ya. thata what my interpretation of it was as well.
I just googled parry:
https://www.google.com.au/#q=define:+parry
And, it basically says to "ward" off an attack.
So, ya, my feeling on it was always that keepers were going to be the parry kings for two reasons:
1. They are strong and agile
2. They have a large weapon already in hand that they could use to fend off an attack.
MA's, on the other hand, along with fixers, shades and advy were more "evasive" meaning to move away from an attack
https://www.google.com.au/#q=define:+evade
evasion is totally different from parry.
You could be good at one, and not good at the other. Like, you could imagine if someone had infinite runspeed, and zero strength, they could be really good at evasion, but piss poor at parrying.
However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I could imagine a heavily armed swordsman, who is extremely strong, but because of all his armouring is slow - having too much inertia. The swordsman, though, with unparalled skill could easily find a way to fend off blows using his weapon (or shield and weapon) to produce glancing hits or fully parried hits.
An MP, by design, with a large shield, low strength, and low agility, would have a much harder time being either an evasion specialist, or a good parryer. I would rather see MP's "shielding" or using the shield as a full on blocking mechanism.
The interesting professions to me, using this type of analysis are shades and enforcers.
Shades, I feel are "fast" enough, with super agility ratings to produce "glancing" hits, but not nearly as well as keeper.
Enforcers using a 2he/2hb weapon would be significantly better at producing glancing or parried blows than a 1he/1hb enforcer, whom should really only be moderately effective at parrying.
But what about other classes?
MA feels like it should be a good parrier, but, really, only when a weapon or other item is held in hand that could be used to "fend" off a blow. But what about....
The dustbrigade bracers? These items seem like they almost could be modified for MA's to produce defensive armour for the purpose of parrying attacks?
I just don't see "bracers" being as effective as either a large 2 handed sword with sufficient strength, or a shield, or even large bladed axes (AI axe).
If parry is meant to be "deflection" then weapons/shield should be equipped, if it's meant to produce "glancing" blows, then it feels like MA's should only be able to produce this effect vs melee.