Request - DO NOT delete parry from the game

[Shurrikhan]

Given that DRKs are the "Magic" tank, they should be the ones to get this with the parry, and the only ones to give them more of a difference from PLD and WAR. Been thinking this since the job came out.

So that we can further remove PLDs from anything with magic damage? WAR's spot is still nearly guaranteed. Only PLD's magic resistance lags substantially behind the others'. Why further that relative gap where it matters (dueling for the non-WAR position)? DRKs waste Dark Dance, Low Blow, Reprisal, and Foresight, but gains Dark Mind against pure-magic compared to pure-physical attackers (a mitigation gain, 15% from a RNG 6% or 30% from an especially RNG 26%, though a MT dps loss and half duration). A WAR wastes Raw Intuition and Foresight (about 7% mitigation over time). A PLD wastes Shield Swipe, Bulwark, Shelltron, Foresight, and its entire bonus means of passive mitigation (a whole lot more). Which then, if limited to a single tank, most needs Runic, do you think?

Diverse identities come from gameplay, not niche. Making one tank the "magic tank" merely succeeds in diminishing to removing composition choice.

I would like to see the current DA effect made baseline on DD, then a new DA effect where both the Parry and Evasion then applied to magic attacks as well.

That'd be cool except for how it wouldn't be a free bonus to LB / Reprisal procs (nice for dps-focused situations) would conflict with BP at all times, would be worth a whole lot more for free (approximately 6.67% physical mitigation over time, up from 2%), the DA form would be useful only versus magic enemies, and would further give DRK a mitigation edge vs. magic (which it doesn't really need).

Here's how I think Parry should be changed, to make it a more viable stat (yes, I know some of this has probably been mentioned before...but it bears mentioning again):

Warrior: No change. Reasoning: Warrior isn't really a Parry tank, and Raw Intuition even works against stacking parry by giving a 100% parry rate for its duration. WAR is fine here.

Paladin: Make Parry increase the block rate of Shields instead of its normal effect. Reasoning: Paladins "parry" by blocking incoming attacks with their shield. Doing this right would change the balance of what shield is best in any given situation, but that's probably a Good Thing.

Dark Knight: Make it so that whenever they parry, they get a free autoattack (or other "attack" with a reasonable potency) against the target they parried, possibly with a (very short, like 1 sec) internal cooldown. Reasoning: Despite the huge sword, the Dark Knight seems to be more of a "finesse" tank than a "power" tank. The cooldown would be to prevent this from making DRK very OP in AoE situations, but needs to be short enough that (given good RNG) a DRK could, theoretically, proc this attack on every incoming autoattack from a single target.

Thoughts?

If you want to make Parry more valuable for Warrior despite Raw Intuition, have the parry stat increase parry strength where parries are guaranteed (the same can actually be done with Shelltron, but Shelltron probably needs that less, being the whopping 30%+ it already is with a tower shield).

The Paladin change sounds reasonable. I'd just append one other factor to it. Make it increase parry (now block) chance by a percentile of base (given the shield type/rating), so that a tower shield gains less block chance than a buckler. Tower shields may still be preferred over bucklers even as bucklers near 100% block with Bulwark just for their extra Shelltron snap-mitigation, but at least then we aren't guanteed to, say, take a i205 tower shield over a i220 (or higher) kite or buckler. Rename the "Parry" stat to "Guard" to reflect the change.

For Dark Knight, I really don't think they need even more of a potency per minute difference between MT and OT vs. physical. They already have the highest dependence on parry of any tank. If you want to increase that severely, have Dark Dance increase the parry stat instead of base chance, or cause a combination of both.

I'd recommend not splitting the effects of Parry ("Guard") up among the different tanks, though; be consistent, aside from Guard affecting Block rate instead of Parry chance. And, when guaranteed, Guard increases Parry (WAR/DRK) or Block (PLD) strength.

