Hello warrior Darth Mez,
thank you for bringing this to our attention. We apologize for the misleading item description. In the future this item will be re-coded to add strength, which will increase your character's maximum damage.

Keep in mind that the guardian shield has strength stats on it that increase base damage.. When the imperial shield is stripped of strength increase, but has the damage increase you speak of (why i was waiting to create it).

I think that is the problem with the Imperial Defender gear. Strength stats are missing and i think it was an oversight by the devs like Noirethorn said.