Personally I would like to see the armor have stats or bonuses unique to the piece of armor you have or armors that utilize point allocation to it as it levels up. For example, as your personal level increases you attain armor points that could be allocated to armor rating, resistance to physical damage, resistance to energy damage, armor piercing resistance, explosive resistance, health increase, posssibly stamina and mana increase, for lack of a better word. This way you can find stronger pieces of equipment, level them up according to your preferred play style. This adds to another aspect of the game that increases replay value. If you see or hear about a really tough, rare chest piece that adds a small bonus to armor piercing rounds, go search it out and then upgrade it to your tastes as you level it up, maybe adding a resistance to explosive damage a few levels later. Even if someone wears the same armor, the traits it carries create a more unique pool of stats and abilities you can call your own. I want there to be options for customization aesthetically too but in my opinion, armor should be graded as weapons are in the game. If you don't like the armor you are not forced to use it as its stat boosts are minimal. They won't significantly affect your overall personal stats that are separate from the armor. The primary stats are derived from personal upgrades, but armor adds bonuses to top the larger stats off with incentive to search the items out, upgrade them through their use in battle, and selecting the bonuses that fit you as gamer most. I feel I need to give an example of what I am saying and I am going to use generic terms so bear with me. And the upgrading of weapons is a sure thing so the scenario will regard armor. I am a level 20 Hunter. Currently I am wearing Armor A. It's item level is 200 (we noticed weapons had levels like this; the burst weapon was level 70 and the Thunderlord was a level 200) and it offers a bonus of +4 to my personal armor rating of 50. To top that off, I am on my third upgrade for this armor, as I have had it for the last few personal levels and the experience gained while wearing it has unlocked upgrades (we saw 11 upgrades I believe on the Thunderlord weapon in gameplay). With those bonuses unlocked, my armor has obtained stats exclusive to the piece itself. With improved dampening enhancements to the shoulder pieces, I have reduced recoil by 10%. And I have also increased my health of 300 points to 310 with a minor health boost. After exploring an old warehouse, I have found Armor B, I will call it, and it has an item level of 210 and it only adds a bonus of +2 to my personal armor rating. Now my armor has dropped from 54 to 52, insignificant and worth the sacrifice for the bonuses I can unlock, I switch armors. I no longer have the bonuses of 10% recoil reduction and +10 health points. With no upgrades unlocked, all I have with this new Armor B is a small boost of armor. But ahead on the upgrade trail, I see that this armor has a plus 5 points of damage per bullet on upgrade 6 and on upgrade 9, my critical chances are increased by 5%. Now I hope that many of you can get an idea of the boosts I am talking about. Now, if I prefer the way the Armor A looks over Armor B, I can stick with it. The bonuses offered are merely slight stat increases. If I decide to go with Armor A, I like my appearance and the stat bonuses obtainable in Armor B are hardly significant enough to mess with my personal stats. And if someone else I encounter has Armor B, it's no big deal. He only has a +2 boost to armor to my +4. I have boosts to recoil reduction and health. He has boosts to damage and critical chance. Hardly an imbalance when I still have something he doesn't have. But still, the bonuses are bonuses added to the personal statistics and attributes. They simply add a minor boost to a few particular stats. I hope this makes sense to you.