I will say it again (and I'll edit the original post to include this):

Killing a mob faster is only viable as mitigation if the damage prevented is greater than the damage that would have been prevented by instead passively mitigating it. Killing a mob faster to save .3% damage by stacking Crit is not viable as mitigation if a full Parry build would have saved you .5% incoming damage.

I'll need to look at some parses later to determine how much damage a tank can save by killing a mob faster versus wearing full Fending, but I have a very hard time believing that tank DPS can have such an effect on the rate at which mobs and bosses die as to make Crit, Skill Speed, or Det more worthwhile than Parry for mitigation.

As a note, I'm not denying that Alexander (+Savage) 1-4, and most of the bosses from 50-59 and Fractal Continuum and Neverreap are kind of backwards for this mentality. But in my mind (which I guess I'm trying to clear up about this), I'd tend to think stacking Parry would be a much better idea for trash pulls than DPS stats, especially large ones, where you're facing a lot of physical auto-attacks.

"But cooldowns!" Do provide the majority of mitigation. Yes. But that applies to literally every other stat on gear as it contributes to tank survivability. Parry from gear applies on top of that in most cases, and so still provides extra mitigation.

Again, not trying to argue this. I just want to understand it. I apologize if I'm getting aggravating about it, I just really don't get it.