Meh, reading this forum makes me think many people posting here have no idea what they are talking about. PLD is definitely easier to play, but also has a lower skillfloor, so a good WAR will always be more useful than a good PLD. PLD beats WAR in fights where you take sustained dmg, in fights with burst dmg (eg Titan ex/T5/T9/...) WAR is king, because you can time your IB for every burst attack, while keeping your other CDs for oh-shit-moments.

Concerning speedruns, my best time as ilvl 101 WAR with bravura animus + mixed DPS jewelry (couple 110, rest 100) was about 4:50, WHM holy-ing aswell, you dont need any heal besides bene in the first pull, while you can self-sustain in the second one. I'm also pulling around 200-250DPS in speedruns, about 180 in T6, 240 in T9.

PLD will always outdo WAR while learning fights, but once you got the timers down, WAR reigns surpreme.