Without excessive experience in either set, I'll give a semi-educated guess:
ST Damage: Broadsword
AoE: War Mace
End: Neither. Ok, ok. Probably Broadsword
Secondary Effects. Broadsword gets Parry.
As you're talking Shield, it's important to consider Shield works much better on scrappers than brutes due to the way the ATs and the set are designed.
With that in mind, I'd go with BS being much stronger in ST damage, a bit stronger in AOE damage, slightly better in end efficiency. The only spot where WM wins is secondary effects, having a stun on its hardest hitter, a KD on its 10 target cone.
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Depends. If you count Parry's +Def as a secondary effect, I'd say BS wins there too. That melee Defense will be very valuable for a leveling up /Shield Scrapper, plus it opens up a cheap way to soft cap at 50 if you're tight on influence.
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Originally Posted by Nihilii
The only spot where WM wins is secondary effects, having a stun on its hardest hitter, a KD on its 10 target cone.
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Due to the way that damage bonuses works, any/SD scrapper should generally do more damage than any/SD brute.
But looking at the numbers for BS and WM, I'd say they're about equal in the ST department, I'd even give WM an edge. It's impossible to tell without looking at specific attack chains though. In the AoE department, WM wins by a long shot if you use Shatter as an AoE (and it can easily hit 3 targets, while its very difficult to get more than one with Head Splitter). That is until you factor in Shield Charge which packs a much, much bigger wallop on a Scrapper than on a Brute. Build Up works even further in the favor of scrappers.
But I'd be careful about this as we have no idea how things will look after the upcoming SC nerf (we don't even know when it will happen).
Regarding utility, I'd say it's a draw. BS is much, much more useful during leveling because of Parry, and for cheap softcapped builds. WM is more useful if you have enough inf to softcap your brute and are willing to spend the same amount on a scrapper. Because once you go for builds that softcap without Parry, BS is left with no utility whatsoever while WM still has its guaranteed KD from Crowd Control and the guaranteed stun from Clobber.
Okay, assuming I haven't made mistakes in my spreadsheet...
Just directly comparing the DPA of the attacks of the same cooldowns (pulverize - hack, jawbreaker - disembowel, etc), Brute WM attacks roughly break even with Scrapper BS attacks with 90% Fury and 1 enemy fueling AAO. Less Fury or more enemies will favor the scrapper. The Scrapper will also get more from Build Up and Shield Charge.
War Mace has better AoE attacks because Shatter and Crowd Control are wider than their counterparts, but I don't think that'll make up for the difference in raw damage. The only real advantage I'd say WM has is its KD/stun control, and having an extra strong ST attack (Clobber) instead of a low-damage defensive attack (Parry).
So I'd say Broadsword is going to be stronger (which is actually opposite what my first guess was). As mentioned, Parry will also make leveling easier.
Edit: I should add the caveat that although I've played both BS/ and /SD a lot, I haven't played them together, and I've never had a WM/.
Taking into account the difference in AT's, which set is generally better for:
Single target damage?
AoE damage?
End usage?
Secondary effects?
I want to roll a weapons user with /Shield, CoH or CoV, I have no preference. I like both AT's and am experienced in both enough to know the difference in playstyle.
I'm just looking for opinions on which weapon set is best. I'm looking for a mix of single target and AoE damage. So whichever comes out there, wins for me.
Thanks.