I don't use a shield on the first island. On the second island there is a shield that I in the lonewolf camp that has a lot of armor on it and I grab that as soon as I can. You need spirit vision and to have talked to the advocate but none of that requires any fighting.
Slynx was right about the masterwork rune too. That needs to be a priority. Also max your warfare and then your scoundrel for good crits. Make sure you are running savage sortilege on a wits based build. I think the first shield I throw (against ethiene in act 2) usually does ~1000 damage on a crit.
