not new to tanking, but new to ffxiv.

[Teiren]

I should clarify about why parry is so stupid in this game.

It only works for physical attacks to your "front" in a game where target circles have four 90 degree quarters, not two 180 degree halves like WoW and many MMORPGs like WoW. At the same time, enemies literally push each other around to make room which inevitably means your flank is getting hit all the time. Even against a single target boss, the tank will have to move sometimes which again causes the flank to get hit. Therefore, Parry as a whole will be next to useless until it's changed so you can parry from flank, as well as block from flank for that matter. It does not matter if it makes no "logical or roleplay" sense. You have to give some of that up to facilitate functional gameplay.

That's not even mentioning how some enemies use magic damage as their auto attack and so parry does absolutely nothing for that. But this isn't as important as the former issue.