Well, seems like everyone's favorite is the almighty bound armor; I guess I can't actually blame ya' all. @
Gideonseymour will agree, I'm pretty sure.
Now, for a more "techy" approach, in 1.7, I've been using the Redstone Arsenal armor, maxed out from Protection books directly from my Ender IO Enchanter; God, I love that thing. Well, and as far as taking damage goes, I'm pretty much settled. I really can't take any damage.
Well, there is the sacrificial knife, but ya' know.
And weapon-wise: I've been using a maxed out on quartz manyullyn rapier. It does +20 damage, plus the fact that it can ignore armor makes it pretty much flawless.
For the ranged weapon, I ran back to my Redstone Arsenal, and made myself an Flux-Infused Bow, enchanted with Infinity and maxed out on Power. A bit of an overkill, if you ask me.
That's it, I think.
I like tech mods, that's all, please don't judge me