Parry - How good skill is it, and does it need improvement?

[Subutai]

I've always thought the idea of parrying was amazing. It seems, on the surface, like such a cool skill, but everywhere I turn it seems like people talk about it as kind of a novelty. It's kinda cool, but ultimately not an overwhelmingly good skill.

Is this perception wrong? If not, now that haks have come, is there anything we can do to give it a boost?

[Peppermint]

It's fine but also not a must. Which, to be honest, is how a skill should be in my opinion.

[Memelord]

Its main downside is that it's coded weirdly and can only block the first swing in each flurry. This works fine when you and your opponent only have 1-3 APR, but as soon as they exceed 3 APR (most builds get a maximum of 5 minimum) you start encountering problems. 4 APR means at least one swing (one of which will be the BAB -5 swing and thus highly likely to hit) cannot be parried - 5 APR means that at least two swings cannot be parried.

So no matter how good you are at parrying, once you hit the levels where you're going to be actually PvP'ing, you will end up not being able to make use of your parry skill for at least 2 out of 5 swings made against you each round. This means that, as a skill, it's really only "useful" (just how useful it actually is, is questionable) on builds that have absurdly high AC or other means of making it highly unlikely that high AB swings will hit anyways.

[helitron]

Parry is very situational and with the right build it can be very effective in PvP (in combination with high AC or Epic Dodge).

On Arelith the ripostes from parried attacks can hurt really bad. However, to get there this requires quite some investment to get to 80ish and above. So, ESF Parry is a must.

What I would like to see, is a way to reduce the parry skill of an opponent. For example a successful taunt could reduce it by 5 to 10 for one round.

[Sockss]

Parry is a huge damage shield you can't dispel, sorta.

It can prevent anyone from wanting to melee you at all, but of course, it relies on you being quick with it and the opponent not noticing in time, so expect a lot of switching combat stances!

It's also really exceptional in PvE, a huge parry score on to ED is currently one of the only legitimate ways of beating neo-paush (As of a few months back), most people have to exploit the AI in one form or another.

If parry were any more than 1/flurry it would be completely broken, but it's in a good spot now.

[Xarge VI]

I invested in Parry on my high dex spellsword and It turned out to be a very good skill in PvP. While it is not a response to every situation it is a nice tool to have.
The ab and damage bonuses really made it quite scary in the right situations, combined with all the damage bonuses Spellsword gets.

Although this was before the latest update for the class. The importance of True Strike may eat away some of the utility of Parry for them.

[Irongron]

I think parry is one of the most successful 'arelith adjusted' skills, and find the responses above pretty spot on.

One thing that isn't mentioned yet though is probably the reason that, for me, matters most of all; parry, whether in PvE or PvP, affords time for mid-combat rp and emoting, something that is otherwise very often impossible.

[Braid]

I love parry. Even with a parry score of 70 is decent to pvp. Sure you won't parry/riposte the 1st attack but AB diminishes for every attack they have.

Idealy you'd want it paired with e.dodge and high AC but even without them it's fun. It's also a way to have faux AC in a sense without depending heavily on buffs.

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

parry seems amazing for pve on arelith. I’m dubious about it being useful in pvp but I haven’t tried a parry build yet so I could be missing something. I was close to playing a 30 monk parry whore, but I get bored when there is zero risk of loosing in pve.

[Disciprine Come From Within]

As someone who tested Parry to see it's usefulness, I'd say I was honestly pretty underwhelmed.

Before you get out the pitchforks, let me explain.

Parry has some nice changes and with the right setup you are getting +5 AB and +20 Damage on Riposte with it's functions. But that damage is only nice if you have few attacks and are building something to exploit it's functions to the max as a "I take damage but do more damage back" character.

The more attacks you have, the less effective Parry becomes. Even my Rogue in Improved Expertise was getting more damage on average with his dual wielding than he was using Parry. I purposefully had and used the parry daggers for the bonuses/flair for that reason. While it could lead to a single target near untouchable fight, most fights in Arelith are not one on one and the higher level ones can get somewhat dull.

I want to like the change more than I do, but the damage only really shines on a weaponmaster build at the moment. It needs something else for Dex characters to feel it's worth it if you have so many attacks.

[Nitro]

Well, you need to remember that parry is primarily a defensive tool. If parry was dealing more damage than straight up attacking that would be kind of messed up design wise since it beefs up your defense a lot against physical attacks.

[Memelord]

I mean, when an entire skill can be made pointless by just having a second person attack you or by just ignoring you entirely because you've made yourself into a nonfactor when you aren't under direct assault - it's probably not an amazing skill. It's situationally okay, but isn't great.

[Nitro]

I'd say situational is a pretty good space for it. It's always useful in PvE if you need to survive more, it even works with -guard. In PvP it can let you livelord really hard as an edodge character, making you nearly immortal against regular attacks and can otherwise in general help buy some time.