I don't know how people use the slow shields. All the Str 2h just hold their swing indefinitely when facing a shielder now. With the fast shield, you just feint dropping your block, then raise it again really fast before the attack lands. Also, they spam kicks while holding, and the fast shields recover from being kicked fast enough to block the swing sometimes.
I thought 87 speed on the +3 HRS was a tad slow, but even the 100+ speed shields seem to be slower than manual blocking, but maybe that's a consequence of ping.