It's been suggested before that more soft CC and removing 100% CC block from armor would be very nice; that had support in the threads but didn't get very far.
You can't just gut status effects or then it becomes like Diablo where instead of different damages actally having thematic and strategic importance, it just becomes "Choose your preferred color and match to defense"
If damage mitigation is what you like, I'd suggest linking the armor system more to skills and talents rather than what you wear. That way you have more control and don't have to change what you wear just cause you know what you're facing and squishy wizards stay squishy before they get off something like rock armor.
This new system also encourages everyone wearing the heaviest armor they can grab for specific enemies. Rather than encouraging building a role played character and dealing with advantages and dis-advantages.
In hindsight my attitude towards the system in terms of mitigation has shifted completely after my friends and I tried a full physical damage team with one point into polymorph or warfare. The ease in comparison to utilizing a hybrid damage team is rather extreme.
As for the players swapping gear depending on what they getting ready to fight, I don't really think that is something that can be avoided nor do I necessarily believe it to be entirely problematic in a game like this. Is it not more immersive to want to be prepared. When playing D&D I find it to be common place for players to try to retrofit themselves before a difficult encounter. With that said I do agree that swapping from things like full mage armor to full plate is a bit much. I think higher stat requirements would alleviate that though.
