I've been using iron buckler in plains biome to much success. Just don't use it against the heavier hitters. Its a buckler not a shield. Use it like a buckler. Personally I like it for it's light weight and takes up less room on my back, so I'm not just a walking shield. Easily blocks the bugs and 0-star fulings. Pretty good considering it is low tier for the area

Bronze is good for its tier (unless you think you are going to parry a massive troll, think again), same with iron, silver etc. I ended up getting a stack of fuling ore using an iron mace and troll armor.

This is the same ♥♥♥♥ as stamina complaints. Granted I'm used to playing dark souls without putting levels into stamina so... meh. Most enemies take less than 3 hits to kill, unless they look like they will take a bit more to kill (like when I fought bone mass and my weapon broke so I made a new world and rushed to make a forge to repair it mid-boss). Even my character usually takes 3 or less hits to die. Seems fair to me. Unless they are starred, at which point you should consider playing a little more cautiously.

Also, you can parry into mace golf-club swing into normal swing into dead fuling