Mace/SD vs. Fire/SD

I've always loved Fire/SD,it's got a great mix of single target DPS and AoE, and I always was of the opinion that it was probably the best all-around scrapper.

But now War Mace has been ported...

My final FM build runs the Incinerate-Cremate-GFS chain and has blaze mastery, so has Fire Ball, FSC, and Shield Charge for AoE,

The best feasible Mace chain is Jawbreaker, Clobber, Shatter, and for AoE has Whirling Mace, Shatter, Shield Charge, and the incredible Crowd Control.

So from what I can tell, Mace and Fire are nearly par in DPS, and mace seems comparable in AoE, if not better.

So from what I can tell, fire's only advantage is exotic damage, while mace has a crap ton of mitigation, and feels no guilt taking the body pool thanks to recharge, allowing you to get its end under control with CP and PP.

So is mace really this awesome? Or are the numbers misleading me?

Mace/SD all the way. You are not being misled, it is awesome on an epic scale. Put a Chance for +Recharge IO in Crowd Control for extra lulz. >.>

Whieling Mace is meh but Mace hits like a truck. I have a WM/EA Brute and saw some MAce scrappers, it is a really hard hitting set. Just look at the Mid's numbers, it outshines Battle Axe in every way and the cones are great. Clobber is one of the highest damage ST attacks for scrappers and you get it at level 8.

My Mace/SD soloed his way to 50 doing normal missions in about ten days real time. It's a very powerful combo, and I like it more than the Fire/SD I played a while ago, although that was also a great character.

Which one will do better at soloing on x8? Does CC suffer from being a cone when AAO is pbaoe based?

CC can barely be called a cone. It's 180 degrees, so it's more of a semicircle. I mean, that's not as large as 360 degrees, sure, but it still hits most if not all of the spawn usually, as long as you target the right one.

Having played both, I prefer War Mace/ for soloing high difficulties. I don't think either has a huge edge in damage, but the knockdowns and stuns in War Mace give it a lot of mitigation that Fire/ doesn't have, which is nice since /SD has no healing besides Rebirth, Aid Self, and green insps.

Yeah CC is like half a footstomp (but with normal range).

I don't think there'd be a noticeable difference like Hopeling said, and WM will be much safer. My WM/EA Broot is safer than my FM/sd scrapper, it was always easier to use aid self on the brute (both have it, haven't played the /EA since the changes) because of all the knockdown. My SD always used more insps, when leveling she felt quite squishy because of SD's lowish def numbers and no mitigation - a problem minimized by WM because you'll be stunning and KU'ing mobs with pulverize and Jawbreaker very early and at level 8 a guaranteed mag 3 stun on clobber which also hits very hard, plus later shatter and CC are guaranteed KD (whirling mace may stun minions, also helpful).

WM/SD all the way, you can be strong and pretty!