Spines /Dark or/Fire ? With Kinetic/ or Empathy/ defender
Spine's/Fire with a Cold defender, though Kinetics would be ok. Cold would be better.
For spines, Barb Swipe and Confront are not worth getting, and Impale is skippable if you need the power pick. Fire Armor's skippable powers are Temp Protection and Rise of the Phoenix, however both are helpful. If you plan to always play with a cold defender, you can really ignore slotting for the S/L soft cap and just get extra recharge. If you are going to be with a Kin, you should shoot for 32.5% S/L defense or 45% defense. As for patron pools. I like how Energy Torrent meshes with Throw Spine's cone. Energy Torrent puts the mob on it's back, then throw spines as your running into the mob, and then Spine Burst inside the mob. Fire Ball in the Blaze Mastery is also helpful. Soul Mastery is nice with Shadow Meld for extra survivability.
Your character does not have capped defense. Depending on your AT the cap is between 175% - 225%. Your defense is not teal in the combat window, it can go higher. STOP SAYING IT IS CAPPED! The correct term is Soft Cap.
I enjoy playing in Mids. I specialize in Melee Characters, other AT's usually bore me.
Coming back to the game after a few years, Im having trouble deciding which route to go for an AOE heavy scrapper build. Im leaning toward Spines but not sure about /fire or /dark.
I dont know which powers from spines I can skip or those from /fire and /dark I can pass up and not miss. Also would it go better with a empathy or kinetics based defender?
And what ancillary pool would mesh with it?