Wave Serpent Serpent Shield

Am I reading this wrong? The Serpent Shield rule states, "Any damage suffered from a ranged weapon is reduced to 1, to a minimum of 1."
From my understanding, this rule means that a weapon that causes D6 damage only causes 1.

Am I wrong in this? Please tell me I'm wrong in this..because by my calculation that means we need just under 30 Dark Lance shots to kill a single Wave Serpent.

the weave serpent shield states that all damage is "reduced by 1" not "reduced to 1", So if you roll a 6 for a D6 damage weapon, the serpent would take 5 wounds.

Straight numbers game, it will take 12 dark lance shots to kill a wave serpent. you hit on a 3+ (.667) and wound on a 3+ (S8 vs T7, so .667) with no saves. The Average on a d6 is 3.5, but the shield reduces it to 2.5. After you enter all of that, it comes out to roughly 12 dark lance shots.

Again though we all know that straight math is not king in this game, but nowhere near should it take 30 shots to kill 1 wave serpent

Yea. Serpent makes Plasmas and Dissies and similar weapons very ineffective.

"Any damage suffered by a Wave Serpent from a ranged weapon is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 1."

This is indeed true.