Why do people say SK's do more DPS than Paladins?
 

They both have the Same Offensive Caps. They both have access to the same weapons. The SK might have slightly more starting strength, if you choose ogre or troll, but with good gear both will be strength capped. You could argue the SK's pet increases his DPS, but most SK's rarely use the pet since it is so low level it will pull aggro and does very little damage to mobs. The SK spells might do damage, but all of them are low level necro spells and SK's lack the mana regen to sustain that damage for very long. Paladin and SK's should have roughly the same amount of sustained DPS assuming equal gear, stats, weapons.

They have a lower piercing cap than paladin which I recall is about 30 attack (an issue if you use a poker).

Yaulp4 is 40str which closes the race gap over SK biggies (mostly). It also gives 40 attack. Shroud of Hate is 20attack and stacks with ranger SoN (25). Yaulp4 overlaps SoN so it’s pretty close. If you can land shroud of hate on stuff every 10 mins or so to keep it active.

Probably the cumulative dots, 44 necro pet, and belief in racial str if I had to guess why the general logic. Tap procs will land on stuff but only a few dps on average; divine might won’t since it’s 0 MR check resist. If the sk is chaining drain soul via top slot I’m sure they could beat a paladin while mana held up.

Typically though, most knights parse about the same with the same buffs and weapons. Randomness considered of course.

Sk's regularly parse lower than paladins on raids.

Parses don’t show others’ spell damage.

I believe people attribute SK’s improved dps to their spells. I also think they are referring more to the level process than when killing red raid mobs.

Unnerf lifetaps tho.

Probably just holdover from live where that statement is a lot more true. Also probably the same reason people think Paladin is somehow a lot better against undead than regular mobs. Ya you could unload your mana bar on mediocre undead nukes or mediocre SK DoTs, but in practice it's not worth it and you'd be better off saving that mana for heals/lifetaps.

It is also worth mentioning on a server where there is such a proliferation of 1:1 dmg delay knight weapons spending time casting spells won’t do as much damage relative to melee.

yea pretty much this, there is a threshold where weapon dps starts overtaking spellcasting time, most folks have access to tov knight weapons since draft and the common rate of them. at this point both do about same minus rng.

In most situations everyone who can use it should be getting strength of nature over divine strength. Most SK’s ask my pally for DS. I also expect most aren’t keeping Shroud of Hate up. If a paladin is yalping at 60 that’s a 40 attack difference.

I don’t know what chaining drain soul is while meleeing. Or really what targets can be tapped. I don’t sk or necro. With good rmg it’s possible for Shroud of Death to proc a ton and that can add up.

In general though relative dos should come down to buffs, weapons, and luck.

That’s wild. You would think SKs do more damage, since life taps are unresistable + pets + dots. What exactly pushes paladins over in damage? Buffs? I find it hard to believe! Looks like I need to re-read some of the stuff above me.

Really common misconception here about sk pets. The max one at 52 will quad for 39 and the max one at 58 will quad for 46. This is honestly no joke, and puts sks ahead of paladins for group content dps. If you’re not finding ways to utilize your pet then you’re just being inefficient(get a reclaim energy clicky). Also you have things like sk epic that do damage over time or lifetaps as needed. Pallies are great but their spells suck for doing dmg.

For raids who cares they both aren’t that great but pallies get the raid edge for sure for other reasons.