How is Resistance without Defense?

Didn't read everyone's responses. But my quick response to the OP...

On teams, resist sets can be great.. they can even out-perform defense sets because resist sets have damage auras thus producing higher damage output. They also have taunt auras which can benifit the teams as well. The lack of having any defense is basically covered up by your team... but that's not anything to be ashamed of... it's a fact of how this game works.

Solo or teamed with only other damage dealers, if you're playing a resistance set with no defense, you're going to have to either play on an easier difficulty setting or spend a lot of time resting.

Hey UP! Long time no see.

Edit: I agree entirely with your comment in the above post.

TL;DR: Dark Armor ROCKS (if you know what you're doing).

Long version:

Alright, so here's the thing: I've always preferred Resistance rather than Defensive.

I know when I'm going to get hit, and for how much, so I know when I will be needing to react accordingly. This is not something you can really do on a defensive set.

For Scrappers, I would say that Dark Armor is my Resistance set of choice.

Pros: Amazing heal, High Psi/Negative resistances, some Toxic resistances, Endurance Drain resistance, Fear/Confuse resistance, +Perception, To-Hit Debuffs, able to completely nullify minions.

Cons: High base endurance cost, no kb res, no immob res, low Energy resistances.

On its own, the set does just fine. It nothing spectacular unless you are facing mobs that most others would fear (Carnies, Malta, Knives, Rikti, Arachnos).

You will be able to laugh at any psi/negative/end drain abilities like they're nothing. You won't even notice the other tankers and scrappers drop like flies as you keep fighting.

Being able to get a couple of key IO's will help Dark Armor greatly: Theft of Essence- Chance for +Endurance is lovely in Dark Regeneration. The proc will give 10 endurance when it fires, and when done in a large group, the chances are high it will go off.
The KB protection IOs are nice, too.

The other powers in the set offer some very interesting customization, and places to slot other sets should you decide you DO want to stack some defense on top of that resistance and godlike heal.

Oppressive Gloom will take minions out of the fight permanently, as long as they are in range. This is good for keeping a few mobs around to heal off of.

Cloak of Darkness and Fear are nice for several reasons: +perception, immob res, +def, tohit debuff. Stacking these two can give you a nice start on your defense stats, if you chose to go for set bonuses.

On average, my Dark Armor Scrappers will run Embrace/Murk/Obsidian/Tough/OG/Shroud/Combat Jumping. If you go for max defense, throw in CoS, CoF and Weave to taste.

Its a solid set- baseline, its average. If you spent time and effort, it will be a beast. The hardest part is learning when to use toggles or turn them off.

It also really depends on your primary.

Dark/MA/Kat or Claws all work very well imo. Endurance light/utility/control/defense options that greatly boost the effectiveness of the secondary.

Spines/DB/BS and Elec conflict with DA in my personal opinion. I know they may work for other people, but to me, they just grate.

Second Edit:

Also, if you've never tried it (or haven't tried it recently), give Regeneration a try.

I'd say it is a tie between Regen and DA for me, on a Scrapper. My DA can do things my Regen can't, and vice versa.