Perhaps making it to if you are blocking you do half damage? I think it would help make it to where you would want to "juggle" it instead of going in blocking and then running away whenever you run out. It may make the flow of combat better and more in depth (because you wouldn't go right to holding block)
Edit: If you nerf blocking, you could have players only being able to do 1/4 damage, and then after a quest or a player upgrade make it to 1/3 or 1/2 (it could be a quest to encourage exploration along with it)