Must be a class restriction. I know you can dual wield melee but I've never noticed shield skills for the hunter. Without specific skills it is sort of pointless to equip. For example my guard has shield swipe, bash and legendary slam, which do specific damage and stun. However, my one bow skill 'let it fly' has a cool down that precludes switching targets and has no variation, so it marginally softens the target and really is about pulling the target. My suggestion is to look at the full skill tree online to envision your skill path. You won't be bored with the hunter, there is lots to do during combat to say the least and melee is pretty potent as well. I would imagine that an agility based build discourages shields but again look at the build path. I only want items that promote active skills such as shield bash, passive stat bonuses are boring! are you in Archet? Are you on Vilya?