Is Paladin in a Bad Spot?

[Sleigh]

Because drk has more advantages on top of that. More damage, more threat, an extra cooldown pld doesn't get, and self heals. Don't give me clemency, if healers arn't dumb it's almost always overhealing with long cast, not to mention you have to give up even more damage to heal unlike a drk who heals while doing damage. Again I don't think pld is terrible but how is drk not just a better pld?

Shield, more consistent STR down debuff than Reprisal, better CDs when talking about purely physical attacks, Clemency/Protect/Divine Veil, Hallowed Ground.

PLD is more survivable, in virtually every fight in the game (including A3S, which yes world first put PLD out of in favor of DRK's higher MT DPS and Reprisal to ease mechanic damage), mainly from their shield but also core things like Sheltron and better Sentinel/HG. You'd have to put them in a fight like Ramuh where you can argue DRK is just plain better, otherwise there are advantages and disadvantages to both (and I'd argue most fights highly favor PLD's advantages).