I just spent 5 day or so upgrading to Bitcoin Core 0.9 and Armory 0.90.99-4 before succeeding to get on-line again. The major and only problem was that after initially upgrading just to Bitcoin Core 0.9, Armory 0.9 always got stuck while building and rescanning the block data. I had to upgrade also to Armory 0.90.99-4 and do Factory reset before succeeding to come back online.

This is really unsatisfactory state, since the Armory ability to create off-line transaction is totally dependent on its active on-line status. What would I do in case of some emergency during those 5 days. What if I need to transfer coins as soon as possible due to a possible paper backup breach?

I think there is a need for option of creating the unsigned transaction on other platforms while signing it by Armory off-line. If I could create unsigned transaction on Blockchain.info, that would be really great. Or even to have utility in Armory to build the unsigned transaction by collecting the inputs and amounts manually from whatever trusted source - in expert mode of course.

This would really help to make transaction in times when there is any problem with Armory online status.

What do you think?

EDIT: By the way new version with secure download and automatic torrent bootstrap helps a lot and it is actually much faster than ever before: After doing Factory reset I was able to be online in some 10 hours.