Somewhat new to Scrappers

If you've looked over at the brute section during the last few days, I had a thread with a similar name that asked about which brute to play. Well, now I'm looking towards trying a scrapper as well, the thing is, much like on the brute side, I know almost nothing about scrappers. Of course, I know that they have a critical mechanic and all that basic stuff (like that they bash faces), but really, I have no idea when it comes down to what kind of synergy their primaries and secondaries can have, since, much like you can assume by now, I have never really played a melee character past level 16, and that one and only was a stone/stone brute (feels pretty far from a scrapper, even more so when they don't have stone as a primary or secondary).

Please note, though, that I do not want "the best scrapper" or a list of the best builds (although if it happens to seem like I may enjoy playing it, feel free to suggest it). I am looking for an enjoyable leveling experience as well as being able to participate in just about every end-game aspect of the game. I also heard that scrappers were extremely good at soloing, this is a plus in my book, since the players I started with about 6 years or so ago have not logged in since... about 5-6 years ago.
As far as money is concerned, I have two other 50s, a fire/thermal corrupter and a widow, but none of them are extremely rich, nor am I really interested in farming for a non-50 character. So a scrapper that can farm well (and hopefully without much investment, or that can farm said investment on his own) is good, but it is not the most needed aspect.

Alright, so in order for you, kind soon-to-be poster, to help me, I need to mention some preferences that I have and all that stuff that will hopefully guide you into making a suggestion.

So, as far as the primaries are concerned;
- On the weapon side, I'm not too much attracted to Dual Blades, while Broad Sword and even Katana have an interesting feeling, but feel very similar.

- Claws is almost a guaranteed no-go. I have a Night Widow that I like, a lot, and would rather not have something so similar (or are they? I mainly read the powers, which lead me to assume that they are).

- Lightning Rod is awesome, but due to how the brute thread kept its distance towards Electric, I'm starting to have some doubts.

- I don't know much about Dark, except that I'm enjoying the early levels of my Dark/WP brute right now. I wouldn't mind rolling a similar character, since I'll probably end up sticking to either the scrapper or the brute.

- Fire feels somewhat weak in perspective. That is probably just me though. Despite being a fan of the famous "kill it with fire" religion, I'm not much into Fire Melee (my corrupter was nice, but Fire Melee just feels so.. different) and have a tendency to look at Fire Aura for the burning part.

- Spines looks interesting, especially considering scrappers are one of the only archetype who have access to it (and I don't plan on leveling a stalker)

- Kinetic is new. I got Going Rogue while coming back, but I haven't really seen one in action nor am I too sure about how the set is supposed to work (or is it simply draining damage and increasing your own?).

On the secondaries' side, I don't have much to say, except for the fact that I've never been tempted by Invincibility, Super Reflex (RNG has never been my thing, but perhaps one of you can convince me) and Shield Defence (not the shield type, although I might give it a go), while I've always been tempted by Willpower and Regeneration. being the type to stand back up again and again or to simply play a supportive role and keep another guy standing up, I always looked over to those two secondaries whenever I tried to get a melee character going (right before losing interest, either at character creation or due to poor understanding of the mechanics).

In short, if you have a scrapper suggestion for a new-to-melee player (well, in CoX mostly), then I'd be glad to hear about it.

As such finishes my post; I thank you for reading all the way through (or even just the ending), as well as for any posts that you may decide to throw my way (even if it's not a suggestion about a certain scrapper powerset, I'd be glad to hear tips or whatnot), if you need extra information (or are just curious) please feel free to ask, I'm a pretty generous fellow when it comes down to that (helping you help me!).

For farming, Fire/Shield should be pretty effective. Should be pretty good at everything else too. Would need some investment to get to uber mode though, mostly shoring up the defense.

A couple of notes on what you've said:

Katana and broadsword are indeed very similar. However, katana is generally considered superior for overall damage in PvE thanks to quicker animations. The set offers modest AoE damage, good ST damage and a substantial boost to survivability thanks to Divine Avalanche. It's an excellent well-rounded set for levelling and end-game, though not the best farmer out there. I will say that my kat/wp has seen far more play than any of my other characters.

