Did you read my original comment? You basically just described a solution that mirrors my own, which was to send x percentage of your balance to an off-site wallet (maximizing x to the extent possible, obviously). I didn't get into how to securely store your coins off-site, since that wasn't the question.

EDIT: BTW, you do realize that Armory is a front-end to bitcoind, right? You still have to run bitcoind for Armory to work.

From their Github page:

"Armory has no independent networking components built in. Instead, it relies on on the Satoshi client to securely connect * to peers, validate blockchain data, and broadcast transactions * for us. Although it was initially planned to cut the umbilical * cord to the Satoshi client and implement independent networking, * it has turned out to be an inconvenience worth having. * Reimplementing all the networking code would be fraught with bugs, * security holes, and possible blockchain forking. The reliance * on Bitcoin-Qt right now is actually making Armory more secure!"