As title says. Penetration or Raw Damage?

I have seen people generally say that the math favors Maul. But my concern is against shields, where i do not think the penetration comes into play, since shields do not have resistance and are not critable. So my own common sense is saying Sword for overall performance, and Maul for good performance against heavy resistance builds but poor performance against low resist / shielded targets.

Also, considering i play no-cp, i think that favors Sword, since people will generally have less resistance without CP.

What would you recommend?