plexiq wrote:
@Kard:
Could it be that its only affecting magical damage?
I did quite big runs w/ writing down 100's of hits, but wasnt seeing significant differences. Im str char and mainly dealing phy dmg. Thoughts?
Honestly, that was my speculation as well but your answer is answered up there. The character that I use as Kard is a pure strength fire glavier with force. Yes, I do see a significant damage increase. The damage increase sadly is not noticeable when we do our chain combos or even on a normal hit without skills (with imbue on). It is easily noticeable when you use only a particular skill that does 1 hit. Discount the crits. 
Yes I agree wholeheartedly that the change or difference is small but isn't that how all our skills start? The higher the level, the bigger the difference. It's the same when I took the Burn Body skill that increase physical damage. 3% (4% total with passive included), is not a whole lot. In fact, it is disgustingly miserable but as you level and you see bigger numbers, the absence of that buff does seem somewhat significant. 
The effect of parry itself is to reduce damage on yourself. Works in reverse if you lower parry on the mob/person. As it is, my nuker takes approximately 200 damage from a maong, that is without the parry buff. Maongs deal physical damage. With the parry buff in effect, it presses the average down to 150. 50 damage is seriously not a lot but do consider that we are not pvping all the time or jobbing all the time. Most of us spend our time grinding. 50 damage less means that over 10 hits, that's 500 damage that you saved on. 500 damage that you saved on is as good as saving a hp pot. 
Effects on PvP? I tried. The other character, Innuendra is a hybrid nuker therefore, I don't nuke as hard as pure int. Being a hybrid nuker archer, the deal is to take down the nuker before he gets too close to charge a nuke. Snipe from far. That aside. I've asked my own guildy to nuke me over 50 times without my parry buff and another 50 times with my parry buff on. 
Setup 1:
1. Me = level 39, 37 mastery, full protector set, average armor no plusses
2. Guildy = nuker level 42, 38 mastery, 42 spear +3
Looking at the difference between the presence and absence of the parry buff, the fire nukes are hitting me for a whole ~500 less damage when the buff was on. Take into consideration that I do have passive. Without the passive, the damage difference would have been more.
Setup 2:
1. Me = level 39, 37 mastery, full protector set, average armor no plusses
2. Guildy = pure str fire glavier level 42,  38 mastery, 42 + 3 crit 11 glavie
Discounting crits and using only Soul Spear book 2 level 2. The difference was about ~400 less when the buff was on. 
About the force skill working on a mob. Both characters that I am playing have that skill. When used against mobs, the damage increase is only seen when you hit big numbers. I'm sure you have some guildmates who are willing to help you experiment. Find a willing guildy and ask him to go kill mobs. Ask him to note the damage he does visually without the skill in use. After some runs, do it again but this time with the skill fired off before he hits the mob. Ask him to visually note the damage he's doing. Over some runs, ask him if he notice any difference in the damage he's doing. Alternatively, you could just note all the numbers down yourself. I did both. Ask my guildy to note visually and I take down numbers.