Make any other adjustments via the abilities themselves. (For instance, Shelltron might always average its particular forced block with the strength of an equal-ilvl kite shield, Dark Dance might force its first parry (parry gives snap mitigation) and increase parry chance (against the target[?]) with each subsequent parry (such that we still have reason to pop it well before a given TB, instead of always saving it for the second of), etc.)

I don't see how evasion not working with BP is a problem. You can't have BP up all the time, nor Dark Dance. You have other mitigation for when BP is up.

It WOULD provide more chances for LB/RE procs, since now magic damage would be parryable and I don't think even MORE magic mitigation is a bad thing. An on-demand proc for RE would be nice, like a parry version of shelltron though. I don't see that fitting any of our current skills, it would probably have to be a new one.

It's not that it's a problem in and of itself. But simply, enough enemies typically makes for some serious damage, for which you want serious mitigation. It's also when you most want DA-ADs to keep yourself up, a massive mana drain. Blood Price itself has the most effect when you have many fast-attacking enemies against you. And yet you already have two forms of mitigation locked out to you if you want to maximize Blood Price -- DA-DP and DA-DD. Now you'd have 3 forms detracting from BP, while also unable to collect bonus damage dealt from parry procs (mostly Low Blow, though that too would hamper BP during that duration).

I never said DA-DD would provide fewer procs. I said regular DD would. I merely said there'd be zero reason vs. physical to ever use DA-DD.

Personally, I'd greatly prefer all magic attacks actually had a place within a spectrum of actually magical to physical damage, or aethereal (Bio) to manifested magic (Stone, Ruin), and the latter was affectable by dodge, parry, and block. I don't think DRK and PLD (who has no compensating skill) should lose such large parts of their toolkit just because they're not being attacked physically.

I think MORE magic mitigation is a bad thing if it could cause DRK to take the lead in specifically magic fights, and especially if that requires balancing that would diminish its anti-physical capabilities to compensate. That would, again, merely phase it out of physical fights while phasing PLD out of magical ones.

Upon further thought, my wish list would be that they DO change parry to where the value affects both the rate and the damage reduction. Then they can change DD to where it boosts both parry rate and how much damage it reduces (maybe it could be just a straight +xxx to Parry since the value would affect both) and make the DA effect that now Parry also works on magic attacks. That should do wonders for RE and LB procs and make it a great cooldown while getting rid of evade. The only issue then would be RE procs as OT.

Any time something is changed to do two things, without being doubly buffed, it does each of the two less than it used to do the one. You'll see the same with critical strike chance, having been changed to chance and effectiveness both (granted, with a sum of the two values not only failing to tapper off but being the highest weighted secondary stat for almost every job, a slight overbuff). But consider, what's actually more useful for parry? Coverage, or effectiveness? It's already considered unreliable mitigation, so should we be more reliant on a larger RNG trigger, or simply have that trigger be more reliable (greater chance, especially when paired with Parry rate buffs)? I personally would prefer the latter.

Having DD increase the Parry stat directly would increase dependence on that stat, for better or worse. Keep in mind that it is already weighted highest for DRK among all tanks, and that DRK is already equipped with basically an alternative to DD in the form of DM. Buffing anti-magic proc-damage/utility and mitigation would certainly give DRK a considerable anti-magic lead over WAR and leave PLD further in the dust. I personally don't think that is necessary nor wise. If anything, I'd rather see DD and DMs as two different (to some extent mutually exclusive) options, with situational preference, for dealing with magic attackers, or either (physical or magical). Keep in mind though at 30% chance at 20% mitigation is only 6% (further increased by parry stat effectiveness and base parry, ofc). Until exceeding 25000 magic damage to be taken, a single DA-SE (of, say, 1500 damage-as-healing for the prior value) would provide more mitigation/restoration, along with its extra 160 potency.

As for RE procs as OT, here's a suggestion that I've thrown out before that might be worth your time: Sole Survivor can now also be used on a party member, granting your half your parry chance and bonus parry effects to the target over the duration. During this time, any parries, blocks, or dodges either of you make will generate procs for these categories for both of you. That's an overbuffed spitball of an idea, but it would at least accomplish most of what's needed among OT utility capabilities.