What if Parry was a rate like Block?

[Donjo]

I once thought about the notion of attaching ingrained Parry statistics into weapons ala Paladin Shields... but keeping the Parry stat in place as-is.

Currently a Paladin can stack Parry to, by virtue of rolling both Block and Parry against a physical attack, end up in situations where they do something to reduce physical damage for 50%+ of physical attacks. That is not too shabby, if I say so myself. It's not particularly helpful when the major threat is singular large hits(seriously, why aren't there more multi hit physical busters. Geez...), but it's neat to be able to reach those numbers. So it'd be interesting to let the other two tanks reach that ~50% threshold if they wish to but it would kind of step on the one actual mitigation advantage Paladin has.

Another thing I wondered about is what if SE put Parry on all Tank equipment the way Accuracy was on 2.2+ Healer gear? A completely free stat that just slowly raises as your item level does. Another aspect of better gear making you just a little bit tankier. Shrug.

Of course, none of this would actually fix the issue of Parry being underwhelming as a stat. There seems to be talk of reworking it in either 3.4 or 4.0, so there's that. I mean... nothing SE can do to the stat will make the current generation of players actually want to stack it, but one can appreciate their intent.

[SyzzleSpark]

The shield is PLD's mitigation gimmick, all the tanks already have one (WAR has self heals, DRK has the parry-Reprisal fusion that basically functions like a built-in Eye for an Eye). So I wouldn't want to see that kind of free passive mitigation just handed out on a platter to DRK and WAR. They don't really need it.

The only way to make Parry meaningful in my opinion is to follow the Wrath - Abandon model where Parry is converted to Crit between MTing and OTing based on stance. I.E eliminate the stat and just convert Crit into Parry when you go into tank stance, or the other way around and elminate Crit from tank gear and just convert Parry into Crit when turning off tank stance/turning on DPS stance.

Its the only way to not make Parry conflict with DPS stats. And I hate the ideal of just putting it on a Weapon a la rate/strength stats on PLD's shield, or just slapping it by default on all of our gear as a 3rd secondary, as it eliminates the need for the stat period if its just a thing that goes up whether we choose to or not why not just code it into the job itself? It would also have to scale insanely slowly so as to not reach a point where we're parrying everything.

[Donjo]

Yeah, that's why I'm kinda "eh" about those ideas. One leans toward homogenization and the other is just a cop-out.

But... yeah. I don't see any viable way for Parry to be wholly defensive and desired at the same time. Not without redesigning a lot more than just the stat.

[Sarcatica]

Sit tight for next patch where Parry is BiS. /s

inb4 it might actually be.

[Xenosan]

My issue with Parry converting to straight DPS gains (ala a replacement to Crit Rate or Determination), is there would exist the same lack of itemization we have now, just on the opposite end of the spectrum. That is not the best solution to my problem with the Parry secondary. But it certainly is a simple solution.

Personally I'd like to see Parry secondary enhance itemization and bring more sophistication to secondary stat allocation (and the debates that go along with that):

What if the Parry secondary scaled like Accuracy. We need 'so much' before we hit a cap. The secondary scales up Parry proc chances much-much better, but hits a cap that is based on the enemy mob (like accuracy).

Or the Parry cap scales with iLVL, which increases itemization min/maxing as we progressively upgrade in iLVLs (each individual upgrade raises the ceiling to permit dumping of extra Parry secondary).

But, that is still only half of a solution.

The other half is ensuring that stacking Parry secondary - at all - provides added measures of significance for tanks. The mechanic of Parry procs themselves are arguably just as much of a problem as the scaling of their secondary.

Personally, I don't see much improvement in Parry - as a mechanic - unless each tank had their own unique perks & gains from those Parry procs. What about a Parry-specific job trait unique to each job? Benefits as powerful as: each Parry proc increases attack speed by 10-20% for the next two GCDs (raw intuition == presence of mind)? Parry as a secondary increases SwO AA potency (like Determination use to)?

First Parry - as a proc mechanic - needs to be more desired (preferably for reasons unique to each Job), and then the secondary, with better scaling, has a fluctuating cap placed on it. That is the sort of itemization I'd like to see.

I believe they did mention looking at enhancing Parry as a secondary in a recent LL, but I hope they don't provide a cut-corners solution. I guess it depends on how far they're willing to go with an adjustment.

[Shurrikhan]

Causing Parry to function like Block would only increase its value over the course of an expansion, and only by some 25-30%. It would not make it more reliable, manipulable, tactical, or interesting.

If you increased the general value of RNG mitigation and made parry and or block mitigate flat amounts, or a flat amount and a percentage both, and/or have a minimum average internal cooldown, etc., then you might see some more interesting effects. My bet is that it won't be interesting, however, until we have more ways to actively control resourced backing or fueling our parry, block, and dodge rates and strengths.

As it stands, the RNG mitigation categories already fight each other when it comes to mitigation given. The strongest prevents any weaker from occurring; they cannot stack, and there is no advantage in an otherwise successful role going unused (in actuality, never being rolled at all) since it isn't saved. If, say, they all worked instead on components of flat mitigation based of X factors and percentile mitigation based off Y factors, those elements could instead stack, such that, say, a Blind via Dark Passenger and a Dark Arts Dark Dance could actually indirectly improve parry chance, rather than cutting it shorter. There are engagement and tactical advantages to either system, if not more so to our current non-stacking one, but until RNG mitigation has that kind of strength through decreased self-conflict and increaseable reliability, it's going to mostly remain a joke against most forms of damage for which a set eHP is needed.

[Atreides]

No matter what they do with parry it wouldn't change a thing in most cases. As long as it remains a defensive stat it keeps being neglected because it will always be a chance and will not contribute to damage.
If they turn parry into something like retaliate though it would be interesting, as in reflect the portion of the damage you just parried back to the attacker.

[TallonOverworld]

I would like to see parry being reworked as a form of reflect for warriors and dark knights.... for paladins as a form of blocking. Or even diversify parry or block when used on weapons,armor or accessories...

but SE knows better so lets see what we can get....

[hotaruchan]

basically in general the consensus is parry doesn't help my mad deeps so it's worthless

[AI_wass]

No, it's worthless because it's unreliable even when stacked to the nth degree. The fact that it doesn't improve damage numbers is the piss icing on this shit-cake.