Why is mages' only defense to parry?

This is one of those questions that I assume has a direct answer, so I'm not suggesting something needs to be changed here. I suppose I'm just curious, and inviting an open discussion.

I was thinking about each of the classes and their available defenses. All of them make sense to me (although I'd love for DK's to get dual parry) except for one... why do mages parry, and nothing else? From an RP perspective, it's never made much sense to me. Parry is definitely one of those things you learn to do with martial weapon training. While mages have weapon training, most of them bypass having to train them up at all with weapon ward. We also tend to associate parrying with a degree of physical strength (since it takes a lot to parry a giant's polearm being swung at your face).

Instead, IMO, from an RP perspective, dodge would make a lot more sense. It's much more natural for one to step out of the way of steel being swung at you. Plus, INT helps dodging, which is a stat we also typically associate with mages. So I'm curious (other than nerfing the potency of weapon ward), why is it that mages parry instead of dodge?

Invokers get shield block too.

This is true. I should have made the title 'Why do mages parry instead of dodge'. I believe the question still applies (per my last statement I made). So for invokers, why not dodge and shield block, rather than parry and shield block?

I didn't pick this but I can tell you I would put it this way because there's more options to the player with parry, e.g. choosing a mace for tanky or whip for full offense.. foreign weapon penalties based on if they learn the skill or not.. without that a weapon is just a stat stick. it might be interesting to be able to dodge without the skill when fighting other characters who are also without the skill, just at a really low rate.

Davairus trips while communing blind. Davairus barely dodges your attack as he falls.

Haha, I didn't mean like that. Healer's prudence skill is like a dodge"though. So I guess we do have something like that.

Dodgecoin