Built your loadout around debilitating status? Like to be the guy who makes every enemy weaker so the party can wipe the floor with 'em? If so, you'll definitely be spending money on these! These armors don't apply new status effects to status-less weapons; rather, they increase the effect of pre-existing status effects.

GENERAL WINTER'S COAT/CAP (2* Frost Coat/Frost Cap -> 3* Snowstorm Coat/Snowstorm Cap -> 4* Freezing Gale Coat/Freezing Gale Cap -> 5* General Winter's Coat/General Winter's Cap)

When Napoleon invaded Russia, it was said that he was defeated by "General Winter"- among other things, the Russian winter was simply too much for Napoleon's armies. The nasty winter was disastrous to the French troops; the Russian winter also hit Germany's invasion hard in World War II. The Russian winter is the basic inspiration for this set (that, and the fact that Skolver's complete immunity to Freeze annoys the heck outta demomen everywhere). The armor itself looks like a large woolly winter coat with a frosty aura; the cap is a simple winter cap, with the 5* version looking more like an army general's cap.

Each piece of Frost, Snowstorm, and Freezing Gale armor has Normal and Elemental defense, and some Freeze Resistance in exchange for a Fire weakness (coats are quite flammable, after all). But it also has "Freeze Effect Increase: Low" per piece. General Winter has FEI Medium per piece, for a total of Very High. Now what does that do? Well, for every point of Freeze Effect Increase: Low, you get:
-Half a bar of freeze-defense piercing (applies to every Freeze weapon and Vial)
-A 25% higher chance of causing Freeze on hit (applies to everything but Shiver and Vials; these already have a very high Freeze rate)
-On initially Freezing an enemy, "Snap Freeze" damage is caused, which also interrupts attacks; the Snap Freeze damage is 30% Thaw damage per increase (applies to every Freeze weapon and Vial)
So, in full General Winter, your Shivermist Buster is hitting enemies for 120% thawing damage (plus any damage from the bomb itself and any Thaw damage, if it happens), through resistances (unless they're immune, like Layoafers and Ice Cubes; this is the same for all status armors, you cannot set Vanaduke on fire even if you have full Eruption Armor). Your Glacius is doing the same thing, but also Freezing more often than it normally would. Powerful? Yes. But bear in mind, this is useless in Ice stratums (where enemies are immune, though you do get some resistance to their attacks) and dangerous in Fire stratums (because you're more flammable in that big woolly coat).

Since it fits here, I might as well include my idea for changing the Triglav line. Instead of causing Freeze right as it hits, perhaps it should instead surround the afflicted enemy with an ice mist that causes Freeze after half a second; this is so the Knockback can finish. A common complaint is that the Freeze cancels the knockback; this will effectively wait to cause the freeze until the enemy is knocked back.

Anyway, Flavor Text for the armor set:

2* Frost Coat: This coat is warm on the inside and cold on the outside. It increases the power of Freezing effects so they cause damage and take effect more often.
2* Frost Cap: This cap is guaranteed to keep your head warm while letting you keep a cool head. It increases the power of Freezing effects so they cause damage and take effect more often.
3* Snowstorm Coat: Powered with the elemental essence of ice, this coat is perfect for giving your enemies the cold shoulder. Literally.
3* Snowstorm Cap: A Frost Cap powered up with a Hailstone, it looks good with an ice suit.
4* Freezing Gale Coat: How does this coat stay so toasty warm when it looks like it's surrounded by a blizzard? Most users don't care- they're too busy freezing things solid.
4* Freezing Gale Cap: Maybe this cap is boring. Maybe it just isn't fashionable. But when it comes right down to it, everything's easier to fight when it's not moving or turning. Function over fashion. HQ's textile designers had this in mind.
5* General Winter's Coat: Armies can lay siege to a castle, but the winter cannot be stopped by swords. Or guns. Or bombs. Or shadow-infused office chairs. Or jelly spikes. Or much of anything on Cradle, really.
5* General Winter's Cap: Projecting an air of military knowledge and authority, while still keeping your ears warm and your enemies' ears really, really cold, General Winter's Cap is for the squad leader that needs to keep a cool head.

ERUPTION MAIL/HELM (2* Lava Mail/Lava Helmet -> 3* Magma Mail/Magma Helmet -> 4* Boiling Mail/Boiling Helmet -> 5* Eruption Mail/Eruption Helm)

Wearing armor made out of molten lava seems ridiculous. But this is a video game. Anything is possible. It's assumed that the armor has some kind of high-tech internal cooling system, like the Volcanic Demo Suit. This will use a model similar to the Jelly Helm and Mail, but red with a more lava-esque texture and a flaming aura. As the gear increases in star level, the lava goes toward a brighter orange and the flaming aura increases in potency.

