Best Armor?

[Luso]

Which one you like?

[Sigilbreaker]

Conjorur's Coat for basic game
Dynamo Mail for NG+

[Majora]

Dynamo Mail, Final Guard (red armor to get upgrades without worry of dying and losing gold) and the Golden armor. The jump animation of the golden armor is just so awesome.

[Heart <3]

conjurs if your good at advoiding the extra magic can come in handy in boss battles but mostly the gold armor since it makes you sparkle and flip

[zguy09]

The Conjurer's Coat is useful with that extra magic... Just be sure to avoid getting hit.

Oh, one more neat thing about the Ornate Armor: With most armors, use a catapult and you crash on your back. With the Ornate Armor, however, you land on your feet. ^_^

[StrifeXIII]

Gold

[Shiro]

Dynamo Mail; it's just so damn useful to get that free charged swing every once in a while.

[Hugh Janus™©]

Gold or Dynamo

[cfv;;;;;;;;;;;;;''''''''''''']

Gold and Default are for manly men. Purple is also fun and teaches you to get good at dodging, especially in NG+. Everything else is for scrubs.

[Gareth]

I like the Final Guard. I'm greedy.

[LordGandhii]

Dynamo Mail.

[Beanstalk]

Ornate mail is fabulous, it's my favorite

[claire]

Objectively, reduced knockback and the combo attack are probably the best armor upgrades, although magic and reduced death penalty do come in handy in some situations. I personally like the magic upgrade because of the freedom it allows... plus it often feels like Shovel Knight has too much HP, so that makes it more exciting.

[Juando]

Go gold or go home. Although the only other armor I've used is the Dynamo Mail, because of the charge slash and the Cojuror's Coat for Shovel Economy. Strider flips are just way better than both, though.

[Turtle Scum]

Gold Armor, it's just so darn fancy and shiny I can't help but use it.

[Hero Smasher]

I think purple is awesome, since the extra relic use is so damn fun to mess with, and makes bosses so easy it's not even funny.
Winning strategy: Spam phase locket and downward strike on bosses, use fire wand for most minibosses, and whenever you get low on health, just fish into any bottomless pit to get some healing fish. Also, try and kill as many enemies as you can, so you can regain magic faster. If you are decent at dodging, battle orb is good for killing bosses as well, especially if you are fighting them in an enclosed space.