https://pobb.in/c26bHIIfRJyK

So I tried to get as tanky as possible without using any of the mentioned mechanics.

Turns out you can get permanent uptime on 4 utility flasks on any class with a flask belt+the 4 pointer flask cluster near elusive nodes and The Traitor Keystone. Without such a belt you would just drop the less duration mods on the flasks and get %chance to avoid, has the same effect basically. That, coupled with 3 points into max res solves ele mitigation, pretty much. This means for 7 points we can get roughly as much as suppression would net us, giving us a bunch of resistance at the downside of losing all flasks.

For phys, we just convert everything to ele, get some slight armour against small hits and then also work towards endurance charges, arctic armour (80% buff effect in config to rougly reflect the buffs) and fortify. All in all this costs us a cluster and a fortify wheel, so I'd say 10-15 points.

I've build a Blade Flurry character with a 350pdps claw on the side to showcase that its easily possible to still scale offensive properties while investing a bit into tankyness. This lands on 3.2 mil DPS (35% phys as fire in config tab is the average of ngamahu ascendancy) I didnt put too much emphasis into scaling BF properly I just wanted to showcase the defensive mechanics. I think some stuff of this can be used in some other fashion, I guess some builds could even get these jacked up flasks and spell suppression or they could cap crit without a diamond flask and opt for a perma granite flask, etc...

I think if we broaden our view there are still plenty of defensive mechanics left, just maybe not as braindead and strong and straightforward as grace+det+suppression.