As you might guess, the Eruption Mail and Helm are the exact opposite, stat-wise, of the General Winter Coat and Cap. This armor provides Normal and Piercing defense, Fire resistance (because fire really won't affect someone if they're already handling armor made from lava), and Freeze weakness (when lava freezes, it FREEZES), as well as Fire Effect Increase Low per piece on the 2*-4* (medium on the 5*). Each point of Fire Effect Increase gives:
-Half a bar's worth of Fire defense piercing
-A 25% higher chance of Fire on hit (not applying to Ash of Agni line or Fire Vials)
-A slight damage increase (6%ish per point)
-A small Flare chance on each tick (4% per FEI point); when Fire flares, it hits nearby enemies with the damage (though not setting them on fire), does double the damage to the target, and adds a little extra to the duration of the fire (hope you don't get screwed by the RNG now)
What this means is that your Furious Flamberge, in full Eruption Mail, now has a HIGHER chance to burn things (very welcome), cuts through natural Fire defense on anything that's not immune, and has a 16% chance per tick to cause a pseudo Shock tick with higher damage, especially to the target, that makes the target burn longer. And that's just with the Flamberge; your Fang of Vog and Ash of Agni, in this, becomes an utter monster. Worth the lack of Skolver? Your decision.

Flavor text time!

2* Lava Mail: A suit made of lava, with an advanced cooling system to keep the wearer from being burned up. It improves the effect of Fire effects, occasionally making burning targets flare up and take more damage.
2* Lava Helm: Hot-headed Knights will find the Lava Helm quite to their tastes. It improves the effect of Fire effects, occasionally making burning targets flare up and take more damage.
3* Magma Mail: Hotter lava. Better cooling system. More fire. What's not to like?
3* Magma Helm: For the more discerning pyromaniac, this helm has an added Torchstone to improve the roasting your foes get. Keep eyes and pets away from the outside.
4* Boiling Mail: Spiral Technicians took the request for "hot new armor" a little too literally. But is that really a bad thing?
4* Boiling Helm: An extremely exothermic helmet, it's a wonder that the cooling system still keeps the wearer from burning up.
5* Eruption Mail: How are you gonna stop some big mean mother hubbard from knocking you out and forcing you to waste 10 energy on a revive? The answer is fire. And if that don't work, use more fire.
5* Eruption Helm: The thermal energy this helmet emits makes the temperature near the wearer the same as that of the area above an active volcano's crater. As always, it improves the potency of Fire effects.

ELECTROSTATIC OVERDRIVE SUIT/HELMET (2* Static Suit/Static Helmet -> 3* Charged Static Suit/Charged Static Helmet -> 4* Hazardous Static Suit/Hazardous Static Helmet -> 5* Electrostatic Overdrive Suit/Electrostatic Overdrive Helmet)

Here you go, Lightning-Maker, if you're still around. A chrome power suit with a matching green-visored helmet through which your character's green-tinted eyes peer out (think Samus, but with chrome colored armor and MORE LIGHTNINGS), the Electrostatic Overdrive set looks even more techno-y (is that even a word?) with the sparks jumping off and around it. These increase in frequency (and the armor gets shinier) as it gains upgrades. For some reason, Poison is more effective against it. Let's just say it's got slightly toxic chemicals inside it that react with Poison.

The Static, Charged Static, and Hazardous Static sets offer Normal and Elemental defense, Shock resistance, Poison weakness, and Shock Effect Increase Low per piece; Electrostatic Overdrive provides SEI med. Each level of Shock Effect Increase gives:
-Half a bar's worth of Shock defense piercing
-25% higher chance of Shock on hit (again, not counting Vials or Voltaic Tempest line)
-Slightly higher (like 2% extra) damage per tick
-Shock damage to other targets has an increased range of .5 spaces
-Any increase causes the Shock damage to change so it's Normal, with the damage being enough to hit Undead and Constructs for the usual amount
What this means is that the Slag Walker in the center of your Electron Vortex while you're wearing full Electrostatic Overdrive will cause EVERY enemy within 2 squares to receive the same damage it just did when it spasmed, even the normally Shock-damage-resistant Wolver. And that damage is increased slightly. This keeps Shock from being flat out RIDICULOUS in Lockdown (you probably expected me to make the spasms longer, right? Right? Right? WRONG!) while still getting a nice improvement, especially in the Works where you can pull your enemies together with Vortex (more easily, anyway) and cause really good AoE damage in large mobs. Plus, VT CAN HIT THROUGH YOUR PUNY SHOCK UVS. (That always did annoy me.) But beware; if you're careless, you might shock a lot of Quicksilvers all at once, which is bad.

