One thing you could do is add a glow effect onto the armor.

For instance you can have an armor that is more lightweight and less tin-can in design, but thematically it gets its defense because it projects this cool looking runic barrier around the various parts of the character when in combat to blunt the swing of the enemy.

This would involve doubling the drawing to include a out/in combat state but it would raise it up on a "want to glamour that" list. Some people just like to see things glow in cool ways. Its why many weapon glamours involve weapons that glow, and why those glamours are expensive in the first place.