Why Avoid Parry?

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I don't get it. In 3.x, outside of shields (which are an oddity to themselves), Parry is literally the only pure mitigation stat that we can stack. I understand that Parry isn't "reliable" because it's based on RNG, and that right now, with fights so focused on DPS output, putting any stats into mitigation is a waste.

But in general, don't tanks want to do whatever they can to take less damage? Sure, you can't rely on Parry to save you, but won't it help to smooth out incoming damage when there are a lot of hits coming in? And to that end, isn't Parry then the best stat a tank can get?

So why should tanks avoid Parry, and why is the advice to new players to avoid it?

Well, why should you get parry?

Having 700 parry is literally the same as having a 4.69% chance to parry, and that is a lot of a stat to stack. When you add in RNG that is about... 0.938% physical damage reduction. Meaning it is pretty much worthless, it also does not work on magic attacks, only physical.

You get a lot more out of Accuracy, Critical Rate and Determination. Which should be on more tank gear honestly.

So, as others said.

Scales Poorly:
100=about 0.67% parry.

Does not prevent all damage:
Parry is only 20%, not 100%. Only works on magical attacks.

Since there is no gear variety outside of Diadrem now. I hope in the future we can choose our statistics so I can stack more proper stats.

Many tanks do not seem to understand this, but damage is sustain. Doing more damage means the fight lasts shorter and more enemies die faster, which equals less damage to you. Stacking critical rate gives you more sustain then stacking parry does, just by making the fight shorter.