Yeah. I mean, you CAN run with a ton of extra toughness buffs, but they’re costly:
Take shield vs off hand weapon, costs Furnace / Oathkeeper / EF, and a bit lower damage from lost CHD and AS, maybe -2GRs total. ~10% mitigation.
Take S&B passive instead of Rampage. - 1 GR. ~45% mitigation.
Take Esoteric instead of Zei: -2-3 GRs. ~75% mitigation.
Take Superstition / NoS / Tough as Nails instead of No Escape. -2 GRs. Mitigation varies, ~15% / extra cheat death.
I consider other factors, like Relentless / Crimson / BoM / Parthans “baked in”.
So if you take all that extra defense, it adds about 90% net mitigation, but costs you maybe 7-8 GRs worth of damage.