Request - DO NOT delete parry from the game

[Brian_]

It's because for the first wing of Alexander, there wasn't nearly enough physical damage for it to make a difference, and the main thing that was killing groups wasn't dead tanks, but failed DPS checks and boss enrages. Progression groups needed every scrap of DPS they could find, and that meant tanks running content with 15,000 HP and as much Str/Det/Crit/SkS as they could get their hands on. Simply, the encounters were not designed to require heavy mitigation, and were designed to require higher DPS than the groups could put out at the iLvls they were attempting with.

Except Midas hasn't really changed. DPS is still incredibly important in progression and helps you mitigate way more potential damage than parry ever will. Even more so than Gordias in many ways.

What has changed in Midas is that while the DPS checks are no longer auto-wipes, they are still soft checks. In progression, you don't have the HP to live through soft checks for very long. Unlike in Gordias where DPS would let you skip mechanics, those mechanics were largely just repeated mechanics. In Midas, DPS lets you skip unique mechanics.

In A5S, you can skip the entire zoo phase and all the positioning and mechanics associated with that. You will never have to deal with the pig baiting, the petrifaction directions, LB coordination, minotaur positioning, etc.

In A6S, for Blaster, you can phase to avoid the second and third tank buster which allows the debuff from the first tank buster to expire during the add phase. The difference is 4 vul stacks vs. 6+ vul stacks overall. You take way less damage with better DPS.

In A6S, for Blaster, you can kill the boss before the second set of charge mirages. Since charge mirages are probably one the mechanics that people are struggling the most with, that's a pretty big deal.

In A6S, for Brawler, you can push to add-phase with fewer attachments and tank busters. Skipping one of the 3rd stack tank busters is probably more mitigated damage than all the damage you will parry throughout all of A6S. With better DPS, you can also phase with 2 Chakrams instead of 3. This isn't a big deal if people have good raid awareness and avoid them but things don't always go that smoothly.

In A6S, for Swindler, if you don't kill the snipers before their 2nd shots, you are going to need some precision shielding or a lot of melded VIT on your gear during progression. Having better DPS = more raid mitigation in this scenario than any amount of parry.

My static is currently still working through Vortexer / Enrage so I can't comment on A7S and A8S, but purely from the videos, those fights seem to fit the same general mold.

In other words statements like this...

Parry is still the best stat for mitigation (yes, even mitigation-by-damage), but it doesn't feel like a very strong stat, and loses its value in magic-heavy fights and fights with prolonged periods of no white damage.

...that lack any relevant context are misleading and flat out wrong in practical application. Talk about the effectiveness of any stat without proper context is meaningless.

Which leads me to a passing comment on another issue...

It is always a DPS gain for WAR. I thought the community had established that.

It's not. And, the community established that.