I've never had a character max riposte because it takes way too damn long. However, my arial got pretty close and I got ripostes all the time. My 23 str human, which I played longer, never even have riposte go above like 78% because of how rare it was. I couldn't say whether or not the arial actually parried more, but maybe riposte just fired more allowing for more chances to improve.

That human also had Ward. Arial with nothing was a better thank than human strength with Ward.

I know for sure it's because of dodge, but it's probably also because of flourintine.

I'll say too that in both the human strength and arial case, I got a lot more use out of fires of adversity. The trouble with that of course being the tankiness is heavily applied when you're low hp and a direct shot or a lucky run will wipe you out. I still like fires a lot better.

Sportsmanship killed CF