vpy":u9scisfe said:
You're way too early in the game to make any comparisons between classes. It would be like playing a mage and saying their too weak and useless (BTW, mages become monsters at upper levels).
Shield Warriors can invest early in Shield Expert giving them a disproportionate armor for early game enemies, often getting only the minimal damage. Which makes them appealing for very early play. HOWEVER, that advantage erodes pretty quickly as enemies get rapidly tougher and start to use elemental damage. Shield Warriors will struggle a bit to have high enough damage output to make them compete, esp against bosses and other tough enemies. For your own character, see how he does against the Orc King near Kingsbridge. Results vary on difficulty as well. Shield Warriors preform a little better at Casual than Hard due to the reduced defense of enemies. Nothing like doing minimal damage against a boss to really irk own's plans.
The skill Duel is almost a must for Shield Warriors wanting to stay competitive in the mid and late game (You can learn it pretty quickly after the Fort Assault). Strength potions are pretty useful too. Infantry Training is an obvious choice (esp before the Whispering necklace was added).
There are plenty of Shield Warriors that do well. 1-H weapon builds that use Duel or Flurry can have decent damage output with some of the best defense in the game. Agility weapon builds (light weapons) can do well too. Shield Warriors makes for longer fights, which can make the game seem slower paced.
But all this has been said before in the forum to the point of ad nausuem. The game's balanced so while Shield Warriors might get a slight advantage in the early game by investing in Shield Expert, that's by no means reflects the long term balance for the build.