1. Decrease armor of all items that have it.
2. Make armor type gear gildable.
3. Make some craftable gilding items for armor.
F.e. Tin armor plate giving 1/3 armor penetration at q10
Steel does 5/5
It will give variety of playing style: you can use a stat boost and have more agi/melee/ua or you can have more armor for shitting on everything.