Parry rate actually seems to be higher. Someone did parsed parrying while doing blocking tests with a swd that had a bunch of parrying on pld which is only C rank parry and got 26% on lvl 105 mobs.

Some posts made by devs makes it seem like block rate is going to go way down as mob lvls rise without alot more skill which the shields plds use wont have. And then making the new shields get less so they wont overtake a bad blockrate on ochain insted of keeping it good it seems