Flavor text time!

2* Static Suit: A power-suit that routes all forms of electricity into the user's weapons. This improves the likelihood of Shock affecting a target, increases the range at which Shock damages nearby targets, and allows Shock to cause effective damage against any non-resistant foe.
2* Static Helmet: A helmet made out of a powerful superconductor. This improves the likelihood of Shock affecting a target, increases the range at which Shock damages nearby targets, and allows Shock to cause effective damage against any non-resistant foe.
3* Charged Static Suit: The inside of the Charged Static Suit is tough to clean out, and has intrisinic chemical elements that react dangerously with arsenic. The common consensus about this fact? "Meh, no big deal."
3* Charged Static Helmet: By storing excess electricity in a small battery pack, the Charged Static Helm greatly improves the wearer's capacity to zap things.
4* Hazardous Static Suit: Not being able to give your squad a high five is a small price to pay for them remaining alive because an entire mob of enemies fried in your Plasma Capacitor.
4* Hazardous Static Helmet: This helmet's built-in amperage-amplification device is postively electrifying. The enemy will probably be very negative about it; this is normal.
5* Electrostatic Overdrive Suit: Originally built for power plant workers, this suit is perfectly adapted to routing electricity into monsters instead of toasters.
5* Electrostatic Overdrive Helmet: Lightning doesn't strike twice. That's really the only difference between knights and lightning.

NIGHT ASSASSIN GARB/MASK (2* Noxious Garb/Noxious Mask -> 3* Poisoner Garb/Poisoner Mask -> 4* Nightshade Garb/Nightshade Mask -> 5* Night Assassin Garb/Night Assassin Mask)

You're a ninja. Believe it. The Night Assassin line is a dark greenish-black ninja suit (gets closer to black and gets poisonous vapors coming off it as it upgrades) with your eyes poking out through slits, obviously meant to go with the Vile Striker line. It makes you resistant to poison because, in the suit, the Knight takes on the aspects of a Ninja (including their knowledge of poisons), and to justify its weakness to electricity, let's say the poison boost comes from extra toxins stored inside metal bottles built in the suit that, unfortunately, conduct electricity. You're a ninja? That Volt Knight doesn't believe it.

Noxious, Poisoner, and Nightshade suits give Normal and Shadow defense, Poison Resistance, Shock Weakness, and Poison Effect Increase: Low per piece. Night Assassin, take a wild guess. No, wrong, it doesn't make you invisible and give you backstab bonuses. It's the same as Noxious, Poisoner, and Nightshade, only with PEI Medium per piece. Poison Effect Increase gives:
-Half a bar's worth of Poison defense piercing
-25% higher chance of inflicting Poison (not counting Venom Veiler or Vials)
-5% lower attack to Poisoned enemies (per point, so it maxes at an extra -20%)
-3% lower defense to Poisoned enemies (per point, so it maxes at an extra -12%)
-8% lower movement speed (per point, so it maxes at -32%)
-Poisoned enemies require less damage to be interrupted
-Take 5% more damage from healing (monsters only)
-Take very slight damage over time, 10% of an equal Fire effect per point
What this means is that your Vile Striker's poison while you're in full Night Assassin will cause a little damage while making your enemies even weaker than Poison normally makes them, with the additional bonus of making them stop when they get so much as poked and move slower, and if a mender's in the room they're doomed. And it hits through Snarbolax Armor, more often. Nasty way to die, isn't it? This is especially dangerous for Strikers, more so when mixed with Stun. VV+SS may well be the next big thing in Lockdown...

Flavor text!

