Thanks, Ankhammon. I was never a fan of relying on melee/lethal defense from the offensive sets, too inconsistent a performance. I'm really just thinking out loud here, not looking to build a particular toon. Other than the fact that some sets are incompatible with SD, which is very legitimate, as I dabble on Mids it seems that SD keeps rising to the top for every melee toon. Again, this is based on the premise that we may very well start with limited IO access. Dark can certainly compete defensively, but the offense of SD makes it a better choice. For End issues I think I'd lean towards Electric over WP, mostly due to the eventual high end performance potential.
So, to distill a straight forward question: "Given limited access to IO's on restart, for which offensive sets would you choose something other than SD (illegal choices obviously excepted)?" Again, this is for an overall smooth run to 50, teaming and soloing, not avoiding any particular content/enemies and not farming.