Can we get an official explanation on what parrying is?

[localareanetwork]

There is literally nothing in game or on Google that isn't about the thing removed in 4.0 besides a Reddit thread that vaguely explains it along with PLD Block. And THAT is just that you randomly have a chance to block physical damage...

But for those that are curious and don't actually know... (because recently I told someone who started playing in HEAVENSWARD about it for the first time who never noticed it, and I started playing in Shadowbringers!)

All classes can parry and have the same rate of doing it (20% chance), it lowers the damage of any random physical attack by 15%. Why is this never explained anywhere in the game or on any official websites?

[Jeeqbit]

It doesn't matter because it's RNG and RNG mitigation is not worth anything because it's not consistent. You can't go into a raid and be certain that you don't need more mitigation because you don't know if it will parry or not. This is why most traces of it were removed in the first place.

It's useful for tanks fighting against enemies in dungeons because a lot of them do physical attacks and every 5 parries is like one attack missing. The chance of parrying is high because of the amount of enemies attacking you and this is the only moment that you can really rely on it. Gunbreaker has an ability called Camouflage that still increases parry rate.

You have a point that they don't explain it anymore, but because this ability also reduces damage taken by 10%, it conveys the priority you should be assigning the ability well enough.

DPS did used to have parry buffs as well, but they wanted to make room for abilities that are actually useful to a DPS. Ones that actually do damage.

[Larirawiel]

Parrying was somehow important for tanks. The old Battledance Materia increased the parry rate. But they changed it to a flat incoming damage reduction. Parrying is still in the game engine but you cannot really affect it. Only the gunbreaker has a temporary buff, which increases the parry rate by 50%.

I guess, they will remove parrying in the future because this stat has no real usage.

Cheers

[Wind-Krysvein]

Parrying was somehow important for tanks. The old Battledance Materia increased the parry rate. But they changed it to a flat incoming damage reduction.

Speaking of which, could we maybe make Tenacity an actually useful stat instead of the "if gear has it then it's almost certainly not BiS" and "absolute last stat to materia boost for" thing it is now?

The damage reduction gained from it is flat-out awful. There's barely any difference.

[Jeeqbit]

The damage reduction gained from it is flat-out awful. There's barely any difference.

This is a matter of interpretation. Yes, if you look at an attack that does 1000 damage to you, it would become 900 with only 10% mitigation. That doesn't look like a lot so I understand what you are saying.

But you could make the same argument about Rampart mitigating 20%. If you use it on 1000 damage it becomes 800 which still looks like a lot.

Across a lot of attacks, such as a lot of autos, dot ticks or a lot of enemies attacking you in a dungeon, it mounts up the way any other mitigation does.

The argument isn't really that "tenacity isn't good at mitigating", it's that the extra mitigation isn't necessary. It could mitigate 50% and DPS-conscious people still wouldn't care because they only care about what increases damage the most.

The reason people avoid Tenacity is because it doesn't increase damage as much as Determination and because they can get away without using it. If you did want to use it, I'm sure it would be nice in some of the roughest big pulls and against the dot tank busters we have got this tier. It's just that the argument is we have enough mitigation already with our 20%, 30% and 15-25s mits and healers have a hotbar full of heals they want to find a use for.

[ForteNightshade]

Speaking of which, could we maybe make Tenacity an actually useful stat instead of the "if gear has it then it's almost certainly not BiS" and "absolute last stat to materia boost for" thing it is now?

The damage reduction gained from it is flat-out awful. There's barely any difference.

Fun little factoid. Now that Warrior can meld Direct Hit, no tank uses tenacity materia whatsoever nor will there ever be a scenario that forces them to. It's a bit ridiculous that Tenacity has essentially become "well, it's better than Parry". They clearly didn't intend for tanks (or healers) to meld Direct Hit but seemingly never considered we'd always prioritize damage over defense. Especially when the defense gains are hardly noticeable.

[Renalt]

Fun little factoid. Now that Warrior can meld Direct Hit, no tank uses tenacity materia whatsoever nor will there ever be a scenario that forces them to. It's a bit ridiculous that Tenacity has essentially become "well, it's better than Parry". They clearly didn't intend for tanks (or healers) to meld Direct Hit but seemingly never considered we'd always prioritize damage over defense. Especially when the defense gains are hardly noticeable.

Well good thing I'm not too serious about materia...cause I slotted nothing but Tenacity. If I get bored again I'll just reslot for something else. Should be easy to do.

[Jojoya]

To the best of my knowledge, most games use the word parry when referring to partial deflection of an attack (as opposed to dodge where the attack fails to land at all). I think it's one of those terms where it's just assumed everyone knows what it means.

Parrying was somehow important for tanks. The old Battledance Materia increased the parry rate. But they changed it to a flat incoming damage reduction. Parrying is still in the game engine but you cannot really affect it. Only the gunbreaker has a temporary buff, which increases the parry rate by 50%.

I guess, they will remove parrying in the future because this stat has no real usage.

Cheers

It does have some use as a form of mitigation but as Jeeqbit said, there's no real point in explaining it in detail since it is random in nature plus developers can change the formula for the damage reduction if they feel it's needed.

[Renalt]

Are these numbers accurate for people? Cause on my PLD when I Parry it's for 19% blocked. As for Tenacity doing nothing...I must admit I don't do any raiding so Materia slotting is an afterthought to me cause it's just all extra but I take far less damage when I slotted as Tenacity as my priority stat (Cause I know nothing of materia and just wanted something) I've noticed not only do I take less damage...but my regen or even clemency if I use it on someone else is pretty much a Benediction.

[Mikey_R]

Are these numbers accurate for people? Cause on my PLD when I Parry it's for 19% blocked.

I believe you are confusing Block and Parry. Only Paladins can Block, the amount they block for is ~20%, dependant on the shield equipped (at a X0 level, early gear tends to be 19% which it then goes up to 20% and IIRC it goes to 21% at the best gear for the level) however, all jobs can parry, including Paladin. Parry is as described in the OP.

Parry has a much lower 'proc' rate on Paladin as you cannot block and parry an attack and block will always take priority. You will know when an attack is parried as you will see the text say (Parried 15%) as opposed to (Blocked 20%).