2* Noxious Garb: Assassin's garb filled with multiple bottles of deadly toxins. This improves the likelihood of Poison affecting a target, increases the effect of the debuff, causes Poisoned enemies to move slower and be interrupted more easily, and causes slight damage over time during the Poison duration.
2* Noxious Mask: An assassin's mask that conceals the face and powers up poisons. This improves the likelihood of Poison affecting a target, increases the effect of the debuff, causes Poisoned enemies to move slower and be interrupted more easily, and causes slight damage over time during the Poison duration.
3* Poisoner Garb: The metal bottles in the Poisoner Garb conduct electricity, but more than make up for it by holding a nasty variety of poisons that automatically augment toxic weaponry.
3* Poisoner Mask: The Poisoner Mask seems to carry the legacy of ancient ninja; wearing it makes you a little more resistant to your enemy's poison, and a little more capable of hitting said enemy with some of your own.
4* Nightshade Garb: We could say the substances held within the Nightshade Garb were completely non-toxic, but we'd be lying. And that would be wrong.
4* Nightshade Mask: It's full of poisons, is almost completely face-concealing, and only has one air freshener. How the Nightshade Mask got approved by Spiral HQ is still a mystery.
5* Night Assassin Garb: The most annihilative assassin's armor you'll find anywhere, how the Night Assassin Garb can still keep its wearer from being poisoned while carrying so much poison itself is unknown.
5* Night Assassin Mask:
Toxic ninja's mask
Powers up Poison effects
Just watch out for Shock

UNSTOPPABLE FORCE ARMOR/HELM (2* Blunt Force Armor/Blunt Force Helm -> 3* Magnum Force Armor/Magnum Force Helm -> 4* Sheer Force Armor/Sheer Force Helm -> 5* Unstoppable Force Armor/Unstoppable Force Helm)

It's tough to come up with something that would improve stun, seeing as it comes from so many things (Heavy blunt force, magnum bullets, really bright exploding crystals, noxious clouds, heavy explosions, and... the Rigadoon), so I just go by the Tim Taylor philosophy: "Add more power!" In this case, the only thing that gets hurt is the enemy. And that's supposed to happen. The Unstoppable Force set is a suit of glowing powered plate armor and a matching powered plate helm. The power, theoretically, increases the force you hit stuff with and keeps you from being weighed down by the plate, at the expense of making it easily cursed somehow.

The Blunt Force, Magnum Force, and Sheer Force lines have Normal and Piercing defense, Stun resistance, Curse weakness (to keep it linear, though a Curse-boosting armor probably shouldn't happen because, well, we're talking about CURSE here), and, of course, Stun Effect Increase: Low per piece. Unstoppable Force has SEI Med per piece. Did you expect anything else? Each point of Stun Effect Increase gives:
-Half a bar's worth of Stun defense piercing
-+25% extra chance to cause Stun (again ignoring the Stun Vial and Stagger Storm)
-Enemies are interrupted when Stun is applied
-+1 second of Stun time (remember, all this is per point; 8 second Stagger Storms!)
-Projectiles shot by Stunned enemies move 10% slower while having the same duration (again, per point- that Polaris ain't so annoying when it moves like molasses in january, now is it?)
What this means is that your Sudaruska charge, in full Unstoppable Force, is definitely going to interrupt the enemy, keep them stunned for a while, and make any of their annoying office chairs slow so you can run up and whack them with another charge. Also, Stagger Storm actually lasts a decent amount of time in this.

Last batch of flavor text!
2* Blunt Force Armor: A suit of powered armor that applies extra force to your attacks. This increases the chance Stun effects will be applied, interrupt enemies when they get Stunned, lengthen the Stun time, and slow Stunned enemies' projectiles.
2* Blunt Force Helmet: A helmet that converts latent energies in the Clockworks into sheer kinetic energy. This increases the chance Stun effects will be applied, interrupt enemies when they get Stunned, lengthen the Stun time, and slow Stunned enemies' projectiles.
3* Magnum Force Armor: Every knight is different. No two knights are the same. But pretty much every knight finds it easier to fight enemies when they don't move as fast.
3* Magnum Force Helmet: Sure, the energy flow through this helmet conducts cursed energy. But when a sudden impact from your Magnus makes Phantoms too stupefied to hit you, does it really matter?
4* Sheer Force Armor: Increasing kinetic energy doesn't just help magnums and giant swords. Did you know it also amplifies the effects of bright flashes, noxious gas, and explosions? And knowing is half the battle (the other half being applying as much force as possible).
4* Sheer Force Helmet: For those of us who like smashing things so much we shell out 400 energy just to smash more effectively.
5* Unstoppable Force Armor: Daze things with more force than ever before! Have more HP while you're stunning things more efficiently! Cause a paradox when you find an immovable object! It's mind-rattling!
5* Unstoppable Force Helmet: The safety settings were keeping the Unstoppable Force Helmet from converting as much energy as they could. So we got rid of them!

Suggestions? Compliments? Scathing rebukes?
(Yeah, these might be overpowered. Or underpowered. I'm open to suggestions as far as balancing the values go; keep in mind, though, that these armors must be competitive with stuff like Mad Bomber and Skolver. Next up, shield boxing!)