Damage Shield

A damage shield is a type of beneficial spell (buff) which deals direct damage to an enemy who strikes the buffed character with melee damage. Druids and Magicians are known to have the strongest damage shields, although Bards, Rangers, Enchanters, Wizards, Necromancers, and Shadow Knights are also capable of casting weaker damage shields. Just as well, Shamans have the ability to make damage shield potions through alchemy

NPC Damage shields

In most contexts, groups of players will rely heavily on melee dps to deal a significant portion of the damage to kill NPCs. It's very advantageous to dispel damage shields from NPCs. Be sure to do so before slowing or snaring the NPC, as dispel may strip that, too.

As a form of DPS

Damage shields are a mana-efficient form of dps when used on the tank in a group, especially when they are tanking more than one NPC at a time. Damage shields also do no additional aggro (for the tank nor for the caster) so it can be cast early in the fight, unlike a nuke which might draw unwanted attention.

As a powerleveling tool

The damage dealt from damage shields is not counted for the purposes of calculating what player or group should receive experience. A high level druid powerleveler can take advantage of this by casting high aggro, zero damage spells (snares) on a large group of enemies, allowing the powerlevelled lowbie to hit each for at least one point of damage, then sitting repeatedly to cause the group of enemies to hit the druid and receive damage shield damage. Bards and Enchanters are also efficient at this technique.

Maximum Damage Shield

https://wiki.project1999.com/Buff_Lines#Damage_Shield_Stacking