The "forum consensus" seems to be that while Ward helps more for poorer parry-ers, Dance helps more for more dodgy (higher dex) characters. Is this the case? If so, isn't it bit backward? Shouldn't they be equivalent since they do the same thing except one is toward dodge, and the other parry?

Just curious. I've had neither, so I can't speak to the veracity of the Dance claims.

Actually, the code for these two legacies is shockingly similar. Shocking, I say. Cut and paste, is there anything you can't do?

The following applies to both legacies but I'll just use Dance for clarity of examples. On one hand, a character who dodges well has the best chance to dodge when they'd otherwise fail because of Dance. On the other hand, a character who dodges like ass has a smaller chance to salvage the dodge because of Dance, but they're also going to get more chances for that to happen because they dodge like ass.

So in a sense, you could argue that it's better for the first guy because it does help him more, but you could also argue that it's better for the second guy because it brings him up from ass to okay.

I've heard from a few different sword specs with ward that the difference is very small, and ward helps you alot more if Flouritine isn't involved.
Could it be said that ward + flour = not so cool?
Or are we just weighing the effects wrong?

Consider ward something that can kick in if you could parry (e.g., you've got a weapon in your hand, or ironhands, or whatever) but fail. The sword guy with flour will probably save a lot more of the failures than most characters, but equally he's also failing a lot less in the first place.

>Actually, the code for these two legacies is shockingly
>similar. Shocking, I say. Cut and paste, is there anything
>you can't do?
>
>The following applies to both legacies but I'll just use Ward
>for clarity of examples. On one hand, a character who parries
>well has the best chance to parries when they'd otherwise fail
>because of Ward. On the other hand, a character who parries
>like ass has a smaller chance to salvage the parries because of
>Ward, but they're also going to get more chances for that to
>happen because they parries like ass.
>
>So in a sense, you could argue that it's better for the first
>guy because it does help him more, but you could also argue
>that it's better for the second guy because it brings him up
>from ass to okay.

So I stuck in parry/ward for dance/dodge, and perhaps it's the flourintine thing, but seems to me like this is opposite of the attitude where Ward sucks for good parrying sword specs, but is good for axe and mace specs who parry considerably worse. I get what your saying, and like I said, I haven't had either, but I'm still a little confused. Fire giant sword w/ dance = Fire giant sword w/ ward? Or better or worse? I think I'm going to forget I asked this question as the likely benefit of knowing the answer will be none since who knows if I'll ever take either legacy.

>I get what your saying, and like I said, I haven't had
>either, but I'm still a little confused. Fire giant sword w/
>dance = Fire giant sword w/ ward? Or better or worse?

Well, similar code, not identical. That being said, I think Ward is the clear choice for the fire sword (not considering his second spec) because of riposte. More parries = more ripostes. If you've got concealed, you probably want dance. Swiftstrike, ward again. Otherwise, figure that all things being equal ward probably can do a little more for you, but at the same time parrying generally takes a weapon.