My own Kat/SR is softcapped with set bonuses and CJ alone, has Aid Self and runs the highest DPS Katana attack chain, but that build is firmly in "cost no object" territory.
If you cannot afford Obliterations, you can think about softcapping just Ranged and AoE defense and relying on Divine Avalanche to make up the melee defense. The only benefit to softcapping melee defense on a Katana character is being able to drop Divine Avalanche and run the GD > GC > SD > GC attack chain, but that also takes a lot of global recharge which you likely can't afford yet.
I have my first char to level 32 and I think I need to figure out which route I'm gonna take. I have a simple build planned that uses box/tough/weave and some basic IO slotting to acheive soft cap and I can still squeeze in heal (or hasten). However, it feels a little annoying taking boxing which I have no use for whatsoever. So I came up with a build that uses IOs to cap defense and I can take heal/hasten and even an epic pool like body mastery. So this seems a lot cooler. The prob is the cash, excuse me, influence. I'd need two Oblit sets (among other things) and from what I'm seeing that's hundreds of millions alone. I have about 30 mil right now. My question is, what do others that take Kat/SR do for builds? I'm not necessarily asking to post ur build just asking if you go the defense route (i.e. weave or manuevers) and sacrifice power picks or do you try to get enough inf to IO your way to softcap?