The sustains are some of the best "defensive" powers available on a single power basis.
The problem is perhaps that blasters only get that power and usually no other defensive powers (a couple sets have 2)
Of course that's more than support sets typically get.
Even on SOs you can melee with blasters while leveling up.
You have to be smart about it, you can't just run in like a scrapper.
But for the boss mop up after all the AOEs hit, nothing beats those slow recharge, hard hitting Blaster melee attacks.
Then you can fast snipe into the next group as soon as the Alpha gets broken. Combat Jump hop .. ranged AOEs, T2, T3 blast.. another CJ hop ... Melee again.
Hmm that is an interesting take.
Tough and Weave are defensive toggles that do what armor set and epic toggles do, and stack with them.
Add in the fact that for a lot of ATs tough is the only place to put the two 3% global def uniques ..
If anything they are often worth more than 3 power picks to your overall build.
All these fighting pool suggestions seem like a lot of hoops to jump through to a avoid wasting 1 power pick.
Its not like you get enough slots for all your powers anyway.