I'd grab the defense.
Recharge, as a function, is subject to diminishing returns. Unless you're shooting for enough recharge to pump out a specific attack chain or make some particular clicky power permanent (hasten, Phantom Army, Eclipse), then I wouldn't bother trying to grab every scrap you can.
Defense, on the other hand, provides more benefit as you add more. Your survivable DPS increases by larger amounts per each additional point. I've got a guide in my signature that details this process and some of the math behind it. For more thorough number crunching, look up Arcanaville's guide to defense.
Where to now?
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I have a BS/DA scrapper, as you can guess from the title. I have her build mostly worked out, but I have one choice left to make: should I use a Luck of the Gambler +recharge and the Steadfast Protection -KB, or should I go with the Karma -KB and Steadfast Protection +3% defense?
Here's the numbers without either of them.
Defenses:
19% smash
19% lethal
8.4% energy
8.4% negative
11.5% psionic
7.7% fire
7.7% cold
26.5% melee
7.1% ranged
9.6% AOE
Recharge: 30%
So I can boost my defenses by 3%, or my recharge by 7.5%. Which one should I go for?
And yes, I know I can probably jack all of those numbers even higher, but I'm trying to stay more or less within my means.