I never expected shield to ahve good dmg. My problem is that only thign its really good at is restoring armor. Staff, Ice Magic, BC, even unarmed all have better dmg mitigation, while also offering dmg/group utility. Beside armor restoration, only rason to pick shield is for speed boosts, or eventualy bonuses to core/nice attacks - addmitivly they are actualy strong, but not sure it makes shield worth it.

As a side note - hmmer shield was only build where i actualyw a sable to make use of Rapid Recovery. Usign seismic slam to slow mobs down, and then pushign them back with FMYF was givign me just enough time to finish casting it.