One other thing, the 3x shield line is a very tough team.
1. Everyone use shield bash the first turn(if you go first)
2. Figure out who they are targeting and have that person use shield bash
3. The other two use strong attacks until the first is disabled.
I usually beat teams 7-9 levels higher than me just as they are disabling my first shield bearer.
It's been said before but misses are all too common. Even Diablo 3(despite its flaws) realized that frustrating mechanics such as missing(Diablo 2) are not a good way to randomize the difficulty of games.
Other than that, the only way to effectively use shields is to have everyone go down the shield line or purposely make your shield bearer have less defense than the others, which itself is strange. 4/5
 "Sands of the Coliseum"){kind=icon}