Let me dumb it down. Your class has an elemental type and when any enemy in crucible or pve uses a weapon with that same element there is a damage buff for them. The year one weapons are to weak to notice a difference. As for the zalo that's another story and does deal great damage in ideal conditions. I'm not talking void shields and etc cause that's a pve thing but your character has a shield always that matches their element. We don't see it but you as the character see it which is that bar on the top of your screen.

It is a neutral shield. Let me dumb it down for you. You have a Wayloran's March, a sniper that cannot res snipe. By your logic the damage boost should allow it to res snipe enemies of the same subclass element as it's element. But that doesn't happen. There is no damage increase when shooting someone who is an arc subclass with an arc weapon, that would effectively break the game. When Sunbreakers could only be 1 shot by Spindle, a Solar Eirene or Thousand Yard could still not kill them in 1 shot (I had a solar Eirene and could not 1 shot them without a lucky shot headshot.). There is no damage boost from having an elemental typing in PvP, it only impacts PvE enemies. Also, your health bar is composed of two sections. Section 1 is your shield, and that is the rightmost 2/3rds of the bar, and that is white. Section 2 is your health, it goes red when your shields are gone and, despite it being only 1/3 of the total bar it is half of your guardians total health. I know it is called a shield, I even stated it earlier. As I stated, I know lots about crucible and play it tons, there are no elemental shields on guardians.