Claws/Elec - Being Badass (With no Def?)

Ok, so I have played COH for several years off and on, and while getting a few chars into 40's, I have never taken a char *all the way* to that land where you really get into end game IO's and work to complete set bonuses, and really try to cobble together capping things and the whatnot.

I am trying to pick a char to go to that place, and maybe on to the new incarnate levels.

After some research I think Claws/Elec has some really powerful synergy and has a good feel to the play so far in my teens of trying it out (all thought I die alot, which is why I started fiddling with MIDS to see where it led)

While fiddling I observed that the set gets you to 40%ish resist with SO's, but thats your whole kit and kaboodle right there (along with energize to cover the healing angle some)

Is high resistance and 25% hp every 2 minutes (pre enhancement) enough to feel badnews with no def or only Combat Jumping? Is having 40% be skimmed off the topic of incoming damage going to make up for hardly ever being missed?

Does one pick up enough set bonuses to compensate? I guess I don't like the idea of being 50 and dropping bombs on your market moms before I feel like my char is tough.

I suppose all resistance based sets have this issue, and am curious how it works out in practice. I am probably missing something, or too obsessed with defense, maybe?

Thanks for any insight.

Adding a healthy dose of S/L defense turned my claws/electrical brute into a rather tough death machine.

Resistance alone is ok. Resistance backed up with defense and regeneration is better. Emberly gave you some solid advice. You can also take Maneuvers and Tactics. In tactics you can slot either Gaussians 6-piece (not as useful for S/L defense but still something) or Rectified Reticle.

Combat Jumping is another one that is handy.

Weave is good not only for the defense, but you'll get tough on the way and that stacks very nicely with Electric and gives you a place for more reactive armor for more defense.

On the healthy dose question, defense gets better the more you have. So if you have zero, the enemy hits you 50% of the time (simple way to think of it is in 5% chunks, so they hit 10 out of 20). When you have 25% defense they hit you 5 out of 20 attacks, you cut your damage in half. Going to 30% defense knocks another tick off, they only hit 4 out of 20 times. That is a 20% reduction in damage from only a 5% increase in defense. Going up to 35% defense they only hit you 3 out of 20 times. So that 5% increase was worth a 25% reduction in damage. See how each one is worth more than the last? Going from 35% to 40% defense reduces incoming damage by 33%. And going from 40% to the softcap at 45% cuts incoming damage in half. That last 5% is worth as much as the first 40% combined.

Now, you will notice 20% defense on top of electric's resistances, it makes a bid difference. However you really want to push it to 30% if you can.

Thanks for the very usefully suggestions and explanations. I think I get it now.

By the way, how much inf does it cost to get to a 25% or a 30% kind of target?