New Trio.. So here's the deal.

So I decided to start my 3rd account again (sorry honey).

My current team is a trio of 2 Emp/Archers and a Grav/Emp (yes, Fort for all!), and I am trying to decide if I should take Boxing/Tough/Weave.

With 3x Maneuvers going plus Fort Plus Hover and perhaps I'll toss in CJ I can softcap Def (or be off by a % or two) and add to that my perma Aura's should be Perma AB I wonder if I need to get Tough specifically (since I'll have a shield of some sort with my APP powers, prolly dark).

So, with being softcapped, should I go for 2 Res shields or take the one and rely on my regen to get me through?

Also, anyone recommend some sets to give +Res that I can slot to have that little bit extra? I was going Thunderstrike on most of the Archer powers, something not too expensive?

PS. Hitting 2x Blazing Arrow with a Propel (with containment) is just goodness!

There isn't really any way to get a decent amount of resistance out of inventions. Trust me when I say you don't have any need of slotting for survivability in your inventions. Everyone on the team will be soft capped with a huge buffer to help against defense debuffs. I'd suggest going for recharge in everyone's builds, even though it'll be more expensive.

As for tough/weave, I'd say just get tough. Everyone will have more than enough defense already.

Depends a bit on what you plan on fighting. With heavy defense debuffers you'll want to go over the "soft cap" or you'll find out why it's a "soft" cap very quickly against higher con, higher rank foes. Defense cascade failure will happen very quickly with absolutely no defense debuff resistance available. Real question is how far over the cap do you need to be? I'd be looking to be able to soak up one lucky hit that carries a defense debuff value typical of what you face. Doing so means the foe then needs to hit you twice before the first -def wears off to get you into cascade failure/defense troubles. 1 in 20'ish then becomes 1 in 400'ish. For starters if you can soft cap with 2 Emps I'd say the same level of defense plus the 3rd Empath allowing you to stack another Fortitude (2 on everyone) is a very good place to begin.

With that much defense buffing going around, I think you can go without the fighting pool just fine.

Defence (from double Fortitude) and Regen will see you through fine.
Slotted Fortitude alone from one Controller and one Defender is 42% Defence to absolutely everything. Hover will softcap you.

There's no way that 3 Empaths need any more survivability. Just make sure you all take Assault.

Yeah, definitely slot Regeneration Aura with 3 Heals as well as 3 Recharges (or 4 Heal/Rech IOs to come pretty close)

Adrenalin Boost also provides the same +Regen bonus, so what you're seeing with unslotted Regen Aura is basically 1/4 of the Regen bonus you'll achieve later on - double it for slotting and double it for two powers. Thats when it really gets noticeable. At 20 times the base regen you're going from zero to full in 12 seconds or so. One unslotted aura takes about 48 seconds to fill your health bar.

Recovery Aura on the other hand gives you all the End you can eat without slotting.

For Emp/Archers and an Emp Controller, dont slot for end mod, you don't have any crashing nukes.
Slot for recharge first, and for heals if you have the slots - it also provides between 500% and 1000% regen depending on slotting. You can always find a situation where there s just a little bit more incoming damage and you need that extra regen.

Biospark's advice on Doctored Wounds is excellent, if you're up for acquiring 6 sets of them (for Regen Aura and AB). The End/Heal piece is skippable for these powers, the other 5 give you around 82% heal and capped recharge.