I will admit, after a couple more hours of play, there have been some fights where I start to feel that lack of a shield. The Wasp is so aggressive and does so much damage that being able to hunker down behind a shield, wait for her to destroy her own footing and throw a timely Careful Attack into Overrun is quite helpful there.
I am thinking about messing around with a rapier build at some point in the future. Feel like the Strength vs. Agility trade mostly comes down to, "Do you want grapple, or do you want parry?"