My hot take on the guardian parry

I feel ways about the guardian parry because while it is skill expression, it's a bit shallow and predictable. There's also no way to defend your guardian from it with a return of skill.

Even if parry wasn't refunded from successful guardian strikes, the circumstances don't let you apply the standard counter of heavy melee. If they're diving, it's because you're vulnerable. If you're vulnerable, you can't heavy melee.

So, my steamy ritualist IV idea is to switch it and make heavy melees stun guardian instead (with a cooldown ofc).

If the defender can manage to stay close enough to guardian, they can defend with parry. The fun, skillful mind games of parry baiting ensue, but the advantaged attacker is punished for staying in range of the defending guardian.
Inversely, if the attackers can force defenders off the guardian, they can secure heavy melee damage on it without a counter-strike and continue the dive.