Why Avoid Parry?

[Ralvenom]

The tank's job is to hold hate and to survive - dealing damage is an incidental aspect of tanking gameplay

Actually, a tank's job is 3-fold:
1. Keep hate.
2. Survive by using CDs when needed.
3. Contribute to party damage.

Some people like to forget #3 there.

Likewise, a healer's job is 3-fold:
1. Heal the party, especially the tank.
2. Contribute to party damage.
3. Don't overheal.

People expect healers to do #2 there. But, for some odd reason, they have NO ISSUE with forgetting #3 up in the tank section. It's as if some tanks feel that they're the special cookies who get to avoid having to deal damage, SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE. If you fulfill #1 & #2 as a tank, but you don't even bother to try to do #3...then I think you've failed as a tank, regardless of whether you're a WAR or DRK or PLD.