I just wish the shields were 10x more durable. I feel like they are useless against anything but projectiles.
Shields in BL are imo, too durable. They stagnate fights because both players can play extremely safely, and can wait for their team to back them up instead of actually engaging in a fight. Even if you do play aggressively with a shield, there's not much you can really do against a passive shield player, except for wailing on their shield waiting for it to break (which can take quite a while). Combined with swing delay, you really can't mix up your attack timing or try to get a shield player to lower their block if they know how to deal with feints and aren't particularly concerned in attacking. Especially in skirmish, the infantry fights just aren't enjoyable - it's stagnant, block-attack endlessly thanks to the durability of shields. Nobody plays shock infantry either, because they get shut down hard by projectiles (which many troops have in excess). So it's just shields, archers, and cavalry.
TDM is a different beast, however. Your shields will often go through engagements, and there's a lot more shock infantry with big weapons that could potentially break your shield quicker. If you're concerned about your shield breaking in TDM, you can always try picking another one up. At the same time, certain peasant classes in TDM have 2h weapon options or can pick up 2h weapons instead of opting for their weaker shield, in comparison to heavy infantry, so you don't always need to use a shield.