.

Even against the balron, I found that having a free hand for potions was more valuable. Stamina and heal potions especially, but the occasional cure. Also considering heavy shields only block 1/3 of hits or thereabouts, you end up with little runs here and there of 2 or 3 hits in a row that don't hit the shield, in which case you're backing off to heal anyways. A buckler will block ~86% of hits, but only for about 6 damage per hit, which isn't meaningful enough to help. The balrons here hit for around 40 damage against Invulnerable armor, so you're dead in 3 hits with or without the buckler.