Shield Damage too High?

[Mad_Bombardier]

I am wondering why my shield damage is so high? Mind you I'm not complaining, I love it! I'm just wondering from a game mechanics standpoint.

My Warden currently uses Amazonian Spear (base damage 155-169) and Chieftain's Pelta (base damage 65). Versus enemies that don't go down in 1 hit, the shield routinely does more damage. Where as my spear will do 50-75% of an enemy's health (assuming a mob not affected by poison), my shield on Shield Smash does 75-90% of enemy's health.

Now, I know that many mobs are resistant to pierce and poison, the 2 main damage sources of my spear. But still, the base damage of my spear is 2x (160 vs 65) that of my shield. The only difference in skills/mods applied to the attacks is +30% damage with shield when doing Shield Smash. But, 65 x 1.3 = 85, not even close to the 160 of my spear. Even if a mob is immune to the 25% pierce damage AND poison, then my spear only does .75 x 160 = 120. So, how am I doing less damage than my shield? Is there a bug in damage calculation or maybe shields do something other than physical damage, or completely bypass armor in a special attack?

[Andrew the Legit SP]

Medierra explained in a post on June 02, 2006 that shield skills
actually use your shield damage PLUS your weapon damage,
so Defenders are quite powerful. In particular, Batter (+Rend Armor)
is very useful on the right mouse button for my Conqueror, due
to its quick cooldown timer.

[wlykyot]

When you hit with your shield you hit with your shield + weapon. /Andrew beat me to it.

[Mad_Bombardier]

gee thx, i missed that post. question answered. defenders!