Parry

This article is a transcludable page, therefore it may only contain a few words, a tooltip, a price tag, a table, or a part of a page. See what links here for the pages that use this page.

<onlyinclude>

• Parry
• Passive
• Gives a chance to parry enemy melee attacks.

Targets of melee attacks can have a chance to parry each incoming frontal attack. Parried attacks are negated - no damage is dealt. It is a passive ability which does not require any action to be used. All melee classes except druids get this ability — warriors and paladins at level 10, rogues at level 12, Death Knights upon creation, and shamans when they specialize into enhancement. Prior to Patch 5.0.4, hunters were the only non-melee class that could parry. Hunters can no longer parry attacks in exchange for the removal of the minimum range for ranged attacks.

Functionality

• If a character or mob has a parry chance, it's always active and can take effect on every incoming frontal melee attack.
• If applicable, the parry chance is added to the attackers attack table.
• Originally, the only stat which increased the chance to parry was defense (0.04% per point). However, with the addition of Death Knights, 25% of their strength is added as parry rating (it is important to note that a Death Knight's high parry rating is one of their mitigation mechanics).
• Similarly items can directly increase the chance to parry.
• Attacks from the rear cannot be parried. Mobs sometimes do so anyway - this can be due to a bug or because they turn very quickly in place.
• When a warrior's special attack is parried, he does not spend all the rage cost associated with that spell (even though the spell fails). Miss, dodge, or block events will consume the full rage cost when the spell fails. ^{[citation needed]}

Enhancements

Enchantments

•  [Enchant Weapon - Blade Ward]
•  [Adamantite Weapon Chain]

Gems

Northrend Gems

Color	Name	Effect(s)
Prismatic	[Flashing Dragon's Eye]	27 Parry Rating
Red	[Flashing Dragon's Eye] †	+34 Parry †
	[Flashing Cardinal Ruby]	+20 Parry Rating
	[Flashing Scarlet Ruby]	+16 Parry Rating
	[Perfect Flashing Bloodstone]	+14 Parry Rating
	[Flashing Bloodstone]	+12 Parry Rating
Orange	[Glimmering Ametrine]	+10 Parry Rating	+10 Defense Rating
	[GlimmeringMonarch Topaz]	+8 Parry Rating	+8 Defense Rating
	[Perfect Glimmering Huge Citrine]	+7 Parry Rating	+7 Defense Rating
	[Glimmering Huge Citrine]	+6 Parry Rating	+6 Defense Rating
Purple	[Defender's Dreadstone]	+10 Parry Rating	+15 Stamina
	[Defender's Twilight Opal]	+8 Parry Rating	+12 Stamina
	[Defender's Shadow Crystal]	+6 Parry Rating	+9 Stamina

^† In Patch 3.2.0.

Outland gems

Color	Name	Effect(s)
Red	[Flashing Crimson Spinel]	+10 Parry Rating
	[Flashing Living Ruby]	+8 Parry Rating
Orange	[Glimmering Fire Opal]	+5 Parry Rating	+4 Defense Rating
	[Splendid Fire Opal]	+5 Parry Rating	+4 Resilience Rating
Purple	[Defender's Tanzanite]	+5 Parry Rating	+6 Stamina

Chance to parry

Conversion for 1%

Level	Rating
80	45.25
70	21.76
60	13.8

Your chance to parry is based on the formula: % = 5% base chance + contribution from parry rating + contribution from talents + ((Defense skill - attacker's weapon skill) * 0.04)

Your Parry Rating is provided by items that have a Parry Rating bonus.

In combat, you will notice that your Parry percentage match what you see on your tooltips. Miss chance and Critical chance are unmodified by Parry, so you're not "wasting" Parries on misses nor are you able to Parry a Critical. This may seem odd to some folks if they are expecting a "if hit, then check if Parry, then check..." type system. WoW, like many other games, uses a combat results table-based combat scheme (where one roll determines outcome of an attack), so percentages are absolute. Your parsed Parry won't necessarily match your tooltip if you're fighting creatures higher or lower in level to you.

Notes

Prior to the Cataclysm expansion, a redesign of parries was contemplated, where a successful parry would cause the next two melee swings from the attacker to deal only 50% damage. This change was apparently never implemented. Instead, parry was reimplemented to provide the same avoidance as Dodge.

Prior to patch 4.0.1, a parry also reduced the "swing timer" of the defender, effectively giving the defender additional haste. This effect occurred both for characters and mobs, including most bosses. Comments on the (now defunct) Beta forums indicate that the swing timer reset may still be in place for characters. ^{[citation needed]}

Patches and hotfixes

• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Hunters will lose parry as part of the trade-off for losing minimum range.
  
• Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): (unofficial notes) Parries now provide the same mitigation as Dodge.
  
• Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.
  

See also Ghostcrawler 2009-07-13. Re: Avoidance Change. Retrieved on 2010-04-04.

• Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): Level 80 characters now gain 1% to their Parry Chance for every 49.18 points of Parry Rating, level 70 characters 1% per 23.65 points (from 31.54), and level 60 characters 1% per 15 points (from 20).
  
• Patch 1.8.0 (2005-10-10): Minimum level for rogues to train this ability has been lowered to 12.
  
• Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12):
  • Fist Weapons will now have the normal chance to parry that all weapons use.
  • Special abilities which are parried will correctly activate abilities which are usable after parrying.
    
• Patch 1.3.0 (2005-03-07):
  • All creatures will now report a Parry on attacks from the front instead of translating them into a "Miss." Creatures will no longer be able to Parry attacks from behind.
  • Moved to level 6 for warriors.