Parry...

[MythToken]

You are correct bok, but I would point out that "bursts" of damage are usually not 1 ability but several in a very small timeframe. Auto+big ability+lesser ability in 1-2 seconds is what drops most tanks.
If you parry any of these, you are more likely to survive long enough for a heal so goes the theory.

I still think this thread has not proven either is better, and I think I am going to go with a middle of the road approach. ~500ish parry, some good crit and det, with just tiny bit of ss since it will probably be on some piece of otherwise great gear.

[Menae]

You are correct bok, but I would point out that "bursts" of damage are usually not 1 ability but several in a very small timeframe. Auto+big ability+lesser ability in 1-2 seconds is what drops most tanks.
If you parry any of these, you are more likely to survive long enough for a heal so goes the theory.

I still think this thread has not proven either is better, and I think I am going to go with a middle of the road approach. ~500ish parry, some good crit and det, with just tiny bit of ss since it will probably be on some piece of otherwise great gear.

Yes, but with with 40% block and 30% parry, that's still a 42% chance that any given attack is going to hit you, and if the big threat in a fight is three consecutive attacks hitting you, then hey, guess what, that's still a 7.4% chance of no blocks/parries. That's about a 1/14 chance of dying even with very high block/parry chances. If that threat occurs 10 times in a fight, you will take all three attacks without a block or a parry 55% of the times you attempt the fight, meaning you have to EXPECT it will happen rather than not. That doesn't make parry worthless, but it does mean as a healer, I literally do nothing different whether you parry or not. I'm still casting stoneskin prior to the big hits, and still trying to time a cure 2 in there. Parry will help you live only if the healers failed to top you off beforehand, which is bad, and it's only a percentage chance, which is also bad.

I'm not saying don't stack parry - less tank damage taken overall equals more Aero 2 uptime, after all! - but if you are in a situation where parry = live and not parry = death, you're at the whims of the RNG, and a merciless mistress be she.