Methinks it will work along the same lines as a Mind Shield, effectively reinforcing the wearer's armor by, say, putting on an extra layer of molecules (eg like covering something in a polymer, extra durability may insue). Now, that will decrease damage from kinetic attacks.
How can this still work and not affect othere elemental attacks?
Well, even a toughened up armor will heat up significantly upon being hit by a Pyro Blast, thus doing significant heat damage to the person inside it. The force of an impact with the shrads of ice from Cryo Blast will still hit the wearer with significant force and cool the suit down a lot and cause extensive frost bite to the body. Electromagnetic radiation, especially at shorter wavelengths, will easily penetrate through the thickened armor (think gamma radiation- no one is going to wear a meter of lead as armor, just to stop it, and the Crystal orb seems to give the armor only an extra couple of mm in thickness in terms of protection), so a Light Blast will deal the same amount of damage as before. Finally, the "corrosive miasma" of ionized gas deals most damage when inhaled by the user, or goes up into other orifices (e.g. eyes) and then starts to ionize the person from the inside (e.g. like alpha radiation), so a Shadow Blast will remain as potent as ever (also don't forget that no one wears full face-covering helmets, not even Gamblin' Jack and Helena, and evne if they did, those helmets are not hermetically sealed, so the plasma gas will find its way into their lungs).