I think it would be good to give all shield weapons ability to perform some kind of damaging attacks while still holding the block, somehing like “guard strikes”. Such attacks can be slower or less damaging ofc, but they’ll let you do some damage and still being protected from accidental hits, so shield give you “defence” as you expect from this kind of weapon, and at the same time you still will be able to kill things, which is a main and only purpose of any weapon in this game.
I agree with OP on topic that in Vermintide offense is more significant then defence, because lots of the game mechanics here based on a simple idea: you should not only kill things, but you also should do it as fast as you can. If you don’t do so, many bad things can happen: disablers can appear and ruin your defence, new horde can spawn, etc. So, pure defensive weapons simply don’t match to a core idea of the game. It’s not an MMORPG when you need a dedicated tank to hold a boss while others will damage him. Here anyone must be able to protect himself (with dodges or blocks) and deal as much damage as possible at the same time.
