Parry Scaling

[Zophar]

Question: Does STR/DEX still affect block? If so, that might make me rage.

[Kiara]

I feel like this could make parry, which was already being cosidered low-value even less sought after than before

Has anyone done testing on Battledance (Parry) Materia on Gear?

Perhaps this change was to make the actual Parry Stat (and Materia) more useful / valuable?

[Seku]

Question: Does STR/DEX still affect block? If so, that might make me rage.

Block, as far as I know, is only effected by the paladin's shield now. Where as before we were getting like 30% block rate in 2.0, with a hybrid shield I've noticed the block amount is now around 20% and seems to sit there even when in full str gear.

[Zophar]

Block, as far as I know, is only effected by the paladin's shield now. Where as before we were getting like 30% block rate in 2.0, with a hybrid shield I've noticed the block amount is now around 20% and seems to sit there even when in full str gear.

Well, I'm glad to hear that at least. That would have been wildly unfair.

[Seku]

Well, I'm glad to hear that at least. That would have been wildly unfair.

Yeah. I've actually noticed the % drops on the higher level monsters, but raises when you're capped in previous dungeons. So some type of level correlation has been added in to enforce us to keep upgrading our shields as we level up or has always been there but unseen due to the stats that STR and DEX provided. But I figured they would since if shields only grew, never weaken, eventually PLD's would have a 100% block rate with some crazy high mitigation.

Because iirc blocks were up to about 30% even in FCoB. But it seems now that the 30% will only be seen with the tower shields. 20% seems to be the norm for the hybrid. I haven't used a small shield yet but I assume it would block for about 10%. In either case it would seem that tower shields may be the new best thing due to shelltron and balawk

[Faytte]

It seems that bucklers are 20, hybrids are 25 and towers are 30 from what I see. Keep in mind ---this is fresh level 60 gear-- as i levels increase, so will block strengths.

To be clear: Hive Scutum - Tower - 28% Blocked
So this is our current 190 'tower'. Given how it performs to a lesser tower, every new level of tower should add about 1 to 2% mitigation, which means shields should be doing really well a few patches in. Also keeping in mind, Paladins lack aoe damage, manueverability, and any type of burst. They are mitigation machines, and shields are a large part of that.

[Faytte]

Because iirc blocks were up to about 30% even in FCoB. But it seems now that the 30% will only be seen with the tower shields. 20% seems to be the norm for the hybrid. I haven't used a small shield yet but I assume it would block for about 10%. In either case it would seem that tower shields may be the new best thing due to shelltron and balawk

Those were with 130 'balanced' shields. Lower tier towers were blocking for similar--basically the increase is small per level but there is creep where at first towers are hitting 28-32% (and can eventually get up to 40% ) but generally fall out of favor because 1) the game rarely rewards towers 2) balanced shields get up near 30% in higher ilevels and have substantially better rate. Bucklers are very seldom given out as paladin rewards for tomestones of any sort, and are generally dungeon drops.

[Celesian]

Honestly the reduction to block rate and block% is a bit disturbing. Loosing 15% block strength compared to i130 is going to hit us hard. PLD Mitigation was based around block always has been. Here's an interesting factoid for you, I used my i170 law shield before upgrading it blocked for 20% flat no matter what. I then upgraded to i180 shield 35 or so more block str guess what yep still blocks for 20% dmg. What's the point in block STR on a shield if it blocks flat 20% dmg. I tried it with a scutum shield you get from 58 quests, yep still 20% blocked. Now either block STR is bugged or block is now capped at 20%. If this is the case then PLD just got bumped down a bunch in mitigation and it will not improve as gear does.
Honestly the point of a tank was to get better gear and more STR which increased block/parry STR. Now we don't get that so there is literally 0 scaling at all. We will get a bit of mitigation through the tiers with defense but other than that we are capped right now in mitigation. Our health will go up sure but overall we will be as squishy at ilvl 225 as we are right now just with more health. That makes for a very boring tank model as I am sure it will for many other's who enjoy the job. More testing should be done and I encourage it, As of right now though something needs to change cause tanks just got gutted otherwise.

[Gyson]

I'm pretty annoyed by the block and parry changes. I was actually fond of parry - pre-expansion both my parry and block rates were around 30%, and when they activated each negated between 28%-30% of the damage (parry being the lower end of that scale). For me, taking a unmitigated physical hit was uncommon. I know many saw the parry state as a waste, but I embraced it and I loved the results.

I'm definitely noticing the difference post expansion. Like everyone else, the mitigation seems stuck at 20% and they both activate a whole lot less often, all thanks to the stat changes.

Of all things to nerf.. parry?

[Faytte]

Thats strange. The hive shield is blocking for 28%. I imagine as gear levels increases we will see more and more increases, both in block and rate.