I haven't played online since 0.860, but I never found it that difficult to kill someone with a shield. I usually use polearms, and I found a skilled two-hander was far more dangerous than a skilled sword-and-shielder. Just remember you have a big advantage in reach with most two-handed weapons - attack them while they're trying to attack you but aren't close enough, and bait them into doing so as much as possible. It can be hard to judge since many weapons seem to have a longer effective range than they visibly should. Still, range is vitally important online, much more so than in SP. I found one handed weapons much less useful since you can't stay in range easily enough.