The Steadfast Unique that grants 3% defense and Weave go along way to increasing survivability. True Grit also offers a lot of extra hit points that add to survivability in the early levels.
Poisonous Ice 50 Ice/Rad
Icy Jax 50 Ice/SS
Jaxon Penn 50 Shield/Mace
Cpt Clax 50 Thugs/Dark
Lady BlackIce 50 Dark/Cold
Lady Black Ice 50 Dark/Ice
Bella Jax 50 Storm/Sonic
Operative Jax 50 SoA
Level 50 Trick Arrow Alts
TA/A-Plant/TA-Bots/TA
Level 50 Claws Scrappers
SR-Regen-DA-Invul-WP-FA
Mitigation. A good Primary with KB/KD, stuns ect. Also set bonuses, even some of the more inexpensive sets, can help boost the defence/resist and regen.
I'd suggest War Mace, Stone, or Electric Melee as a primary.
If I remember right, stone will be the bigger single target damage dealer. Seismic assault is just nasty.
Get a little recharge slotted in, and have any of those sets aoe kb/kd attacks up every 10-20 seconds(or less) and you should be fine.
With basic SO slotting of Shield Defense leaves you with ~25% positional defense (counting Combat Jumping). You also get ~11 resistance, or ~17 resistance if it is elemental damage. Unlike WP, you don't regen any faster.
So... how would one survive with these (seemingly) low numbers? The only way I can figure to do it is with Dark Melee (ToF and Siphon Life), however I already have about 200 levels of Dark Melee (scrappers, brutes, and stalkers), so I would rather not try that.
Anyone have some good advice on a primary and how to stay alive on a budget?
Make a man a fire and keep him warm for the day, SET a man on fire and keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Incarnates: K'lir(Fire/Dark Corr):Hot-House Flower(Plant/Fire Dom):Kinrad X(Kin/Rad Def):Itsy-Bitsy Spider(Crab):Two Ton Tony(Mace/WP Broot):Teeny Weeny Widow(Fortunata/Widow) : Zeroth Law (Ice/Fire Tank)