Yeah on the whole I haven’t overstressed getting perfect gear, it’s just a general thing to work towards. (And mostly just at the time me wanting a cleaver since I dislike clubs) Just kinda salty the blessing on my only higher rumbler is… that.
As to the topic on the whole, have a very, very screwy Damnation run as an example of non shield play. Took a while because we had bots for quite a bit of it and had a shield ogryn being… a typical shield ogryn at the start 
. I was also sad at the zealot getting nommed at one point because I didn’t have my charge up to free her.
Was somewhat tired during it too so nothing particularly flashy. Just an example of Damnation being perfectly feasible even with absolute messes. Went down once because I’m terrible I wanted a heal/attrition with lolbots. Also note that my friend might sound insane because it doesn’t pick up my voice as well.