I play a LOT of Dark
The two mez cloaks in the armors, stun and fear, do heavy lifting against the unwashed masses you face in melee. You do need to address accuracy issues. The more fear and stun these apply, the less you are getting attacked. It is a "faux def" and it works wonderfully. If you take them, enhance them, and use them.
Then your Resistance and Heals will mostly be just handling bosses. AVs, GMs. The cloaks do help, if you understand and use them. But I have met people that say that they die against everything using my Brute Dark/Dark. Which I have Tanked with in two Master MLTF. Successfully. And yes, I stood alone vs Recluse. A good build, decent play, and a small amount of good fortune.