Vershelt was a sword and hth spec and Aemelius was axe/mace. Ward helped quite a bit on both. Lightmage always said that for some reason Vershelt was harder to fight for him than any other giant sword spec (or most anyone else at all) and the only thing that accounts for that is ward of blades (vershelt's other was whispers for regen). I riposted very well, and on hth it seemed to combine with ironhands well.
On Aemelius it was incredibly noticeable both with axe and mace, making me defensible far beyond what I had just the day before I picked the legacy.
I think it's a very useful legacy, with the caveats that (1) it hasn't changed since then, and (2) the changes to dexyness and other warrior builds doesn't somehow impact how it works on non-dexy warriors like giants.