My two cents in these random posts below. They may or may not help you, just a bunch of stuff I would tell a new shielder.
I found that IF with medium armor (Leather over Mail + Scale Gauntlets) helps quite a bit. You can survive that one extra hit that might be enough to win or get away. 21-15 with 80+ range weapons with maxxed IF is what I would use, but it requires a loomed weapon and a loomed shield. 7 PS is still too low to make vanilla 1H cut weapons hurt tincans (read: everyone, because everybody and their mother has at least +3 Heavy Kuyak and +3 high armor gauntlets of some sort) and 5 Shield is too low to use anything below Heavy Round Shield, and even that thing will be busted by random axe hits quickly.
If you don't have looms I recommend going 18/18 with a blunt/pierce weapon (or MAYBE Military Orc Cleaver. Forget the axe, though, that thing blows). This build covers your most glaring weaknesses. 15/21 is also a possibility, but you will have to use Steel Pick or Warhammer, nothing else is going to hurt anybody in your anemic hands.
If you prefer light armor (that is, getting one-shotted by everything, but being slightly faster), you may ignore IF, as it's not going to help you if you're wearing light armor.
Always wear heavy helmets. Always. All the time. Preserve that head.
Don't wear Kuyak. It makes you want to have sexual intercourse with males.
Don't wear two shields at the same time, they weigh you down and don't help you one bit.
Longer weapons are obviously better for when your shield breaks. Because every Kuyak bundle of sticks is also an S-key rollercoaster right-swing hero and chasing them with your 4 inch toothpick doesn't help.
