Edges make the shield deds passive Melee better. I agree with the poster about Wrath spamage. But the Shield ded benefits more from Shield Block and Shield mastery than parry, though having better parry does make it better. Storm Shield deds are going to have harder hitting shield jabs, and better shield bash, but I don't think they can take the edge that makes it come more often. To be honest, my best Shield Ded was a human. They get to take all the edges, and have better STR than Dwarf, and learn faster than a Storm. Morin I think was his name, he has a PBF you can look him up.

If I had to choose, I'd choose in this order, Human, Storm, Elf, Dwarf. Dwarf HP just doesn't make up for their water vuln, which is harder to cover. Iron Vuln sucks too, but again, YMMV on any of these.