From what I understand parry is a better stat until you can hit a certain number in dex which I cant recall... as for the chest piece better off with D/L for now unless you can meld a bunch of parry or dex to the your crafted armor not sure if you can. Now the crafted gear is far better for dpsing as war which you are called to do sometimes and you can meld +det +crit +acc or w/e you need.