It's a very touchy issue....
Warriors generate enmity by dealing damage
By increasing the damage of PLD, isn't SE saying "ok, the idea of PLD doesn't work, so let's make PLD more like warrior to shut people up"
Honestly? Isn't that the general impression?
While more HP and shield blocking are nice (And needed, although I would have taken 1 or the other) they don't really address the major concern
The major counterargument is PLD can generate just as much enmity as WAR
Well that, in and of itself, is wrong.
Even if they generated similar enmity (Which they very much don't), then this happens:
Tank A generates 5,000 enmity
Tank B also generates 5,000 enmity... but as an added bonus, has taken 3k HP off of the MOB by way of damage
No matter how much HP or blocking PLD has... in that system... Unless PLD can do as much damage as a WAR, or unless there is a situation where WAR can't survive and PLD can... then WAR will ALWAYS be the best choice
But the answer CANNOT be make the PLD do more damage.... If you do that, then either one is stronger and the other is gimp.... or they buff/nerf until they both do about the same damage and then they are essentially the same class
If WAR does more damage... PLD needs to be able to generate more Enmity
Some people think using a PLD means you can get rid of a WHM in favor of an extra DD.... but in truth... WAR heals just as efficiently as PLD.... SO any situation where you could use a PLD and get rid of a WHM, then you could have done the same with WAR... Advantage lost
Here is an example of what needs to happen:
WAR does 3 times the damage of PLD
so... PLD can generate 1.5 times the enmity of WAR
I know you're thinking "That's not fair" (Especially you WAR fans)
But it IS fair....
This is a way to make both viable (Without crazy changes to the game)
Say you have a WAR tank... he is doing damage... he is building Enmity.... the DD's go red and pop enmity abilities... go red and slow down some... or they have minus (-) enmity materia on....
Switch to a PLD tank... and although he can't do as much damage as the WAR, he can generate more enmity... which means the DD's don't have to hold back as much, and their extra DPS can make up for the missing WAR DPS
And Voila!!! Balance is achieved
In fights where the DD's aren't bottlenecked by enmity (Say they spend a lot of time dodging AOE's so they can't always attack OR its a MOB with really REALLY high defense)... WAR becomes the most efficient tank
In fights where enmity slows the DD's to the point where they have to stop DPSing because they are red... PLD would be the tank of choice
So to reiterate... WAR does more damage, so PLD should generate more enmity....
I hear you though... WAR does more damage and has more enmity abilities so he will do more damage AND generate more enmity....
Well this is something you'll have to take up with Yoshi....
But changes (Increases) to PLD damage mitigation, in theory, lower PLDs ability to generate enmity under this current ideology
So quote me on this... PLD will not be a more useful tank unless he can generate significantly more enmity that WAR OR in a case where PLD can survive a fight that WAR cannot