There's a big difference in CC happening within the first round and CC happening by the fourth round or so. Resource consumption rates and ability cool-downs become much more weighty whereas before CC happens within the first round and the penalties for exhausting those resources are never felt as the combat ends.
It also gives time to both sides of the conflict to use consumables or use spells like Frost Armor reactively, so there is counter-play to what's going on in the field. This is probably what will happen beyond the first chapter anyways.
So I think that by increasing armor or making it more readily available you'll end up changing the meta.
