Why do Pharias have armor instead of barrier?

Do you mean Pariahs? That's all I can think to add.

there are no more barriers, which sucks
asari have barrier instead of shield

another dumbed down element

There are no more barriers, and armour is just a different colour health, as opposed to an additional bar on top of health.

This ain't no ME2-3.

It seems armor and shields are less common in both MP and SP. The plus side is that biotics like throw, pull, and singularity are more powerful. The minus is that it isn't as fun being tactical.

In ME2 and 3 barriers were vunerable to biotics and relatively resistand against other things while shields were (obviously) vunarable to electrical stuff. Now they just gave everyone a yellow health bar so they can't be affected by biotics. It seems lazy. Back in ME2 enemies could have up to 3 layers of health, shield/barrier, armor and finally a regular health bar. Krogan and Vorcha would even regenerate armor when they entered rage.

Harbinger in ME2 could be a tough b*tch if you didn't have warp. A Revenant unleashing a barrage of warp-ammo was pretty much op.

The barrier was always a nice addition of variety so I realy don't get why they removed it.