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Reading a Keystone Delta Comparison, Section by Section

A Keystone Delta comparison is long on purpose. A depleted key has one cause about as often as a car breakdown has one cause, so the page walks the run in the order a key actually fails: the route, the interrupts that carry it, the healer who keeps everyone alive through it, and only then the damage. This guide says what each section measures, what the numbers are normalised against, and which ones are worth acting on.

If you want the method rather than the tool, read how to compare two logs pull by pull first. Everything below is that method, automated, with a few layers the log makes possible but nobody has time to do by hand.

The run header

Dungeon, key level, the week's affixes and the timer, then one card per side: keystone time, timed or depleted, item level, deaths, score and the five specs with portraits. Two things to check before reading anything else. Same key level, because enemy health scales with the level and every damage number below assumes it is equal. Same affixes, because above +10 every run has the same three and below it the rotating one changes the pace. The page warns about both.

The verdict and the time budget

The gap between the two keystone times, split into buckets that each have a different fix: boss fights, trash in combat, time out of combat, and overpull (mobs killed past 100% of the count, priced at your own trash damage rate). The buckets are not summed twice: when the other group chained two packs you split, the walk between your two pulls is already inside that saving, so the page takes the larger of the merge saving and the standing-still bucket, then adds overpull.

Below it, four plain questions about damage that survive a slower run: damage per point of trash count, combat-only raid DPS, boss-only DPS, and the boss/trash time split. The Warcraft Logs DPS column divides by the whole run, so it is shown for reference and never used to judge anyone.

The route, on the map

Both runs' pulls drawn on the dungeon's own floor art: a shape per pull where the mobs actually stood, a dot per mob that hit somebody, the tank's path as a line, and numbered badges that jump to the pull cards. Floor tabs switch levels; the you/them/both toggle overlays or separates the routes. Hover a pull for its mobs with faces. This is the fastest way to see a chain the other group made and you did not: two of your shapes sit inside one of theirs.

Pull cards

One card per pull, in order, with duration, trash count as a share of what the key needs, the mobs in it, and a verdict chip against the matching pull on the other side. Matching is done on the mobs, not the pull number, because one extra split early shifts every number after it. A merge suggestion ("chain these two") is only shown when the merged pack is unique in the other run; three identical packs in a row would otherwise produce fake savings.

The kick budget, and what got through

Every enemy cast that was stopped at least once or that the game flags as important, with how many began, how many were stopped and by whom, how many landed, and how many were cut short. Kicks and crowd control are separated because "you let this heal through" and "you stunned it instead of kicking it" are different corrections. A red must stop tag marks casts the WoW client itself flags as lethal, the same flag every nameplate addon uses to paint a bar red. Some of those are not kicks at all: a channel that breaks when you run out of it, or a cast only crowd control answers. Those are labelled "not a kick: move or crowd control" and left out of the kick budget.

The kick budget itself is the group's kicks plus stops a minute against the must-stop casts it would need to answer. Every merge suggestion carries a feasibility tag priced against this budget: chaining two packs is only advice if your interrupts can carry the merged pull. A third tag, mechanics, says whether anything in the merged pull stacks with the mob count: an ability that fires on death or damage no button stops is choreography, not healing. Read the interrupts guide for how the numbers are rebuilt from events, and why the Warcraft Logs table alone undercounts.

Debuffs you carried around

Every debuff either group dispelled at least once, with applications, party-wide seconds carried, dispel rate and who dispelled with what. Dispel types (Magic, Poison, Curse, Disease) come from Wowhead, so the page can say which ones your class could have removed. A debuff both groups simply ate is invisible here, and the page says so. Enrages removed from enemies (Soothe, Tranquilizing Shot) are listed separately so they do not swamp the totals.

Healer stress

Healing per minute of combat, overheal, where the healing landed (tank, self, DPS) against where the damage landed, and the healer's mana over the run. A healer sending 30% to a tank who took 50% is keeping the DPS alive while the tank sustains himself. Merge suggestions are also priced against the party's healing ceiling: damage taken in the two split pulls compressed into the merged seconds, against the best fifteen seconds of everyone's healing. That is an upper bound, since a merged pull dies faster and takes less.

Deaths

For every death: the hit that carried the overkill (not the biggest hit in the window, which is often a different spell), the last five seconds by ability, whether it was a one-shot, burst or sustained, which defensives were off cooldown at that moment, which externals were ready on other players, and what the death cost in the player's damage. A DPS death costs seconds of combat weighted by their damage share. Tank and healer deaths are not priced that way: the whole pull stalls. Range and line of sight are not in the log; the button was.

Cooldown alignment

Where Bloodlust and every burst cooldown of 90 seconds or more was pressed: on a boss, on a big pull, on a small pull, or on a pull that ended within ten seconds. Sixty-second buttons are left out because they get pressed on whatever is in front. Effective cooldowns are read from the log, so a talent that shortens one counts.

Avoidable damage and mitigation

Warcraft Logs never marks a hit as avoidable. Archon does, per dungeon, by hand, and Keystone Delta reads those lists. Per player: damage taken a minute, the share that was avoidable with the top spells, and the mitigated share (armour, absorbs and defensives, the same figure as the Warcraft Logs Mitigated column). Dungeons without a list only get the mitigated share, and the page says so. Details in the avoidable damage guide.

Players

Players matched on spec where both groups brought it, otherwise on role and damage rank. Damage per active second, damage per point of trash count, share of the group's damage, casts a minute, and a full cast table for same-spec pairs: which buttons, at what rate, with the difference coloured by who casts more, not by good or bad. Click a player to open the one-on-one matchup, which adds defence, deaths, cooldown use and the healer block for that pair.

What to change

The suggestions at the top are built from everything above, in the order that usually explains the most: chain these packs (with the kick and healing feasibility tags), stop standing still here, skip this overpull, kick this heal, and the per-player gaps. Each carries the seconds it is worth. They are not additive, for the reason given under the time budget.

Since September 2026 the list also says which layer broke: when deaths run far above the other group's or a tenth of the damage taken was avoidable, the survival items lead and a sentence says why. A route item's seconds are what this group can carry, with the full sum beside it; the deaths item is priced against the other group's deaths; a boss healed to the finish is a healer item; and the verdict card treats a timed key as 100% of the count whatever the log counted.

Share link, card and PDF

Every comparison has a permanent link of the form /keystone-delta/c/<codeA>-<fightA>-vs-<codeB>-<fightB>. Pasted into Discord it unfurls with a card that carries both times, the verdict and the portraits. The PDF button prints the whole page with a branded cover, the run header, and every section, for a guild channel or a coach.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the comparison need the same key level?

Enemy health scales with the key level, so damage per second, damage per trash point and boss kill times are only comparable between runs at the same level. Keystone Delta warns when the levels differ.

Can I add up the suggested savings?

No. A chain suggestion is measured wall to wall, so the walk between the two split pulls is already inside it. Keystone Delta takes the larger of the merge saving and the standing-still time, then adds overpull.

What does the must stop tag mean?

The WoW client flags certain enemy casts as important, the flag nameplate addons use to paint a cast bar red. Keystone Delta reads that flag from the game client. Some flagged casts are answered by moving or crowd control rather than a kick, and the page labels those.