The discussion of lightning rod on the brute forum probably left you with doubts because of the way this power (and shield charge) works in regards to being a pseudopet. As a result brutes don't necessarily get the most out of the power. This doesn't translate to scrappers though. Elec is an excellent set for AoE damage though quite lacklustre for ST damage. It can feel kind of incomplete until it gets to lightning rod though, so it may not be the best set for trying to get into scrappers.

Spines is another strong set for AoE damage and a good contender for laying waste to large groups of enemies. Like electric it's not fantastic for ST damage but it gets by. I'd say it's a bit smoother to level than electric though.

You've seen Dark a bit and not too many surprises later. Excellent ST damage and some nice survivability increases, including the fantastic siphon life. Shadow maul can be nice for dealing with groups if you're happy to line up cones, though the set as a whole is generally weak for AoE damage and is about the last choice for farming, depending on secondary.

As for secondaries, the smoothest levelling tends to come with sets that minimize downtime and that function quite well without particular IOs. You've mentioned Regen and WP. Regen is very click heavy, which is either a plus or minus depending on what you like. This does mean that a new player may find the choices as to when to hit which power a little overwhelming. WP is an excellent toggle-up-and-forget set, with a nice balance of survival layers providing versatility. I'd look at electric armour too, since it offers some nice benefits like a damage aura and recharge bonus. All three of these sets also provide some help with endurance which can really smooth out the levelling process. Regen gets this the earliest with quick recovery at 4, while the other two sets are looking at more like level 20.

TL;DR: Based on what you've stated, I'd go with katana or spines for the primary; and WP, regen or electric for the secondary. If I were to pick one for you I'd say katana/elec.

Katana/Willpower

Easy to build, easy to play, easy to level, and gives up nothing in top end power if you go for it.

On the other hand, any/any works well. There are no dud combinations, even if some are better at some things than others.

Thank you all for the quick replies,

I'll definitely try out Katana/Willpower or Electric, I even have a character concept to go with it!

As for the rest, how does Electric/Electric or Willpower sound? Any particular holes/weaknesses that I should watch out for if I were to try it out?

Be aware that Electric Armour pre L28 (when you get your heal) feels incredibly squishy. In fact I'd say its the squishiest defensive set I've played until the very late 30s as the mitigation in terms of sapping isn't there, so you end up with a end heavy low resistance set, which dramatically changes once you get energize and power sink.

I think that's where the magic of Divine Avalanche comes in. It won't protect you from everything, but it'll protect you from a lot of things. Willpower is likely to still feel a lot more solid. I have a lowbie Katana/Electric myself, and don't remember feeling squishy, but it's been a long time since I've touched him, so perhaps memory is kind.

I am partial to Broad Sword . It packs quite the punch just has slow animations.

Super Reflexes tends to go from "Man, I feel kinda weak here." to "OMG can anything even put a dent in me?!" right around the time you hit the softcap. SR is also virtually immune to defense debuffs, you'd literally have to be hit by more debuffs than is even possible at once to really notice it.

Shield Defense has some of the same going for it. It trades the ability to softcap cheaply and easily for some resistance, max HP, and a truly awesome AoE attack (honestly, Shield definitely got the better end of that deal)

Fire Melee is extremely potent. Unlike other sets who get stuns and debuffs ad such, FIre Melee's secondary effect is more damage in the form of DoTs. I'm not sure, but I believe Fire is second only to Kinetic in terms of damage potential.

Thanks to everyone for their responses!

I've started a Katana/Willpower scrapper and intend to level it as high as possible (goal being lvl 50, obviously).

That being said, since I have strong feelings for Elec/, I'll probably try one out sometime too.
As for the rest, Kinetic, Fire and Dark are also interesting and might see some playing.

Once again, thanks for the replies, and if someone feels like they have something to add, feel free to do so.