Quote Originally Posted by Reynhart View Post
Exactly, you need to extend to two minutes if you want to use 12 differents keys, whereas PLD use them every minute.

Also during those two minutes, you mostly repeat the same 3 GCDs sequence, whereas PLD never uses the same 3 GCDs sequence back to back except during the 4 Holy Spirit spam.
But shrink that window to 10s (an opener), and DRK are hitting more keys than a PLD. PLD does maybe 8 keys (HS, 1-2-3, Intervene, CoS, SW, and FoF). DRK does 10 (1-2-3, BW, Edge, AD, CnS, SE, LS, and Plunge). Over the course of an entire fight, PLD and DRK are pushing the same amount of different keys for an offensive rotation. PLDs push their keys in a more uniform fashion, whereas DRK have their key presses front loaded on the minute. PLD have to not screw up their GCD rotation, or it's big dps loss (they either clip the DoT to re-up it in a FoF window, or they let it fall off and re-up outside FoF), but they don't have to worry about overcapping MP or Oath guage (they only use MP for damage inside requiescat, and Oath isn't involved in dps). DRK are inverted--they still don't want to mess up their GCD rotation, but it's super short, so if they do, it's not a big loss. However, they need to be vigilant about not overcapping MP or Blood gauge, as doing so is costing them dps.

Recently, I've been splitting my level 80 play time between these two classes, as I can't decide which one I like more. They both require effort, but in different ways.