Or to put it more briefly 
If I am trying to create a melee focused Widow with good defenses, is it overkill to have CT Defence (no option), TT Maneuvers, Indomitable Will, Foresight, Mind Link (possibly perma), Mask Presence and Elude?
That's a lot of powers, but if it will make me near bulletproof (if correctly slotted) it might be worth a go.
Elude's not strictly necessary to have yourself under perma soft-cap defenses, but it's +Defense is a lot better than the SR's version, at +65%. I think it'd quite possibly have you evading the stuff which has high accuracy or massive +ToHit buffs, like Rularuu Sentries and DE near a Quartz emanator, for instance.
With Mental Training, Hasten and 4 Def/Rech IOs at around 35 in Mind Link, it'll be perma is my experience, though my widow does have +20% Rech from set bonuses from 3 Crushing Impact and 1 Adjusted Targeting set. With Foresight, Mind Link, TT:Maneuvers, CT
efensive, Combat Jumping, Mask Presence and a Steadfast: Res/Def, I'm at 46% AoE/Ranged defense, 57% melee, 31% psionic while Mask Presence is suppressed. While psionic may be only "quite good" in terms of defense, psi resistance is at 65%, so...
And I think CJ's only got one defense IO slotted, and Mask Presence only has end redux.
I'm quite liking it. Tough, pretty good single-target damage, decent AoE options, and can bring more than just that to a team with, in essence, perma +23% defense buffs to all along with psi resist.
Ah, yes. And Smoke Grenade giving -5% ToHit, unresistable. Was happy to find it didn't cause redraw, either.
You rock, thanks for the reply. I shall have a look at the IO sets. Last time I waited till 47 before fitting out with IO sets, and then unless I can find something to do at level 50, 94 percent of my time on the character was without the bonuses. I might look at doing a set at 35 and then another set at level 47.
Smoke Grenade I got thinking it would help me pull, i.e. drop it on a group and single pull one mob out, but usually I get most of the group anyway, though admittedly they are debuffed.
So I read it is possible to (near?) perma run Mind Link using Def/Recharge's from various sets, if so what is the earliest level you can achieve this with for example 3 slots? I am guessing Mental Training helps and the rest is done with +rech set bonuses, or is Hasten in the mix too?
Regardless of this, what powers are required to reach the softcap for defences and resistances? I am bewildered by the number of defensive skills available! I have read it is possible to skip Elude altogether for example. I am assuming you can softcap the defences without it...? On the other hand I believe Elude is virtually required for PvP, or is this not the case?
I realise this is subjective and dependant upon levels and slotting etc, but I don't want to be wasting a power on TT: Maneuvers (for example) if most or all of the benefits for this would be above a softcap.
If the answer is that I should just go work it all out in Mids, am I aiming to try and get all defences to 45+ including Melee, Ranged and AoE? Where should I aim to get my resistances to?
Any help appreciated.