brute/scrapper survivability vs. tanker SO's only

I've read many guides and posts on forums. I want to make a character that will be good at surviving and decent at damage. I know that tankers get higher defense and resist numbers than brute/scrappers. I will be going to premium account soon and will only use SO's.

Given the SO only builds can brute/scrapper survivability be near tankers if there specced towards defense. Or will tanks be way beyond what they can achieve on so's.

This is all directed towards soloing mainly and team play on occasion. Im not looking to solo av's or anything just have fun and solo some stuff.

Just looking for some expert opinions.

Anything /wp will do just fine. Paired with a heavy mitigation primary like stone melee or dark melee and you'll even be able to run a few enemy groups at x8 without inspirations.

Similarly, anything /stone will also do just fine running granite.

And any secondary - ANY secondary - will do just fine if you start your x(x) difficulty low and ramp it up to a point you're comfortable with. Some sets this will be x3 or 4. Some will be x5 or x6.

On just SO's you might find your brute out-surviving a tanker with the same power sets because of a difference in kill speed. This was the case with my own sm/wp brute vs my wp/em tanker back before inventions got put in the game.

There's one dark horse in this race these days, though. SR on tanker. It softcaps on SOs. That's pretty damned tough as far as SO builds are concerned.

Most of the defensive sets excel at a particular type of damage with reduced effectiveness at others. Since tanks have higher numbers to begin with, the "reduced" effectiveness is still pretty darn effective. This means that you could make a tank with almost any set and still be very survivable in ordinary content.

With scrappers and brutes, you will need to be a bit more choosy with your set, especially with just SOs. Shield Defense, Super Reflexes, Invulnerability, and Willpower provide great defenses for normal play, while you'd probably want to stay away from something like Fire Armor.

Tanks will always be more survivable given the same defensive set, but for the type of play you're planning on, brutes and scrappers will do very well.

Well if you are going SOs only I'd put my thumbs up to dm/invul with hasten. You should be able to fit the fighting pool in the build. Going brute or scrapper that set on SOs wins hands down!

Take a hard look at Dark Melee/Invulnerability Brutes and scrappers, even just with SOs. It is very synergistic, very survivable. Its possible that the kill speed of a Brute/Scrapper may make them more survivable then a tank. Okay, that's hyperbolic. I'm leaving it in though lol. I will tell you that they are more fun to run because of that, to me.

That does seem like a good offensive combo for a tanker. Might be what im looking for. Awsome survive and decent damage with the damage aura. I been playing a SR/MA tanker to lvl 17 so far. He got to defensive cap with melee and ranged very fast but damage is pretty low. I think i'll make one of those SD/Ma characters and see what he can do. I never played a shield character yet so should be fun.

Ice Armor can also be softcapped on SOs via EA with 5-6 targets or going /MA.

Also, don't forget you can use HOs/SHOs!