Why is my PLD stronger than my DRK?

[FallenWings]

lol

That's why in the FF franchise with the exception of XIV DRK specializes in monstrous damage output at the expense of HP while Paladin's specialized in bulky defenses and defending others.

[MoarLegion]

Sounds like a rotation issue, even on a dummy DRK should be parsing above PLD given identical ilvl.

A couple tips: Make a salted earth macro /ac "Salted Earth" <t >, this puts Salted Earth down without needing to free aim, which makes it easier to put down oGCD. Keep 100% scourge uptime or as close as you can to it, and watch your MP.
One thing to think about is that Dark Arts Soul Eater is actually filler, you do it because you have the MP, and Dark Passenger/DACnS is on cooldown. When those are starting to come off CD make sure you have the MP for them.

Also, sounds like you just need more practice.

[Martin_Arcainess]

Probs give us your rotation for DRK so we can see what your doing as that might be the case.

[CaedemSanguis]

Drk beat Pld at dps, rotation issue

[Judge_Xero]

It could be a rotational issue with DRK, but PLD is pretty strong in Sword Oath.

You would want to look at it outside of a single target rotation though because PLD doesn't have much AOE, which is where DRK can gain even more ground.

[DestroyerOfLargePlanets]

Amagiri is right -- a quick look at the potencies (Tooltips -- READ THEM) will show you that scourge, DACnS, and and salted earth deal some tasty deeps, which is why you'll want to use them ASAP. The longer you keep them unused while their cooldown has expired, the more damage-per-second you lose. An equally geared DRK and PLD would deal roughly the same damage on a dummy -- DRK will pull ahead by just a little.

[Sarcatica]

For this purpose, I have included 2 parses on A12S SSS. DRK has i270 weapon while PLD has i265 weapon/shield, don't have an i275 blade to compare.

DRK:


PLD:


EDIT: gentle reminder to switch to DRK whenever you can. PLD IS NO MORE, JOIN THE DARK SIDE.

[Cabalabob]

DRK should definitely be ahead of PLD on a dummy, but not by much, and it also depends where you end your parses. DRK has really sustained damage, it doesn't spike much, it's just constantly high damage. PLD on the other hand goes very high during FoF then drops when it wears off and goes low until FoF is back up. So if you're ending your parse during FoF that might be pushing your results in PLDs favour.

Amagiri's advice is sound, get those oGCDs on CD ASAP and keep them that way and don't let scourge fall off and you'll be golden. It's also important to note 2 things. 1. As has been said DRK gets more dps from low blows and reprisals than PLD does from shield swipes so against an actual enemy DRK gains even more ground. 2. DRK can go for way longer than PLD, a PLD bottoms out on tp after about 3mins on a dummy, a DRK can keep going for more than double that.

Just keep practicing DRK and you'll improve, it took me a while to get it down too, it takes a lot more work to play a good DRK than it does a good PLD.

[Yeol]

Dark Knight guide.