Is there a point to anything but fire?

Back to the OP's original question.

Yes. There is a tendency to lump the same ATs together as though they are expected to perform and progress in a similar fashion. But, I think doing this is only going to lead to disappointment for someone.

I see comparisons: Corruptors vs Scrappers

What? Perhaps, when taking into account they dish out similar damage. Perhaps not. Player A may have his alpha attack slotted well, Player B not so well. Playstyles vary.

You could give me the "best" PvP Ice/ice/Cold Mastery Blaster build, throw me into Recluse's Victory and I may not shine like other players who haven't logged 4000 hours on their ice blaster like I have. They might beat me silly because of my tendency to lead with freeze ray, even on targets that aren't going to get held.

Different powersets within the same ATs are going to perform differently. Each player must compare and contrast with their own playstyles. Do they do nothing but team with others? Then maybe fire is the way to go, because they don't need to worry so much about mitigation. Maybe it's not, because they should bring more to the table in that context.

In the end, it's who had fun and who didn't. The one who had fun wins.
If you didnt' have fun, you take a moment and find out why. Do you need KB to buy you some time because your reflexes are slow? or is your damage just that weak? Or, are your tactics just that bad? Are your tactics sound, but your strategy in using that tactic poorly executed?
Only the one behind the keyboard can really make that call.

To the OP: if it means anything, I've looked at all my powersets across all ATs, and i've got more fire primaries and secondaries than any other powerset. For me, it's because I don't want to think about the delay in killing by holding or immobilizing or sleeping or fearing. I just want the NPC trying to kill me to be dead. When I solo, my objective is not XP, but merits. I want it over and done with ASAP so at the end of the day, I'll be closer to getting this goodie or that badge, whatever. Sets that mitigate damage are wonderful! They may not be suitable for every job, and that's ok. The fire/* corruptor isn't suitable for every job either.

Fire is great! They're all great.

I'm not one to argue with numbers but if you read later in the post I'm pretty sure you'll see that he's talking about debuffs balancing that a bit. So if you were to take your numbers and change them for something like freezing rain being present the numbers might not be so drastic.

Also I know this is the corrupter forum but proving that two average sets have a scrapper doing a lot more damage than a corrupter seems less useful to the general point being discussed ie range vs melee set balance. I imagine using blaster numbers would be more fair to that comparison.

In general there's a lot of proving to back up anecdotal statements in a lot of this thread. For instance:

Fire does the most single target damage

Fire does the most aoe damage

Fire is significantly ahead of all other ranged sets

What single and aoe damage of the melee sets are, to try to find just what average actually is.

The gap between average and the outliers in melee and ranged sets.

Edit: And the elephant in the room. Scaling.

It seems there is a lot of insulting from some people which is uneeded.

I've played both a scrapper (MA/Shield) and a corrupter (Elec/pain).

Yes, fire wins for pure damage and yes, scrappers can out DPS corrupters, but there are a couple of things to remember.

1) Not every set has to be as powerful as fireblast. Yes, some sets do need a bit more oomph, but overall, not everything needs a damage increase.
2) The mitigation or debuffs other sets provide is important when looking at them. The support aspect of a corrupter can carry over to their attacks. Look at sonic for example, or rad, or ice. All of those powers help the team by increasing their damage, accuracy or meaning they have to deal a bit less damage to do something.
3) Other powers. A scrapper is in the thick of things, dealing damage and taking it. A corrupter can stand back and blast. This means for them, range can be surviability.

Back to the OP's original question (again), I feel much the same way to a large extent. Thing is, I would not enjoy playing a fire corruptor unless I had some sort of mitigation from the secondary. I have a /dark and a new /traps, both of which are great for that.

I can see the appeal of a fire/kin (who couldn't?) but it would be my idea of hell to play. When I wanted a villainous /kin, I made it ice/, for the holds and slows. I found out later that the nuke (which I tend not to take on fire corruptors) with fulcrum shift is quite a lovely thing.

On the other hand, I have an archery/rad, which, while not bad, is pretty "meh" for me. It's a very solid team player (and beats the holy heck out of rad/archery defender which it started out as), it still lacks the "oomph" of a fire/anything.

I agree that fire/ has no mitigation whatsoever. None. But on a corruptor, you don't need to have mitigation from the primary - you can get it in spades from the secondary.

I have a 50 Rad/Therm Cor and i absolutely love him. Useful in all SF/TF and can do some dmg/debuff.

Assault Rifle's Full Auto. Hit the button and spin the camera 360 degrees a few times. Can't do that with Fire yo.

There are 4 sets that I would try and they are distinctive enough IMO.

1. Fire: Best raw damage period but you get like almost no control at all.

2. Ice: Great controls/debuffs and very good ST damage. It's one of the best soloing sets.

3. Sonic: Great ST damage and controls for soloing and its -resistance can stack up very very nicely. It's perfect for a team that needs to kill a tough AV/Monster. When you have a sonic on an AV, you can really tell the increased dps as a team.

4. Dark: It used to lack a tier 3 attack but now Life Drain is a decent attack on a much shorter recharge. It's the only primary set with self healing that can be used once every 8s or less. Dark also has good soft controls. I think it's unique enough to try.

The rest are ok. I hate Radiation. I prefer Beam Rifle on Blaster (due to redraws). I find Psionic damage too resisted when it happens and it really doesn't excel in any area. Archery is better on Blaster with Aim/Build Up IMO. Energy blast is just a very very mediocre set. Assault Rifle has good aoe but doesn't stand out enough for me. Electricity Blast has good aoe but Fire is better. Dual Pistol has good aoe but ST damage is quite bad with long animation time.

(sorry for raising this thread from the dead, didn't realize it was almost a month old before I commented.)

Is there a point to corruptor blast sets other than Fire?

Certainly. As someone who tends to solo a lot, and someone who even occasionally turns off xp in order to make sure I hit all the content I want, I value mitigation on my corruptors. When I made a /Sonic Resonance corruptor, I looked for a blast set that would help me cope with the real lack of mitigation in my secondary. Dark blast was perfect, offering both a -to hit effect, some controls (aoe stun and immobilize), and a self heal.

When I wanted to make a /Kinetics corruptor, I knew I wanted something that would allow me to stay within melee range of my enemies (to best leverage Fulcrum Shift, the heal, and the endurance power). Radiation blast offered a pbaoe blast, a targeted aoe blast that can be used in melee range, a secondary effect that helps my kinetics powers hit (the -defense) and a stun in the third blast to help put mezzing enemies out of commission. Fire blast actually would have been okay here, though the lack of mezzing powers or any mitigation would have meant lots of time running back from the hospital.

My main is an Ice/Cold. I made him before I knew anything about synergy in this game, but in retrospect Cold was only doable by a neophyte like me because Ice's mitigation carried me until Cold's late blooming awesomeness began to kick in.

Because I am concerned about character concept, synergy with my secondary, and soloability at all levels, I almost always choose something other than Fire blast. I do really want to make a Fire/Dark. Fire/Dark has good synergy and soloability, but I just haven't found the right concept yet.