I could add some significant upgrades to the build.
2. Fire/Kin or Spines/Fire would not be the benchmarks I would set as ultimate farming toons. Fire/Kins are used because they can farm with SOs. There are many things that can outfarm a Spines/Fire.
AoE defense is your least needed on the warrior farm for sure, if you have to let somethign go, that is the one. you should be fine below the cap on AOE. if you are doing bosses, watch out for their battle axe cone thing though, it can really hurt.
For a scrapper that wants to farm AE missions or else the warrior or battle maiden mission do you think AoE defense needs to be capped? furthermore is AoE defense even needed?
I'm not looking for an ultimate farmer toon to keep up with fire/kins or spine/fires but the toon i'm asking for is an elec/SR scrapper.
Thanks, Zoner