Seeking Powerset Advice

I've been lurking around on these forums for the past few days, dying to use the 30-day return code to re-ignite my interest in this game. While I've enjoyed controllers, dominators, masterminds and soldiers/widows, nothing has matched up to the visceral joy of the scrapperlock.

To that end, I'm trying to decide between three combos.

FM/SD, FM/WP, and Kat/WP

My biggest problem is I'm not sure what these powersets offer now, but from what I've read I do have a vague image.

It seems to me like Kat/WP has the best early game, but possibly the least potential of the three. It seems as thought it's been given lower damage across the board to compensate for the defense bonus divine avalanche gets, but once WP is fully IO'd out, DA is probably a non-entity for anything but damage. That said, I'm pretty fond of the Katana's looks, but in 30 days, 3 months or a year, I doubt I'm going to be thrilled with any of the animations. Can an equally IO'd Kat/WP compete in damage with a FM/WP?

FM/WP seems like the middle ground. Stacking QR and Stam will allow me to use my high-damage attacks, and Fire's lack of mitigation will be made up for the fact that WP is extremely survivable with SO's, and even more so with IOs.

However, FM/SD seems like it may end up doing even more damage, with comparable defense. AAO seems like this era's Perma-Rage. However, I've heard that Shield Defense does run into trouble against mobs that can buff each other's accuracy (IE, Vigilance, Tactics using NPCs) to bypass the soft cap. Is that a huge problem?

To sum up my questions (and consolidate them a bit)

1) FM/WP vs Kat/WP: Can Kat compete with FM's single-target damage? Is DA's extra defense late-game worth it if it can't? Since Flashing Steel is pretty strong whereas Breath of Fire is mediocre, can FS+Lotus Drops compete with Fire Sword Circle?

2) FM/WP vs. FM/SD: The second will do more damage, even after Shield Charge gets rebalanced due to AAO, correct? Does WP provide more defense? Is it possible to IO out a FM/WP to take advantage of QR+Stam? That is to say, slot for more damage while a /SD will have to slot for end-red?

1. FM/WP vs Kat/WP.

Fire will deal *significantly* more damage then katana, for two reasons, one being that the powers themselves are just more damaging, and two, because later on in the game, Lethal becomes fairly resisted, while Fire is the least resisted damage type in the game.

But conversely, Katana will stay alive better. Personally, I always like going more damage, because I can help cover gaps in defenses with IO's, or just pop a purple or something. I tend to play highly aggressive and consider a good offense>Defense, so I would go FM/WP. But that is just me.

2. FM/WP vs FM/SD.
FM/WP will be the easier combo to level, especially during the earlier levels. It's a bit more survivable, and starts out of the gate pretty strong. /Shield on the other hand, is pretty frail until you start IOing it out, but has significantly better damage in Shield Bash as well as Against All Odds. Once you start IOing it out, and softcap your defense, it becomes incredibly powerful.

So in short, FM/WP=Good leveling whole game. FM/SD=Later bloomer, needs IO's, but damage starts skyrocketing.

Not sure if influence is an issue or not, but I'm thinking FM/WP will also be the cheapest to get to a IO out.

I'm assuming influence is a bit of an issue, but to be honest, I'm not really sure how much I have scattered across my characters.

At this point, I think I'm set with Fire Melee, thanks to Candlestick's insight.

While I'm not hugely fond of choosing yet another late blooming powerset combo (Fire/Psi Dominator back before they buffed Psi's early game? *shudder*), it seems like an extremely powerful combo...

FM/SD is incredibly powerful and one of my favorite characters to play.

Alright, I think I've settled on FM/SD.

Now, a final question: Is it true that Brute fury affects Fire's DoTs, but Scrapper crits don't? Any advantages about scrapper's I don't know about? (Other than, of course, the amazing scrapperlock).

EDIT: Found an answer, and in case anybody else was wondering: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...20&postcount=2

Ironic when Google Search returns more helpful results than forum search, methinks.

Kat definitely improves noticeably on tough targets once u slot in the Achilles' Heel proc. It's like a whole new level of super saiyan for AV soloing.

On my Ninja/Ninja stalker I put the Achilles' Heel proc in just the fastest-recycling power, which was usually get enough to keep it up on anything with a significant amount of HP. All my other melee attacks pretty much had +Def 6-piece sets in them. Is one Achilles proc enough you think?